The Examiner U-46 News Feed

Dist. U-46 Board poised to vote on tax abatement

By Seth Hancock
  The Board of Education in School District U-46 was presented with a tax levy abatement at its meeting on Monday, Jan. 24.
  The board will vote on the abatement, this being the sixth consecutive year the measure has been used, if approved, on Feb. 7.
  The abatement total is $9.6 million to pay for the debt service of a $66 million bond from 2003. Pertaining to this bond, there is $28.5 million of taxes on file while the actual extension will be $18.9 million after the abatement.
  “This abatement is the same as the prior year,” said Dale Burnidge, director of financial operations. “Since 2015, we have abated a portion of the operating funds to help cover some of the debt service. And this payment that we’re abating tonight for those 2003 bonds will be the last payment on that bond series.”
  Since 2015, the district has abated about $48.3 million, Burnidge said.
  The abatement is meant to lessen the impact of the district’s annual tax levy hike, but it effectively kicks the can down the road for taxpayers to pay in future years. In the past, Burnidge has admitted this preserves the maximum tax levy for the future.
  In December, the board approved the maximum tax levy allowed under the law. It included a 2.5 percent increase in the corporate and special purposes tax levy from $292.8 million to $300.2 million and a 2.2 percent increase in the total levy, including debt service, from $335 million to $342.4 million.
  The tax levy increase comes despite a seventh year of enrollment declines, U-46 losing 533 students (1.46 percent) for a total of 36,090 according to numbers presented in November.