The Examiner U-46 News Feed

U-46 debt plan contained within referendum issue

By Seth Hancock
  As previously reported, School District U-46 will be asking voters to support adding new debt with a referendum question on the April 4, 2023 ballot seeking support for $179.6 million for school building bonds.
  The claim by the district is that the new bonds can be added without increasing the property tax rate on the debt service portion of a tax bill by adding new bonds as current bonds are paid off.
  When the Board of Education approved of putting the referendum question on the ballot by a 6-0 vote, board member Veronica Noland was absent, at a special meeting on Monday, Dec. 19, Superintendent Tony Sanders said the district should remain perpetually in debt.
  The district stated, in a memo, that the new debt “would be paid back in 20 years” with the debt service levy annually remaining just above $30 million (about where it currently is at) through 2032 if the referendum is approved, dropping below $20 million after that through 2042. If opposed, the debt service levy will drop below $20 million next year and around $15 to $17 million thereafter until being fully paid in 2032 wiping out the debt service levy completely.
  Sanders wants taxpayers to perpetually pay over $30 million a year in debt service.
  “I think in the long run, it would behoove future boards to continue to ask voters to continue that… to make sure that the bond debt continues to remain at that viable level… to continue to have access to those dollars,” Sanders said.
  Sanders said the $179.6 million number was chosen because “that’s what keeps property taxes flat,” but admitted that’s with “all things relative.” Of note, there is a climate of rising interest rates and the expectation that the Federal Reserve will continue rising rates in 2023.
  Although separate, Sanders also noted there are no plans to stop asking for the highest tax levy allowed for corporate/special use stating “future levies will increase, obviously, by the rate of inflation, as they always have.”
  This year’s budget was the eighth straight with spending hikes along with enrollment declines. Since 2012, spending has increased 62 percent and enrollment has declined 13.5 percent.
  Board members called the new bonds necessary to fix aging buildings as well as to address enrollment declines.