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News
School district tax levy to rise next year : News : Oswego Ledger-Sentinel : Hometown Newspaper for Oswego and Montgomery, IllinoisSchool district tax levy to rise next year
| Increase of about $90 for average district homeowner anticipated
| by Lyle R. Rolfe
| 12/20/2012
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Oswego School District residents should expect to pay a bit more in property taxes to the district next year under a new tax levy unanimously adopted by the school district board Monday evening.
The levy totals $93,275,900, an increase of 4.95 percent over this year's levy of $88,853,655.
Assistant School Superintendent Dr. Paul O'Malley said an average school district property owner will see a $90 increase on the school district portion of their tax bills next year as a result of the levy's adoption.
Actual increases will vary depending upon the assessed value of each individual property.
This year a school district resident with a home valued at $180,000 that did not claim any available deductions paid $3,994.36 in property taxes to the district.
The new levy will generate property tax revenues for the district to operate in calendar 2013, which splits the district current and following fiscal years.
The levy is the main source of revenue for the school district.
O'Malley said they ask for more than they expect to receive to capture the new growth that has occurred in the district over the past year along with any reassessed property.
Regardless of how much they request in the levy, the county clerks will give the district only what it is entitled to, O'Malley said.
All taxing bodies do this to be sure they receive the full amount they should receive, he added.
O'Malley expects the actual levy increase will be about 3.1 percent. If the district were to ask for less on its levy than it is entitled to receive, the county clerks would give the district only that amount with no chance to ever re-coup what they missed, O'Malley said.
The district is located in portions of Kendall, Kane and Will counties.
O'Malley and several other members of the administration have worked over the past few months to pare the budget and levy down.
O'Malley said the administration cut the deficit by $2 million before they presented the tentative levy to the board last month. He noted that board members told them a $3 million budget deficit would be unacceptable. The final levy will result in a $2.6 million deficit, he said.
O'Malley said there was a price to pay to reduce the deficit to the $2.6 million mark. He said they had to make the difficult decision to reduce the common core curriculum by $1.2 million.
"I'd also like to remind the board and the public that General State Aid to the district this year was reduced by $4.1 million. That $4.1 million reduction was a surprise to us as well," he said.
If these funds had come to the district they would have a balanced budget with funds in reserve, he said.
O'Malley also reminded the board that the district's enrollment continues to grow, a fact he said was confirmed by three different independent reports.
_Board member Mike Scaramuzzi said the district expects to gain 5.5 percent more students next year, but they are increasing expenses by only three percent.
In the spring, when final equalized assessed valuation and new construction figures are known, county clerks determine tax rates and extensions of the taxes levied within the constraints of the school district's tax rate limitations and the Property Tax Extension Limitation Law (PTELL), more commonly known as the tax cap.
This year's cap is based on a three percent Consumer Price Index (CPI) increase for the 12 months ending December 2011, up from last year's 1.50 percent CPI. All school district funds except the Bond and Interest Fund, have been subject to the tax cap since 1998.
With Bond and Interest added, taxpayers will be asked for a total of $126,397,872 to operate the district next year.
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