By Howard Packowitz
BLOOMINGTON – District 87 administrators believe property taxes will be flat to a little bit lower even as they expect to collect more from landowners for the next school year.
Administrators are proposing an estimated $44,497,838 tax levy, or 1.69 percent higher than the previous year’s levy.
The overall tax rate is expected to decline slightly from $5.15 per $100 of assessed valuation, to $5.12 per $100 of assessed valuation.
The levy assumes two percent growth in taxable land values, which Superintendent Barry Reilly acknowledges is optimistic. Reilly said the district would be selling itself short if it assumed land values would grow by a more realistic 0.5 percent.
“It’s almost like a win-win in that the assessed values go up, the tax rate goes down, and there’s more money available to the school district,” said Reilly. If we don’t do that, and it happens to go up that amount, we’ve left money on the table, so to speak, that we now don’t have access to,” the superintendent said.
The district said property taxes represent approximately 63.4 percent of the Bloomington school system’s total revenue.
Administrators will present the proposed levy to the District 87 school board Wednesday night. The board is expected to schedule a public hearing for December 12.
Howard Packowitz can be reached at [email protected]
