While many collar-county residents are hopeful their property-tax bills finally may stop soaring, others are fearful that the General Assembly`s tax- cap plan puts at risk the very magnet that drew them to the suburbs:
quality schools.
”You don`t want your taxes to go sky high, but you don`t want education to suffer either,” said Claudia Stensland, 35, of Wheaton, who has two daughters in elementary school. ”One of the reasons people move to the suburbs is to have good schools and not 50 children in a classroom.”
More Top Picks Hp Envy Photo 7155 All In One
Suburban school officials were quick to agree with Stensland`s assessment Monday, saying crowded classrooms and program cutbacks may indeed be the plan`s legacy. Because schools constitute the largest portion of most property-tax bills, education will take the brunt of the cap plan, they said.
Municipal officials also predicted that the plan would crimp efforts to widen traffic-choked highways and provide basic services such as police and fire protection in fast-growing communities like Elgin, Gurnee and Frankfort. The plan, which still must be approved, would impose a limit of 5 percent on the annual growth in property-tax collections by local governments in Du Page, Lake, Will, Kane and McHenry Counties. A referendum would be required to raise taxes above the cap. Final details of the plan are still taking shape and may include exemptions that would blunt the impact of the cap.
In suburban Cook County, the proposal would impose a one-year freeze on property assessments. But the measure may have a limited impact on property-tax bills in Cook County suburbs because most units of government still would be able to adjust their tax rates upward.
Democrats have insisted that Cook County be excluded from the tax-cap proposal.
The proposal represents one of the few agreements so far in the budget impasse between Republican Gov. Jim Edgar and the legislature`s Democratic leaders. Final passage of the plan has been held up while lawmakers wrangle over revival of the 20 percent income-tax surcharge.
In Springfield, municipal and education lobbyists are fighting to kill the tax-cap accord, which was hammered out Saturday.
Complaining that the state continues to mandate new programs without providing sufficient funding for them, municipal leaders said the cap may force them to impose or increase charges for everything from garbage collection to ambulance calls.
”One way or another, it`s going to cost the people more money,” said Thomas Fitzsimmons, executive director of the Illinois Municipal League, which represents more than 1,000 municipalities statewide.
The tax-cap plan underscores the conflict between the new wave of suburban anti-tax crusaders and traditional suburban support for a broad array of services, including high-quality schools.
”It brings attention to the fact that goverments don`t run on air,”
said Bill Cowhey, president of the Civic Federation, a non-profit, Chicago-based taxpayers watchdog group. ”If you want this level of service, you`re going to have to pay for it.”
That conflict was clearly on the minds of school officials Monday in Du Page County, where schools typically account for about 70 percent of property- tax bills. They said the proposed tax cap would have a devastating effect on districts with growing enrollments.
”We are going to lose big time,” said Jerry A. Medjrich, assistant superintendent for business of Wheaton-Warrenville School District 200, where enrollment is expected to increase in the fall to 12,600, a 5 percent jump over the previous school year.
Wheaton-Warrenville was in a financial hole during the 1980s and returned to a balanced budget only after voters approved a tax increase in 1987. But Medjrich said the tax cap would bring hard times to the district once again.
”There is only one way to solve the problem: cut programs,” he said.
But Ken Simpson, president of the Danada West Homeowners Association, said Wheaton-Warrenville officials haven`t done enough to curtail spending and relieve the tax burden on homeowners.
”People are taxed out,” he said. ”There is no more money for us to give.”
If the 5 percent cap were in effect, at least 166 of the 234 major taxing districts in Du Page would have been forced to scale back their proposed levies for the coming year, according to the county clerk`s office.
In McHenry County, Woodstock School Supt. Joe Hentges said the tax levy rose 15.2 percent in 1991-92. He added that if the cap had been in place
”there`s no way we could have balanced our budget. As it is, we laid off 12 teachers and eight aides in March.
”The school system here is generally perceived to be significantly above average,” he said. With a cap on spending last year, ”we would`ve gone to a school unable to offer average programs.”
Municipal leaders throughout the region also expressed fear that the cap plan would restrict services that taxpayers have come to expect. Also facing them is the possible reduction in the amount of surcharge revenue distributed to communities by the state.
In Kane County, Elgin City Manager Larry Rice said that if the property-tax cap becomes law, the fast-growing suburb would be unable to begin a project to improve several major roads, including Dundee, Highland and Big Timber Roads.
”This would strangle our ability to serve growth,” Rice said.
But Eugene Devitt, 81, who has lived in Elgin for 45 years, said that`s not important to him.
More Top Picks Best Projector
Devitt said he`d be ”tickled to death” if the cap proposal was passed because he and other senior citizens are finding it hard to cope with the annual 8 to 10 percent property-tax increases in the city.
If Elgin needs to make road improvements, he said, ”they should increase their impact fees to make up for the loss. Developers should pay the price of development. I don`t see how this benefits residents.”
And that is exactly what scores of suburbs are likely to do if the cap plan passes, suburban leaders said.
”You`ll pick up the impact fees,” said Paul Neal, executive director of the Lake County Municipal League, which represents 43 muncipalities. He said the towns most likely to be hard hit by the cap are growing communities like Gurnee.
”The communities just can`t put all these homes up and provide all these services and stay under those caps,” Neal said.
Frankfort Village Administrator Richard Gale, whose rapidly expanding community of 7,000 has kept its tax rate steady for some time, said: ”The tax cap is a vague term. It makes good politics, but I`m not sure of anything else it accomplishes.”