Facing the prospect of a property tax cap that will limit the power of local government to raise revenue, taxing districts in Lake County filed bond issues of $219 million through September, more than 50 percent above all the borrowing in the county during 1990.
Since the Illinois General Assembly passed the collar county tax cap measure in July, bond issues totaling $95 million-almost half of this year`s total-were filed in Lake County as units of government rushed to beat Tuesday`s deadline.
Bond filings had been heavy in the last days of September, but no new bond notices were filed as of the end of business Monday.
The tax cap law requires most governments in the collar counties-Lake, Du Page, Will, McHenry and Kane-to hold annual increases in tax collections to no more than 5 percent or the rate of inflation, whichever is less. Beginning Tuesday, increases above that level must be approved by referendum.
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Many governments in the collar counties saw the Oct. 1 effective date of the law as the last chance to borrow money for projects or programs without being subject to the provisions of the tax cap law.
As of Monday, bond issues of more than $1 billion-about a 60 percent increase over all of 1990-had been filed in the five collar counties this year.
Lake County schools, parks, municipalities and other taxing districts approved a total of $219 million in 71 bond issues thus far in 1991-30 of those issues just during the month of September.
The dollar volume for the first nine months is running half again as much as in all of 1990, when $139 million in bonds were sold in Lake County.
The board of Waukegan Unit School District 60, for example, voted Sept. 16 to approve the sale of $6 million in bonds for building repairs and maintenance.
”I did what I could to keep it even lower,” said Ted Potkonjak, a school board member, ”but the sad thing is that these (repairs) have to be done.
Potkonjak said that he figured the $6 million would cover repairs over the next five years, but that otherwise ”our buildings will deteriorate because the voters won`t approve a referendum.”
Antioch village trustees sought to minimize the impact of their borrowing on property owners by marketing one of two recent issues as ”alternate revenue bonds.”
This issue raised $1.5 million to pay for improvements to Orchard Street in the village. The bonds will be paid off using motor fuel taxes and will not result in an increase to property taxes, said Tim Wells, village administrator.
Antioch sold $365,000 in conventional bonds, to be repaid out of property taxes, for street improvements and a new railroad station, Wells said.