Educators in Northlake and Franklin Park are mildly enthusiastic about a $300 million increase in funding for kindergarten through 12th-grade education in Illinois proposed by Gov. Bruce Rauner on Feb. 18, but Franklin Park’s mayor is unhappy with a proposed cut.
They don’t know, however, whether the increase will impact their school districts.
“It would depend on how they are going to divide it,” said Kim Petrasek, superintendent of Mannheim District 83. “We’ve increased poverty levels. That could be a benefit (in district getting state money).”
Mannheim District has seen its funding from the state increase a bit in recent years, at least on paper, due to its increasing number of low income students. The amount of money the state promises the district at the beginning of the fiscal year, however, is more than the district actually gets.
“I think they’ve been allocating at 87 percent,” Petrasek said.
The case is the same at Franklin Park District 84.
“We’re getting a pro-rated amount based on the state’s ability to pay,” Superintendent David Katzin said.
Katzin likes that the governor plans an increase in funding.
“That being said, I don’t anticipate those dollars will result in increased revenue for our district,” Katzin said.
The reason is a proposal in the state senate that would transfer money from relatively better-off district to less well-off districts.
“I would anticipate most of ($300 million) would end up in districts that are needier and have a lack of property tax revenue and rely on state aid,” Katzin said. “That’s just a guess. But I wouldn’t guess it would have an impact on us.”
Tom Janateas, chief financial officer at Leyden District 212, said he thinks this budget is more about setting a tone.
“There’s not much to comment on because it’s so vague,” Janateas said. “Once we get specific numbers and line items, we’ll have more discussions and see what the impact to us is.”
Having said that, Janateas doesn’t anticipate much money for the district.
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“A good share of the $300 million, half of it or so, will go to Chicago Public Schools,” Janateas expects. “The rest goes to around 900 school districts in Illinois. Divide it up and it’s $166,000 or so.”
Rauner also proposed cutting in about half the share of income tax local governments get. Local governments get 6 percent of net collections from individuals and 6.86 percent of net collections from corporations. Rauner wants to cut that by 3 percent.
Franklin Park Village President Barrett Pedersen estimates that would cost Franklin Park about $900,000. Such money goes for infrastructure improvements and repairs including a road improvement project along Cullerton, Wellington and Hart in an industrial section of the village.
“The governor is suggesting these are non-essential,” Pedersen said. “When you look at municipalities that have infrastructure issues, that’s going to hurt.”
A press release from the governor’s office said that cumulatively, local governments have more than $15 billion in cash reserves. Pedersen said that wouldn’t make up for a permanent change in funding.
“He’s talking about a 50 percent cut in perpetuity,” Pedersen said. “If you rely on reserves, ultimately you run out of reserves. If you deplete reserves, you decrease your bond rating and it costs more to do projects.”