Wilmette Public School District 39 board members now have a proposed $51.3 million 2015 property tax levy to consider and approve at their November meeting. District officials presented the levy, which must be approved before the end of the year, to board members at their most recent meeting.
According to district figures, the levy includes a request for roughly $39.6 million for district education fund needs, $7.17 million to go into its operations fund, $1.4 million toward the district’s debt repayment schedule, $1.16 million toward the district’s Social Security and Medicare payments, more than $769,200 for transportation needs and more than $564,500 for tort immunity and claims payment needs.
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The remainder of the proposed levy request includes slightly more than $276,200 to pay into the Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund, slightly more than $289,400 for special education and slightly more than $104,100 to go into the district’s working cash fund, district data shows.
The levy receipts, roughly 52 percent of which should be delivered to district coffers by June 30 of next year, comprise the majority – about 85 percent – of all revenue used to run the district, officials said.
After district Business Manager Gail Buscemi introduced the levy, board member Tracy Kearney asked Buscemi and district Superintendent Raymond Lechner whether the district could provide tax relief to property owners by using fund reserves equal to what it planned to levy for one year.
Lechner said that district officials have already assumed the potential of the state instituting a property tax freeze into District 39 budget considerations, which would provide the tax relief Kearney was asking about. He acknowledged that the district also had the ability to institute a tax freeze if the board decided to do so.
But he and Buscemi both noted that the school district typically gets less in property taxes from the county in what’s called the final tax extension than the district asks for each year.
That makes it important for the district to levy for as much as possible, Buscemi said, “because the increase in the levy will only cover basic inflationary increases. It is important to levy to the fullest extent possible under the tax cap, because any loss in revenue due to under-levying is lost forever.”
State and county property tax caps limit the increase in the amount of property taxes District 39 can levy this year to .8 percent above the previous year’s levy extension – equal to this year’s consumer price index increase – plus the value of any new construction in the district, Buscemi said.
She said the estimated value of new construction in the district stands at $28.9 million. That would be added to the district’s existing 2014 estimated assessed valuation of $1.489 billion.
The board will have another chance to discuss the levy in November before it goes to a public hearing on Dec. 14, and the board then approves the final levy to send it to the county clerk before the end of the year.
For more information, visit the District 39 web page at www.wilmette39.org, click on the “Board of Education” drop-down menu and go to board agendas and packages.
Twitter: @pioneer_kathy
District 39 levy proposal
Total: $51.3 million
Education, operations funds: $39.6 million, $7.17 million
Debt service: $1.4 million
Passage: December
Information: Oct. 26 meeting packet
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