Pennoyer School District 79 in Norridge plans to set the 2020 property tax levy at $4.7 million, an increase of nearly 13% over last year’s levy to account for new property in the district.
Residents who already pay property taxes in the district should expect to see an increase of around 2%, which reflects the rise in the consumer price index, Superintendent Kristin Kopta said.
Under state law, taxing bodies like school districts are limited to raising property taxes by 5% or the increase in the consumer price index, plus the value of new construction.
Without going to referendum, the district can’t raise taxes higher than those amounts, Kopta said. The district is asking Cook County to levy a greater amount than it expects to receive to “capture” any new construction over the past year. That is standard procedure in school districts in the area.
“We are limited on how much we can increase the taxes for people who are already residents of our district,” Kopta said. “So the 13% is not going to impact existing properties.”
Kopta said the area hasn’t had a lot of new construction, but the district asks for a higher levy to capture the value because it only has the opportunity to do so within the same year it is built. The Cook County Clerk’s Office hasn’t evaluated the values yet, so the district has to estimate the levy.
“Typically, a school district will ask above the maximum allowable rate to guarantee that we’re capturing all new available properties and tax revenue that would be allotted to Pennoyer,” Kopta said. “So we don’t expect to receive the 13% additional amount in tax revenue.”
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For example, $500,000 of new construction was built last year in the district’s boundaries, and the district estimated it received about $13,000 in new tax dollars from it, Kopta said. Residents paid more taxes from the increase at the rate of the consumer price index, but the district received tax dollars from new property.
“Especially this year with COVID, we’ll be lucky if we see an extra $15,000 in new property,” Kopta said. “…That would be any new residents, business, anything that would be new here. In our area we’re not booming with new subdivisions or big box stores, it’s really minimal what we get in this little school district.”
Pennoyer School is a one-building, pre-K to 8th grade district that serves about 450 students from Norridge, Harwood Heights and Norwood Park Township.
Kopta said the district will be asking the clerk’s office to place a higher amount of the levy dollars for the district’s IMRF (Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund) and Social Security fund. Last year, the levy funds mostly went to the operations and maintenance fund to help with summer construction costs.
In November, the district’s proposed $10.9 million facilities referendum failed to pass.
School officials say the building’s critical issues include dramatically uneven heating and air conditioning, inadequate ventilation, leaking ceilings, unsafe levels of lead in some water fountains, and bathroom plumbing problems.
Students with mobility impairments and those in wheelchairs have trouble moving through the building, as there are no elevators, staircases are too narrow for lifts and bathrooms are not in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Officials hoped to use referendum dollars to fix infrastructure problems, but they now plan to move forward with $2.4 million in non-referendum bonds, which will provide a new heating, air conditioning and ventilation system. Administrators say other repairs will have to wait.
The Board of Education planned to hold a public hearing and vote on the levy at the Dec. 9 meeting, which will be held by video conference. To submit public comment or watch the meeting, visit the school’s website at pennoyerschool.org.