Glenview’s school districts and public began the process of reevaluating their finances after the Village Board of Trustees directed staff to close out a multimillion-dollar special property tax district Thursday.
The tax increment financing district associated with the Village’s The Glen development will end by the end of 2021, a year earlier than scheduled, a move with wide-reaching implications for the village’s public bodies. School and Park District officials indicated the change would have impacts on tax levies and existing capital projects.
“This milestone is the culmination of more than two decades of collaborative work by past and present leaders from all of our local taxing districts,” Village President Mike Jenny said in a news release.
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– Original Credit: Village of Glenview
Officials emphasized the end of the TIF would not lead to an unexpected increase in property taxes.
TIF districts freeze the dollar amount of revenue collected by taxing bodies in a particular area. As inflation and other factors drive increases in tax revenue, the new incremental revenue is deposited into a separate fund that is used to fund improvements to public works and subsidize private development.
The Glen TIF, established in 1998, helped transform the former Glenview Naval Air Station into a massive commercial and residential development. The area now includes several shopping and dining centers, 1 million square feet of office space, two golf course and six miles of hiking trails, a 45-acre man-made lake, and single-family homes and luxury condos where over 5,000 people live.
Two decades of development have increased the value of the area from $26.8 million (in 1998 dollars) to more than $561 million, according to village community engagement manager David Just.
The village also issued some $344 million in bonds to help pay development costs, on which it ultimately paid $414 million.
But taxing districts have had limited access to those funds due to the structure of TIFs, an issue that led the village to lobby the state to approve “make-whole” payments to the Park District and some local schools as population growth put more strain on public bodies.
Glenview School District 34 expected to receive $11 million in tax revenue once the TIF goes offline, according to assistant superintendent of business services Eric Miller, replacing the $6.1 million the district would have otherwise received in make-whole payments.
“This has got to be one of the most successful TIFs in the state and probably in the nation,” Miller said. “It’s really a testament to the village and what they did, there’s no way around it.”
– Original Credit: Village of Glenview
Most of that money, though, will go to correcting an operating deficit District 34 has faced in the past few years. Last year, the district had an operating deficit of $1 million and expected a $2 million deficit for fiscal year 2022, which began this summer.
The remainder will help fund ongoing efforts by the district to repair and update its buildings. Voters already approved a $119 million referendum in March 2020 to support the capital project.
Northbrook/Glenview School District 30 expected to receive an additional $2.5 million in tax revenue, superintendent Brian Wegley said. That will not replace any “make-whole” payments, as population increases from The Glen did not directly affect District 30’s student body, though The Glen is within its taxing borders.
“We’ve been looking forward to this for a long time,” Wegley said.
Jenna Johnson at the Glenview Park District indicated the parks would reevaluate their tax levy for the coming fiscal year, though how much the levy would change was not yet known. More information was expected following a Truth in Taxation meeting later this month, with a final levy expected to pass in December.
Glenbrook High School District 225 expected to have financial projections for the TIF going offline for Tuesday, which will be shared with their school board finance committee.