By Howard Packowitz
BLOOMINGTON – Faced with flat property tax revenues, the District 87 School Board Wednesday night will be asked to adopt a budget for the next fiscal year that has a structural deficit of almost two million dollars in the education fund.
The district is allocating a total of about $50 million in the education fund.
Neighboring Unit 5 was saddled with a nearly $5.9 million education fund deficit, not only due to static revenue, but also to pay higher teachers salaries.
Unit 5 schools are covering the deficit over the near-term by borrowing $16.5 million, boosting property taxes $205 in each of the next two years for the owner of a $177,000 home. A longer-term solution might have to be a tax referendum.
District 87 Superintendent Barry Reilly is asking his school board to transfer money from the working cash fund to cover the deficit. Reilly said the district issued bonds several years ago to provide a safety net, but there’s no tax referendum in the works.
“That’s not a good thing to have to do, but we would look to first go through a deficit reduction plan before we would approach anything relative to a tax referendum hike,” said Reilly.
“The appetite for that obviously is not good.”
The superintendent said taxable land values are generally flat because the housing market has leveled off after a slight uptick. He noted Eastland Mall’s value has declined because anchor stores have shut down.
Reilly said the development that includes Dick’s Sporting Goods is doing very well, according to Reilly, but the district can’t taking advantage yet of rising land values there because it’s part of a tax increment financing district.
Howard Packowitz can be reached at [email protected]
