|
• March referendum: Funding needed to staff new school, offset
driven-down rates
By
Ted Slowik
staff writer
JOLIET — As expected, voters in the Troy School District will see a
referendum on ballots when they head to polls for the March 21 primary
elections.
The school board Wednesday night resolved to seek a 45-cent increase
in the education fund's tax rate. The money is needed to staff the new
school for fifth- and sixth-graders and to maintain academic programs
throughout the district, officials said. Many programs that were cut
before the start of the school year were restored only after the state
granted Troy a one-time, million-dollar bailout.
"There's not going to be that $1 million dumped on Troy next year,"
board member Terry McFadden said.
Troy voters last approved a tax-rate increase in 1999, raising the
education fund's tax rate by 25 cents to $2.18 per $100 of assessed
value. The March referendum will seek to increase the education fund tax
rate to $2.63.
If voters approve the referendum, Troy plans to phase in the rate
increase, starting with a 35-cent hike the first year. That would cost
the owners of a $250,000 home an additional $274 in taxes per year, or
$23 per month. Eventually, the full 45-cent increase would take effect
after five years and translate to an additional $353 for owners of a
$250,000 home.
Troy has been hurt by tax caps, business manager
Al Gegenheimer said. The Property Tax
Extension Limitation law limits increases in the annual dollar amounts
that taxing bodies can collect from property owners. As the value of
homes and businesses increase, more revenue is generated but the tax
rate is driven down. Troy's education fund tax rate fell to $2.02 this
year.
"More than half of this 45 cents we've lost in the last three years,"
Gegenheimer said. One of the quirks of the tax caps is that even though
the referendum seeks to raise Troy's education fund tax rate to $2.63,
in reality it would never climb above $2.30, Gegenheimer said.
"If we were able to keep our tax rate where it's at we would never
have to go to taxpayers," Gegenheimer said.
Without referendum approval, Troy will lack funds to hire teachers to
staff the new fifth- and sixth-grade center being built off Theodore
Street immediately west of Troy Middle School, officials said. The new
school will be ready in August and would ease overcrowding throughout
the district.
"This gives us the opportunity to reduce class sizes that are getting
dangerously high and beginning to impact our test scores," school board
President Jim Relyea said.
Overcrowding is becoming a crisis, Superintendent Larry Wiers said.
Troy Crossroads School's enrollment is approaching 1,000 students, but
the building was designed to handle 700. Troy Middle School's designed
capacity was 1,000, but enrollment already is at 1,200, Wiers said.
Wiers asked that parents or residents interested in serving on a
referendum committee contact him at (815) 577-6760.
Troy voters rejected education fund tax-rate increase referendums in
April of this year and in March and November of 2004.
- Contact Ted Slowik at (815) 729-6053 or at tslowik@scn1.com.
12/15/05
|
Voters
face Troy tax issue
