By Madhu Mayer
Residents in Plainfield Community Consolidated School District 202 will have to wait until they receive their property taxes in the spring to determine if they will be paying more toward the taxing body.
District 202 is asking Will and Kendall County clerks for $220,300,240 in local property taxes, including bond and interest, through the tax levy, or about $16 million or 7.85 percent increase over last year’s total levy.
District officials project that the district’s total tax rate will fall from $5.22 per $100 of equalized assessed value (EAV) this year, to about $5.14 per $100 of EAV thanks to rising property values, and conservative budgeting, according to officials.
This will be the eighth straight year the district’s anticipated tax rate is expected to drop, officials stressed at the board of education meeting. The district’s tax rate has fallen almost 17 percent since 2014-15 when it reached $6.26.
Officials emphasize that the actual tax rate cannot be determined until after the district’s EAV is finalized early next year. Final tax bills encompass tax rates from numerous governmental entities and are affected by individual property values. District 202 includes Plainfield, Joliet, and Romeoville.
The tax levy is the school district’s official request for its share of local property taxes. The tax extension is the amount of local taxes the district receives from the counties it serves. The official extension will be calculated after the district’s final equalized assessed value is set next April.
The approved 2022 levy request is about 7.85 percent higher than the 2021 extension of $204 million, including bond and interest.
Although the approved 2022 levy is 7.85 percent higher than last year’s extension, district officials expect this year’s actual tax extension to be only about 6.02 percent higher than last year’s extension.
The Illinois Property Tax Extension Limitation Law limits increases on a school district’s property tax extension to either the Consumer Price Index (CPI) or 5 percent, whichever is less. For the 2022 levy, the CPI is 7 percent.
Therefore, when the levy process is complete, District 202 estimates the total increase will be 6.02 percent including new property values, officials said. This is the first time that that the CPI has exceeded the 5 percent threshold since Will and Kendall counties adopted the Property Tax Extension Limitation Law in 1991 and 1997, respectively.
“Governments routinely request more money than is needed to ensure that they capture their full share of taxes,” officials said. “This process is called a balloon levy. If governments ask for less than what they ultimately are due, they lose any funds greater than what was requested.”
New property values and final EAV totals can fluctuate between now and when final numbers are determined. The district is also facing increased expenses due to inflation, officials said.
Of the total amount of the proposed 2022 levy, about $194.4 million, or about 88 percent, will go to the districts’ operating funds, which includes education, operations and maintenance, transportation, working cash, Illinois municipal employee’s retirement fund, special education, and tort.
Madhu Mayer – news@thetimesweekly.com
