Post by gatormom on Mar 28, 2009 7:49:08 GMT -5
Local lawmakers push bill to help funding of Illinois schools
• Post-referendum glitch: Voters OK money, but the state takes its share away, leaving districts in hole
March 28, 2009
www.suburbanchicagonews.com/beaconnews/news/1500229,2_1_AU28_SCHOOLS_S1.article
By ANDRE SALLES asalles@scn1.com
Local and state lawmakers are getting behind a bill that would keep school districts from losing state funds when they successfully pass referendums to raise more local money.
Senate Bill 2051 is co-sponsored by Sen. Linda Holmes, D-Aurora, and Sen. Chris Lauzen, R-Aurora, who says it's a way of correcting the state's "double whammy."
Under current state law, a school district that successfully passes an operations tax rate referendum, as West Aurora did in 2007, has its general state aid amount lowered as a result. Basically, what the district gains in new local property taxes, it mostly loses in state dollars.
In West Aurora's case, while the district expected to take in roughly $14 million in new money this year, the state aid is expected to drop an estimated $10 million as a result of the referendum, according to Vickie Nelson, the district's assistant superintendent for finance.
This, along with slumping real estate values, has led the district to put forth doomsday scenarios, including closing schools and laying off teachers.
In its simplest terms, SB 2051 would stop that from happening by removing referendums from the funding equation completely. If passed, it would restore full state funding to districts like West Aurora for the duration of their referendums -- in West's case, for the last two years of its tax increase, in 2010 and 2011.
"People should be rewarded for stepping forward and sacrificing for their school districts," Lauzen said. "This will bring back sanity to the state aid formula."
Holmes, who signed onto the bill this week, said she had heard from the West Aurora district and the city on this issue. She said the state's penalty invalidates much of the point of passing a tax referendum in the first place, and the system needs to be changed.
This week, the Aurora City Council unanimously passed a resolution in support of SB 2051.
Mayor Tom Weisner described the current system as "pulling the rug out from under the school district," and Alderman Rick Lawrence, 4th Ward, said the penalty is "counter-productive," as it doesn't encourage people to vote for tax referendums.
James Rydland, West Aurora's superintendent, was grateful to the council, but acknowledged that even if SB 2051 passes, there's no guarantee the School District will get any money from the state. Currently, he said, state government is $4 million behind in payments to the district.
Tom Runty, assistant superintendent for business for the Kaneland School District, said he supports SB 2051, and it would have helped back in 2005, when Kaneland passed its own tax referendum. Runty said Kaneland's revenue increased by $6 million a year, but its general state aid was cut by $1 million -- nearly 25 percent.
"We knew it would happen, but we didn't know to what extent," Runty said.
Kaneland, he said, did not have to make any specific cutbacks to compensate for the shortfall.
Last year, the East Aurora School District passed a different kind of referendum -- the district got permission from the voters to take out $32 million in bonds, which will be paid back with taxes over the next 25 years. The district decided on this course of action after the failure of two prior attempts to pass a more traditional tax rate referendum.
One of the effects of going the bonds route is that the state does not reduce a district's general state aid, according to East Aurora spokesman Clayton Muhammad.
The East Aurora School Board has drawn up a 25-year schedule for the use of the $32 million from the referendum, which works out to an average of $1.5 million in new dollars per year, with $11.8 million left over. Had their prior referendum attempts passed, Muhammad said, the district would have seen between $6 million and $6.5 million in new money each year -- before its general state aid was reduced.
Muhammad said he knows of other districts that are looking at taking out bonds instead of limiting rate referendums. West Aurora spokesman Mike Chapin said West considered all the options before deciding on its form of referendum.
SB 2051 was scheduled for a second reading on the Senate floor on March 17, but remains in the Education Committee, according to the General Assembly Web site.
• Post-referendum glitch: Voters OK money, but the state takes its share away, leaving districts in hole
March 28, 2009
www.suburbanchicagonews.com/beaconnews/news/1500229,2_1_AU28_SCHOOLS_S1.article
By ANDRE SALLES asalles@scn1.com
Local and state lawmakers are getting behind a bill that would keep school districts from losing state funds when they successfully pass referendums to raise more local money.
Senate Bill 2051 is co-sponsored by Sen. Linda Holmes, D-Aurora, and Sen. Chris Lauzen, R-Aurora, who says it's a way of correcting the state's "double whammy."
Under current state law, a school district that successfully passes an operations tax rate referendum, as West Aurora did in 2007, has its general state aid amount lowered as a result. Basically, what the district gains in new local property taxes, it mostly loses in state dollars.
In West Aurora's case, while the district expected to take in roughly $14 million in new money this year, the state aid is expected to drop an estimated $10 million as a result of the referendum, according to Vickie Nelson, the district's assistant superintendent for finance.
This, along with slumping real estate values, has led the district to put forth doomsday scenarios, including closing schools and laying off teachers.
In its simplest terms, SB 2051 would stop that from happening by removing referendums from the funding equation completely. If passed, it would restore full state funding to districts like West Aurora for the duration of their referendums -- in West's case, for the last two years of its tax increase, in 2010 and 2011.
"People should be rewarded for stepping forward and sacrificing for their school districts," Lauzen said. "This will bring back sanity to the state aid formula."
Holmes, who signed onto the bill this week, said she had heard from the West Aurora district and the city on this issue. She said the state's penalty invalidates much of the point of passing a tax referendum in the first place, and the system needs to be changed.
This week, the Aurora City Council unanimously passed a resolution in support of SB 2051.
Mayor Tom Weisner described the current system as "pulling the rug out from under the school district," and Alderman Rick Lawrence, 4th Ward, said the penalty is "counter-productive," as it doesn't encourage people to vote for tax referendums.
James Rydland, West Aurora's superintendent, was grateful to the council, but acknowledged that even if SB 2051 passes, there's no guarantee the School District will get any money from the state. Currently, he said, state government is $4 million behind in payments to the district.
Tom Runty, assistant superintendent for business for the Kaneland School District, said he supports SB 2051, and it would have helped back in 2005, when Kaneland passed its own tax referendum. Runty said Kaneland's revenue increased by $6 million a year, but its general state aid was cut by $1 million -- nearly 25 percent.
"We knew it would happen, but we didn't know to what extent," Runty said.
Kaneland, he said, did not have to make any specific cutbacks to compensate for the shortfall.
Last year, the East Aurora School District passed a different kind of referendum -- the district got permission from the voters to take out $32 million in bonds, which will be paid back with taxes over the next 25 years. The district decided on this course of action after the failure of two prior attempts to pass a more traditional tax rate referendum.
One of the effects of going the bonds route is that the state does not reduce a district's general state aid, according to East Aurora spokesman Clayton Muhammad.
The East Aurora School Board has drawn up a 25-year schedule for the use of the $32 million from the referendum, which works out to an average of $1.5 million in new dollars per year, with $11.8 million left over. Had their prior referendum attempts passed, Muhammad said, the district would have seen between $6 million and $6.5 million in new money each year -- before its general state aid was reduced.
Muhammad said he knows of other districts that are looking at taking out bonds instead of limiting rate referendums. West Aurora spokesman Mike Chapin said West considered all the options before deciding on its form of referendum.
SB 2051 was scheduled for a second reading on the Senate floor on March 17, but remains in the Education Committee, according to the General Assembly Web site.