Education Matters US

I am rewriting this article to try and make it easier for all to understand. This will also fix the errors I had made earlier when I confused the tax year and calendar years.

Grayslake High School District 127 has exceeded the amount that they asked for in their 2002 referendum. That referendum question was to increase their rate from 1.710 to 2.160 or 0.45.

The total tax rate for the District has increased by 0.753 excluding Bonds and SEDOL IMRF since the referendum passage. See the charts below. The first shows the actual rates from the PTAX reports and the second, the actual increase compared to what was approved.

When voters approve an Education fund tax rate increase, they do no understand that other funds can also be increased. Several of the others funds are limited by a cap of 10% of the Ed fund levy amounts. When you raise the Ed fund rate you can then raise the other rates as well. In actuality, the District’s rate has increased 0.301 more than amount approved by the voters.

The following chart is what I have calculated the District has over taxed us by phasing in the referendum instead of taking the one time 0.45 increase as it was approved by the referendum. This has cost the taxpayers of the District approximately $3.5 Million since the 2002 tax year.

Facilities and Finance Committee Meeting – Item 4 is a Levy Discussion. The final levy approval meeting will be held: