Unit 5 School District held a community information meeting on Wednesday night at Normal West High School regarding their tax referendum on the November 8th ballot. The purpose of the meeting was to inform the community about the ballot question that according to the referendum would generate an additional $20 million annually.
Unit 5 argues the referendum will put them on more stable financial footing. They say if the referendum is successful they will be able to: responsibly solve unit 5’s financial challenges, avoid having to increase class sizes, and be able to provide safer and improved learning environments for all students.
Unit 5 claims passing the referendum will allow the district to no longer have to rely on working cash bonds to fund operations. The district says, “these bonds expiring, combined with the district paying off previous building bonds, means taxes will not go up if the referendum passes—and taxpayers will actually enjoy an overall tax decrease of 0.7% by 2026.”
The Normal School District also says with passage of the referendum the following problems would be avoided; decreasing staff, increasing class sizes, reducing extracurricular activities, reducing program offerings, shortening school days, and closing school buildings.
Unit 5 Approves Resolution to Put $12 Million Tax Hike on Ballot
Unit 5 saying it will eliminate using working cash bonds is a loaded statement. Using these bonds to fund operating costs because of a structural deficit in lieu of making necessary cuts or raising taxes is a questionable business practice. Saying we will eliminate using working cash bonds is somewhat akin to saying we will stop mistreating our students.
Claiming your taxes will actually go down is also a bit deceptive. An assumption underlies that promise. It assumes that the district will not undertake major building projects over the next ten years that would increase the levy.
Unit 5 issued bonds after a successful amendment effort in 2008 for constructing new schools. Those bonds will be paid off in about five years. The levy for the property tax rate of about $1 could disappear at that time. But if in the interim the District decides it needs to do construction that would require more than the $1 levy then this savings would not materialize.
We are not saying Unit 5 does not need revenue. In fact without Unit 5 quantifying what it means by broad statements such as, decreasing staff, increasing class sizes, reducing extracurricular activities, reducing program offerings, shortening school days, and closing school buildings we conducted an analysis of our own.
Given that 87% of the Fiscal Year (FY) 2022 budget was for employees and related expenses we concluded that as many as 200 staff positions might have to be eliminated if the referendum does not pass. We can envision a scenario where this might need to be done over the next four years.
Unit 5 offered local residents nothing in the way of cuts in asking for the referendum that would provide an additional $20 million annually to be put on the ballot. Instead, believing that 55% of the community will support their referendum, they have gone all in on a tax increase that expands their programs and further increases their spending.
Also, in the middle of asking for the public to approve their referendum, when a hiring freeze might have been appropriate, and a shortage of staff members providing an opportunity to save money without layoffs, the district sought to hire 50 people in August.
Unit 5 Leaning Towards Asking for $14.5 Million Tax Increase
One thing interesting at the meeting was a look at how the referendum will appear on the ballot. The wording appears as follows.
Referendum Question
Shall the maximum annual tax rate for educational purposes for
Normal Community Unit School District Number 5, McLean and
Woodford Counties, Illinois, be increased and established at
3.60 percent upon all the taxable property of said School District at
the value, as equalized or assessed by the Department of Revenue,
instead of 2.72 percent, the present maximum rate otherwise
applicable to the next taxes to be extended for said purposes?
(a) The approximate amount of taxes extendable for
educational purposes under the maximum rate now in force
in said School District is the sum of $63,176,192.
(b) The approximate amount of taxes extendable for
educational purposes under the proposed increased rate is
the sum of $83,615,548.
(c) The total dollar amount of the most recently approved
annual budget of said School District is the sum of
$200,164,128; the total dollar amount of said annual
budget, if increased by the amount of additional tax which
may be levied if the proposition is approved, is the sum of
$220,603,484; the percentage of increase in the total dollar
amount of the most recently approved annual budget of
said School District, if such total dollar amount were
increased by the amount of additional tax which may be
levied if the proposition is approved, is 10.21percent.
(d) The percentage of increase between the maximum rate at
which such taxes for educational purposes may be levied if
the proposition is approved and the annual rate at which
such taxes for educational purposes is currently levied is
32.35 percent.
Note from the figures stated in the referendum one can deduct it actually would approve $20 million in additional annual revenue for Unit 5. And the approximate amount of taxes extendable increases by 32.35 percent.
Unit 5 has two more informational meetings scheduled, one on Tuesday, October 11th at 6 p.m. at Normal Community High School and a virtual meeting on Tuesday, October 25th at 6 p.m.
Information is also available on the Unit 5 website at https://www.unit5.org/domain/3810 If preferred interested parties may contact Director of Communication & Community Relations Dayna Brown by phone at (309) 557-4000 or by email at brownda@unit5.org if they have questions.
