The District 150 school board Monday night discussed expenses that impact the district immediately and others that may hit later down the road.
If passed, Senate Bill 318 would make the "most major changes in school finance" said William Phillips, a former lobbyist and a field service director for the Illinois Association of School Administrators
The bill would freeze property taxes for two years, in 2016 and 2017. It passed through the Illinois Senate. The House is moving toward similar legislation. Phillips says the measure will likely pass:
“I can see the handwriting on the wall for these things, my job is to try to let school districts know in time so that you can make adjustments if you wish,” Phillips said.
Phillips presented the bill and its implications to the District 150 board. He recommends the District consider raising the property tax levy in December so it can get the maximum revenue during the freeze that would take effect in 2016. Phillips also recommends that the district consider selling more bonds.
Board Vice President Rick Cloyd says the board will take a closer look at the issue during a special meeting next Monday. Cloyd would not say whether the he or the other board members were leaning toward increasing property taxes.
Another component of the measure would transfer the expense of teacher pensions from the state to the school districts. The state currently credits the school district $24 million annually in pensions, Interim Financial Officer Erik Bush said.
With a tinge of sarcasm, Cloyd added there’s yet another impending expense from local taxing bodies:
“On top of all the good news about the revenue side, we are going to be facing a substantial costs for sewer outfall fees, probably within the next 13-18 months,” Cloyd said.
The City of Peoria and the One Water Committee are developing a fee to residential, commercial and institutional properties to offset the sewer outflow issues. The fees would be based on a property’s square footage of pavement and roofs -- both are seen as contributors to storm water runoff.
In other business, the board also unanimously voted to approve the purchase of about $17,000 worth of analytics software. Cloyd says the software is needed to make effective, data-based decisions, like tracking correlations between grades and behavior or finding instances where early intervention should have been implemented.