People who live near North Chicago, some of whom have been unwilling to raise property taxes for their own school systems, may swallow a tax boost that benefits their ailing neighbor.
At least that’s the thinking behind legislation approved Thursday by an Illinois Senate panel.
A bill sponsored by Sen. David Barkhausen (R-Lake Bluff) would give the Lake County Regional Board of School Trustees the power to require several Lake County school districts to contribute an unspecified amount of money to neighboring North Chicago to keep it from folding.
“It’s a novel approach,” Barkhausen admitted after the Senate Education Committee passed the bill with no dissenting votes. “Nobody wants to pay any more property taxes, but this would not be a major hit on anyone’s tax bill, while a consolidation with North Chicago certainly would be.”
The committee action came just four days before the North Chicago School Board is scheduled to vote on a dissolution plan that could send its 4,300 kindergarten through high school students to as many as seven adjacent school systems.
Surrounding districts have indicated that they may file suit to block dissolution because they cannot afford to take in North Chicago’s students and lack space for them.
But Barkhausen said his bill would be a cheaper approach. He estimated that property taxes on a $100,000 home would increase by about $50 per year in the affected communities, though the exact amount would depend on the regional board.
“My thinking on this is . . . people would be willing to pay some additional taxes in order to avoid the greater expense and the greater hardship of being forced into one consolidated district,” Barkhausen said.
The bill seeks to compel contributions from four of North Chicago’s seven neighbors: Waukegan Unit District 60, Lake Forest High School District 115, Warren Township High School District 121 and Libertyville High School District 128.
The measure now moves to the full Senate, where Barkhausen said he is “fairly confident” it will pass. He declined to speculate on the bill’s fate in the House.
Since 1991, Libertyville has tried and failed three times to pass a building bond referendum. Lake Forest and Waukegan both have approved tax hikes for schools in the last several years, while Warren has not faced such a question.
The three elementary school districts that border North Chicago-Woodlands District 50, Lake Bluff District 65 and Oak Grove District 68-would not have to send money under the bill.
“I’m trying to spread the tax base as far as I can,” Barkhausen said. “Because the grade-school districts are so small in relation to the North Chicago district, it would be a much bigger burden for those districts.”
Before neighboring districts would be compelled to ante up, the Lake County Regional Board of School Trustees would have to hold public hearings on the matter, the bill states.
If the board approved, tax levies in surrounding districts could be increased to fund North Chicago, or the surrounding communities could cut their own schools’ budget and send the difference to District 187. The regional board could order such moves without a referendum under the Barkhausen bill.
The seven-member regional board, which usually settles school boundary questions and other, less dramatic, issues, would be entering new territory under the Barkhausen proposal, said Lake County Supt. Edward Gonwa.
“I cannot predict how this might set with the Regional Board of School Trustees or with the neighboring districts,” Gonwa said. “It’s a concept. I have to study the bill. I just cannot predict how that will fly.”
The North Chicago schools are struggling under an estimated operating deficit of $1.5 million. The system is in trouble, in part, because the federal government does not pay the full cost of educating students from military families. About 41 percent of North Chicago’s students are the dependents of people stationed at the Great Lakes Naval Training Center.
A second Barkhausen bill, to increase the amount of state aid paid to North Chicago, has yet to make it out of the Senate Education Committee.
A bill by Rep. Virginia Frederick (R-Lake Forest), to offer low-interest loans to North Chicago and other districts that teach military dependents, also has not been voted out by a House committee.
