Delays in state aid forced Community High School District 99 this week to authorized selling tax anticipation warrants for the second year in a row.
The warrants will provide the cash the Downers Grove district needs to pay bills and meet its payroll in May and June, according to Supt. David Eblen. Taxpayers will have to foot the bill to the tune of $40,000 to $60,000 in interest payments.
“The state is delinquent,” Eblen said after Monday’s school board meeting. “We are considerably behind in what we should be paid and consequently the local taxpayers are going to have bear the cost.”
The state owes the district about $11 million in educational funds, Eblen said. The district will borrow to cover the shortfall.
“Last year, interest only amounted to about $3,000,” Eblen said. “The cost is going up.”
The district is also feeling the effects of the property-tax cap, which will force the board to cut $1.8 million from next year’s budget.
In the 1993-94 school year, District 99 will implement a 20 percent reduction in instructional supplies, Eblen said. That will include textbooks and supplemental materials. Other cuts will mean “going another year with some of the equipment that we would have replaced with new stuff,” he said.
The cuts will also mean reductions in busing, custodial help, substitute-teacher funds, part-time student help, and employee visits to other schools.
