The Joliet City Council has voted to impose a fee on new homes in order to help school districts deal with growth.
The council this week approved the transition fee on an 8-1 vote, and it will be imposed on homes that are part of any annexation completed after Jan. 1. Councilman Tom Giarrante dissented, saying seniors should not have to pay. It is the second such fee added to help schools in two years.
School officials–including leaders in Plainfield School District 202 and districts in Joliet, Minooka and Oswego–endorsed the newer fee, which would be $654 for a three-bedroom home through June 30.The fee would go up by the same amount for such a home every six months through July 1, 2007.
Developers and two groups, the Will-Grundy Counties Home Builders & Associates and Joliet-based Three Rivers Association of Realtors, opposed the fee, which would be paid when a building permit is issued.
The money is designed to help schools cover a lag, which can last 18 months, between when parents move into a new home and taxes arrive to educate their children. Joliet has seen its population go from 106,000 after the 2000 census to an estimated 126,000 residents in 2004.
“One thing is evident: Schools are important to the development process,” Councilman Joe Shetina, a real estate appraiser, said in backing the proposal.
“This is a moral issue, and until the state changes the school funding formula, we have to do something,” said Councilwoman Jan Quillman.
Russell Head, president of the Will-Grundy Counties Home Builders, questioned whether the fee could pass muster under the state constitution. Officials in Elgin passed a similar measure to help schools earlier this year.
“This is a long battle,” said Thomas Joseph, the government affairs director of the Three Rivers Association. He said the groups have not discussed whether to sue over the issue.
Joliet City Manager John Mezera unveiled the plan in September.
He said it was presented to the City Council with the intent that it be introduced for consideration in towns in the districts in Will, Grundy and Kendall Counties.
Joliet adopted the transition fee nearly two years after city officials brokered a deal that brought school officials and developers together to address the need for more school buildings because of growth. The impact fee imposed then for a four-bedroom home was $4,640, with a 4 percent hike set for 2006. The new transition fee is in addition to the impact fee.
