As spring property tax bills approach, High School District 218 still hasn’t received all its expected income from the fall bills, leaving it about $7 million short.
“We really get our money, like, twice a year,” said Anthony Corsi, the district’s business manager. “If you imagine, you make the same amount of money you make right now, but you’re only gonna get paid twice a year, you know what I mean? What would happen if your boss then said, you know what, we’re totally gonna pay you, but it’s gonna be like three months late?”
District 218 includes Eisenhower High School in Blue Island, Richards High School in Oak Lawn and Shepard High School in Palos Heights.
Following the months-long delay of last year’s fall property tax bills, Cook County leaders announced this week that spring property tax bills would go out when they are supposed to, and that local government bodies would receive their revenue on time.
County leaders said first installment bills will be mailed out this year on March 2, and be due April 1, a month later than usual, to give taxpayers “breathing room.”
In Illinois, school districts are substantially funded by property taxes. About two thirds of District 218’s budget comes from property taxes, Corsi said.
Corsi said the district received about 85% of its planned revenue from the fall tax bills, which equates to about $7 million still missing.
District 218 is in a better position than some school districts, Corsi said, due to having strong fund balancing, meaning more money in the bank.
“We were able to draw down on those, essentially eating our savings, for lack of a better term, while we were waiting for the property taxes to come in,” Corsi said.
That meant that the school district didn’t have to engage in any short-term borrowing or other particularly risky behavior to pay its bills. However, the district did lose between $100,000 and $200,000 of income due to having to liquidate some of its investments, Corsi estimated.
“That’s a new teacher plus benefits, that’s three classrooms worth of new furniture,” Corsi said. “It has a meaning to us.”
The delay in the fall bills was due to technical difficulties resulting from an expensive property tax system upgrade that has been underway for years. Board President Carol Kats asked Wednesday if there was a public timeline for if and when the technical issues would be rectified, but was told that there wasn’t.
Corsi said the district has run analyses to estimate how long it could last without any new property tax income since fall. The district is funded through June, he said.
“It can become really scary, kind of precarious, really quickly,” Corsi.
The main issue with the property tax debacle for the school district hasn’t necessarily been the changed timeline or the loss of funds, but the uncertainty, Corsi said.
“We can adjust to whatever,” Corsi said. “It’s the uncertainty that creates the problem. We’re expecting the funds August-September, and when that doesn’t hit, every month that we don’t get something starts straining our fund balances more and more and more.”
elewis@chicagotribune.com
