$200 Tax Bill Increase and D122's Plan to Avoid It

With the New Lenox school district's current bond and interest payment plan, the average taxpayer will see a $210 increase for District 122 on their tax bill next year, and about $380 more by 2014.

To avoid that reality during a time when families are already cutting back, the school board is reviewing options to refinance the district's debt to cut breaks in the short term but ultimately add more debt down the line.

Originally, the district structured its debt repayment for new buildings  with conservative estimates based on assumed growth from new families and taxpayers. Then the economy tanked and tax and interest rates ballooned.

Currently, the district's plan involves paying off debt through 2027, and the tax levy would increase from about $8.3 million in December 2010 to about $12.1 million by December 2013. For a homeowner with a $300,000 house, that would mean about a thousand dollars more in taxes over the next four years.

Business manager Harold Huang said it'll probably take that long for the economy to turn around, so the district is looking for a way to shed the burden on taxpayers in that time period. Two scenarios , and three more were brought up Wednesday night at the board of education meeting:

The options were prepared by Bill Hepworth of Robert W. Baird & Co., though he couldn't make it to Wednesday's meeting. So the board will debate the options more, but in the meantime seemed to form a consensus to eliminate the first option, which would have extended debt payment into another year and increased interest the most.

Board member Maureen Broderick was outspoken against adding any more debt to the district by refinancing, but others were more hopeful that future growth in New Lenox, especially that from new business, will help pay for the debt down the line and continue to ease the burden on taxpayers. 

Huang added that if the economy makes a great turnaround in a few years, the school district would have the option to refinance its debt again and pre-pay.

"There’s other things we can do when things are better, but right now we need to be looking out for the taxpayers," board President Nick DiSandro said.