The Jacksonville School District 117 Board of Education passed its annual tax levy and approved a bond sale at their December 18th meeting.
Officials from the district’s administration discussed briefly with two members of the public the need for a 10% increase to their tax levy in 2025. The annual levy is a taxing body’s “ask” from the county’s pool of overall property tax revenue.
Superintendent Steve Ptacek says there is a direct correlation with the passage of the Property Tax Extension Limitation Law (PTELL) starting in 1996 and the state’s ongoing property tax problems. According to the Tax Foundation, Illinois has the second highest property taxes in the United States behind only New Jersey. Ptacek says that PTELL guarantees a property tax levy increase for taxing bodies annually, known as “ballooning,” in order for taxing bodies to capture as much new revenue as possible especially during years where the Consumer Price Index is low and new construction in a particular location are particularly high. PTELL limits taxing bodies to a 5% or the CPI percentage – whichever is lowest on their levy. Districts balloon their levies, according to Ptacek, in order to guess on how much new construction they can capture. He says if they do not balloon their levy enough, they hurt their revenues overall in the long run.
Currently, under PTELL, taxing bodies do not have the ability to abate property taxes back to taxpayers, otherwise a taxing body is penalized the following year after the abatement – and the penalty compounds. Ptacek says he is working with lawmakers on a proposed fix to the PTELL law that would make it possible to abate taxes without penalizing school districts in the long run: “PTELL districts – their hands are really tied in being able to provide property tax relief without having incredibly harsh, long-term penalties. That was not the design when the system was first created, but it is something that has developed. You can track Illinois’ property tax problem and its reliance upon property taxes back to the 1990s when PTELL was put in place. PTELL has really not bee in the best interest of the property tax payer. There are some slight fixes that can be made to provide taxing bodies the opportunity to provide some relief without the fear of long-term penalties to their revenue.”
Ptacek is releasing a series of videos on the Jacksonville School District 117 Facebook Page explaining in depth the problems with PTELL, how it works, and why it needs fixed.
He says one misconception is that people in Morgan County’s property taxes have gone up since the district began doing its massive renovations, starting with Jacksonville Middle School in 2018. It was the first major renovation project the district had undertaken since building Jacksonville High School in 1982. Since JMS’s completion, the district has completed renovations or new construction for Lincoln, South, Eisenhower, and Washington Elementary Schools.
Ptacek attributes the ability to do all of these projects to the passage of the 2014 facilities sales tax referendum: “Last year, we made about $383,000 in sales tax above our bond payment. This year, we are projected to make over $400,000. We are calling one of the bonds, refinancing one of the bonds – using that money to generate this $14-$17 million to build a new elementary school. Over time, as those bonds start to become paid off or paid down, we can get more sales tax – that’s when a future superintendent and the current school board will look at when is the right time to do another sales tax bond to renovate the high school. Then, by the time that’s all paid off, now you’ve got to go all the way back to our buildings that we’ve completed within the last 8 years – 2018 JMS was open – and say if there is substantial money that needs to be used to renovate 40 years from now. We’ve created with the sales tax this revolving line of credit that does not come back on the property taxpayers at all. Effectively using that is how you’re going to be able to keep these buildings in good shape and going on into the future.”
Ptacek says that the new projects over the last several years has been substantial: “We’ve done right around $67.4 million in total renovations and upgrades on Jacksonville Middle School, Lincoln, South, Washington, and Eisenhower. Our bond sales have totaled up to right around $54 million, and that’s all being paid for with sales tax money. Then, we used $13 million of the federal ESSER funds. Up until this upcoming project, we have not even dipped into fund balances for any of our construction projects. It’s all been paid for through alternative revenue so it hasn’t impacted property taxes whatsoever. As I said in the business meeting, if we had not passed the sales tax referendum in 2014, our property tax due to PTELL – PTELL kind of prescribes what your tax levy increases are based around CPI – would be the exact same. We would just be sitting here with all of these older buildings that the district would have to dump money into for the upkeep. We wouldn’t have been able to given the raises that needed to be given to keep our staff and been able to attract staff. It would be a very ugly situation.”
The District 117 Board of Education approved the calling of the 2015 bond in late November, which is expected to generate $14-$17 million. The district is expected to cover the remaining $3-$4 million difference on what is expected to be around a $20 million project to build a new school in the Woodson area.
Ptacek says that land acquisition, utility hook ups, and other miscellaneous costs associated with the construction of a new building in the southern part of the district is included: “Right away in the budget [for the project] is included the purchase of property. There is a budgetary item if the property doesn’t have utilities – power, water, sewage – it would pay for the addition of those things. The engineer has budgeted for a large amount for those things, so if we are able to purchase land that has access to some of those things, that is just going to be a cost savings on the overall building project.”
The bond sale is expected to be completed sometime between February and March, with the expectation of the board of education to vote on potential design plans for the new building in the early Spring. Bids would then be issued in the late Spring of 2025, and possible groundbreaking on the project by the Fall.
If things go to plan, Ptacek says the new building in the Woodson area would open in approximately 2 years: “The bond sale will take some time to complete in the next couple of months. The architect [Jamie Cosgriff of Graham & Hyde] has already started working on plans. Those plans would be brought to the board and be finalized in the Spring. Bids would be put out late Spring with hopefully construction starting in the Fall. The plans are to open in the Fall of 2027. It will take more than one full school year to build a brand new building from what is effectively farm land.”
The board of education did meet in executive session to discuss potential land acquisition on the project during their December 18th meeting. Ptacek says preliminary real estate talks have begun, but cannot reveal where the potential site is located or if a site has been selected.
The push to place the building north and out of Murrayville has two main reasons: 1) Ptacek believes that the Woodson area’s proximity to Interstate 72 and U.S. 67 presents itself as a potential population “growth corridor” that will attract new residents to the district who wish to move to the area or possibly move out of neighboring districts and 2) the move could potentially set up a future boundary change to alleviate high class numbers and crowding at Eisenhower and South Elementary schools. Lastly, Ptacek says the new building will replace the 1917 Murrayville School building which is not ADA compliant and becoming to costly to maintain; and it will also allow the district to tackle a burgeoning need for more special education space. The district is expected to more than double its special education student population within the next two years, according to early intervention numbers. Ptacek says the new school will be built with an eye to the future of possibly adding an expansion on site if growth and need continue.