Property taxes drive a lot of Illinois\u2019 school funding inequity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some districts that have access to lots of property wealth can generate a great deal of money for their schools with a moderate increase in their tax rate. By contrast, districts with low-value property often have higher property tax rates yet are still unable to generate anything close to the revenue they need. For every two districts over-taxing their residents, there is at least one under-taxing district. That\u2019s unfair to students and property taxpayers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At the same time, right-sized property taxes can be an integral component of a school funding system and represent the most stable funding stream on which a school district can rely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The key is to avoid across-the-board \u201csolutions\u201d that jeopardize the goals of the equity-focused Evidence-Based Formula (EBF).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
EBF identifies a target property tax rate for every school district. Over 500 school districts in Illinois have higher rates than their target rate. These are the districts that deserve some sort of property tax relief. The remaining 300 school districts have tax rates below what the EBF identifies as their target. These are the districts that might need more flexibility to reach their goal rates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The law creating evidence-based funding also created Property Tax Relief Grants, an effective way to integrate property tax relief into the formula and incentivize underfunded, over-taxed school districts to reduce their property tax rates. The first $50 million appropriated to EBF above $300 million goes to these tax relief grants; that is, if $350 million is appropriated, $300 million goes to EBF and $50 million goes to PTRGs. Any tax relief grant funding that a district receives is included in the base amount the State continues to allocate moving forward. This allows districts to continue to provide tax relief without hurting its access to school funding. Even more importantly, it provides an ideal framework for the legislature to provide more property tax relief in future years, while also<\/em> closing the school funding equity gap at the same time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Right-Sizing Property Taxes Property taxes drive a lot of Illinois\u2019 school funding inequity. Some districts that have access to lots of property wealth can generate a great deal of money for their schools with a moderate increase in their tax rate. By contrast, districts with low-value property often have higher property tax rates yet are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_hide_page_title":true,"color_schema":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-69","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n