Edwardsville residents deliver petitions calling for referendum vote on school bonds

Edwardsville residents likely will be voting in March whether to allow District 7 to borrow money for the schools’ operations.

The District 7 school board recently voted to issue up to $10 million in bonds after years of using the working cash fund to keep the budget balanced through years of declining reviews. But a group of residents passed petitions around the city and gathered 3,600, about 250 more than needed to require the district to place the measure on the March ballot.

Former board member Mike Firsching and several volunteers delivered the petitions to District 7 offices Friday.

“I question the need,” Firsching said. “I want to know that they are fiscally responsible spending the money they have, not the money they wish they had.”

While most districts already faced this dilemma, Edwardsville was able to avoid some of the economic repercussions of the recession because property values in District 7 kept increasing, sometimes by as much as 10-12 percent per year, but that increase has now dropped. It also had as much as $8 million in a surplus working-cash fund. But two years ago, that fund was empty.

The district planned to issue bonds as needed to keep the district solvent over the next couple of years with a cap of $10 million, as the board and administration determined whether to go to the voters for a property tax increase. District 7 has not increased its education fund tax rate since 1977.

The estimated impact of the bonds is 10 cents per $100 of equalized assessed value over a 10-year period, if the full $10 million is needed. For a house valued at $150,000, the impact would be $50 per year. Edwardsville’s education fund tax rate is $2.15 per $100 of equalized assessed value, with a total tax rate of $4.15 per $100.

District 7 Finance Director Dave Courtney said Edwardsville has one of the lowest rates in Madison County; tax rates for Granite City are $2.55 for education, $4.38 overall; $2.55 for education and $4.48 overall for Collinsville; and $2.35 for education and $4.75 overall for Highland. Only Triad had a lower education fund tax rate at $1.84 per $100, but that does not include a 50-cent increase that was approved in the April 2015 election.

Superintendent Lynda Andre could not be reached for comment. Previously, Courtney estimated the district is shortchanged $7 million a year from the state, as funding has been pro-rated: the state only issues 89 percent of the money it owes school districts in per-student funding and has also cut transportation and special education funding. This has left the district with an estimated shortfall of about $4.5 million.

State funding in 2008 for District 7 was $16.7 million, including more than $5.7 million in transportation and special education. As of this year, the state is now giving the district $9.5 million, including $3.4 million in transportation and special education.

At the same time, student enrollment has gone from 7,379 in 2008 to 7,504 this fall, reaching its peak in 2013 with 7,611 students.

But Firsching said that should come as “no surprise” to the district. He said the voters should have the right to decide whether the district can sell the bonds. “They have to convince me that they need this,” he said. “There are questions that need to be answered.”

The petitions were passed around over the last few weeks, including volunteers at the Edwardsville Winter Market last weekend. Friday was the last day they could be presented.

This story was originally published December 12, 2015 at 2:45 PM with the headline "Edwardsville residents deliver petitions calling for referendum vote on school bonds."