Home values surged in Belleville. What does that mean for the schools’ property tax rate?
It’s the time of year when local taxing bodies have to decide how much of their budgets they need to collect through property taxes.
At their meetings this week, the school boards of Belleville District 201 and Belleville District 118 adopted resolutions estimating their tax levy requests for 2024. At their December meetings, the boards will approve the final levies.
District 201 is estimating its levy request at about $33.7 million and District 118 is estimating its levy request at about $13.6 million. District officials expect these amounts will allow them to continue to lower their tax rates while still bringing in sufficient revenue to operate the schools.
That’s because home values in southwest Illinois have surged.
The total “equalized assessed value” — which refers to the total value of properties in each district — is the basis for calculating the school districts’ tax rate. And it continues to grow.
“We’re again looking at a pretty significant growth, probably over 6%,” District 201 Assistant Superintendent Dustin Bilbruck said.
District 118 is expecting an increase in total property valuation over 12%.
“I think in the 18 years I’ve been up here, that is the largest projected increase in our equalized assessed valuation,” Superintendent Ryan Boike said.
Every fall, St. Clair County school districts receive an estimate from the county of their EAVs.
Districts look at the estimated value and determine how much they need to collect from it, then hold a hearing if their levy request is 5% or more higher than their previous year’s request.
The county then determines how much of the request the taxing district will get, and in the spring, it collects the taxes on the district’s behalf and determines each district’s tax rate, which is the percentage of a property’s assessed value the owner must pay on their tax bill.
The tax rate for a school district is a combination of the tax rates for each of the funds within its budget.
District 201 officials looked at different options for its tax levy request based on the expected property assessment growth and settled on one that will allow the district to increase its revenue, reduce its tax rate and create some cash flow for ongoing and future projects, like the potential renovations and expansions at Belleville East, Bilbruck said.
District 201 is preparing for facility improvements that could include renovating two buildings, rebuilding one structure and constructing a new building at the Belleville East High School campus over the next few years to address inefficient uses of space.
The district is estimating its levy request at a total of about $33.7 million through the tax levy, which will go to the various funds within the district’s budget. There is one fund in Illinois school districts’ budgets — the debt service fund — for which districts don’t request a specific amount, he explained.
Rather, the debt service fund is set annually by the county based on the district’s incurred debt.
By asking for limited amounts from the tax levy for other funds, District 201 will have more room to take on new debt and establish cash flow for various projects while still reducing the overall tax rate, according to Bilbruck.
The situation is similar at District 118, which is estimating its tax levy request at a total of about $13.6 million. The district has balances from last year in some of its funds, allowing it to levy slightly less, Boike said.
District 201’s tax rate has been decreasing since 2019 and District 118’s tax rate has been decreasing since 2018, according to county tax records.
