District 34 Approves Annual Property Tax Levy

Glenview Public School District 34 approved its annual property tax levy earlier this week following a brief public hearing on the matter.

The amount of the overall levy they are asking taxpayers for is $43,972,292, which represents a 3.6 percent increase over the amount of money D34 officials received from taxpayers this year.

There is a tax cap in place that limits the amount a district can increase its levy from one year to the next, under Illinois law. However, new homes that are assessed for the first time do not fall under that law.

According to District 34 Executive Director of Communications and Strategic Planning, Brett Clark, .

District 34 officials used what is known as a "balloon levy," which means they have inflated the amount of money they are asking for in the levy, because if they did not, they would risk losing money they could otherwise have for the school district.

This is because at the time a levy is passed, school districts do not know, and can only estimate, how many additional people may have moved into their school district compared to the prior year.

A tax levy is the amount of money a school district is asking taxpayers to raise or contribute to the district in any given year. According to D34 officials, about 90 percent of their revenue comes from property tax receipts.

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According to D34 Superintendent Dr. Gerald Hill, part of the reason is due to the value of homes declining, plus, additional students entering the district.

The state of Illinois is also in arrears on money it owes to D34.

"The EAV (Equalized Assesed Value) of homes in Glenview fell by 10 percent this year," Hill said at the meeting. "If the EAV of your home didn't go down, you could see a bigger (property tax) burden."

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