Former Cary Grade School Board President Scott Coffey offers the following concerning State financial assistance to high taxed school districts:

“The State released the list of those school districts that were awarded Property Tax Relief Grants for this year.  The 39 recipient districts will be able to directly reduce their property tax levy for the next two years.

“The formula used to arrive at the grant winners can be fairly involved, but it generally boils down to awarding grants based on elevated property tax rates.

“In McHenry County, only Fox River Grove D-3 received a grant.  Its total appears to be $209,450.

“Several districts in the County did not even apply for this grant, including the largest Crystal Lake High School District 155.

“Here are the ranking results of the grant process for McHenry County districts:

• Fox River Grove D-3                   31st
• McHenry Elem D-15                   48th
• Prairie Grove D-46                      54th
• Woodstock D-200                        55th
• Harvard D-50                               57th
• Crystal Lake D-47                        84th
• Alden-Hebron D-19                    85th
• Huntley D-158                          118th
• Cary D-26                                  121st
• Riley D-18                                  128th
• McHenry HS D-156                    157th
• Marengo-Union D-165              162nd

The State Board of Education’s list of the 39 winning school districts is here.

Last year District 155 missed the cut-off for a Property Tax Relief grant by one. Twenty-eight grants and District 155 was number 29.

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From the Governor’s press release:

Governor JB Pritzker’s FY 2020 budget appropriated $3.65 million more for the grant than in FY 2019.

The FY 2020 grant can serve 11 more districts than it did in FY 2019, when 28 school districts received the grant.

The $53,650,000 grant can replace a total of $57,313,122 in local property taxes, once school districts proceed with the abatement.

The districts that are eligible for the grant are those that have the highest tax rates within their organization type (elementary, high school, or unit district) out of all those that applied.

Eligible districts must submit an abatement resolution to their county clerks by March 30.

ISBE will distribute the grant to each eligible district after receiving the Certification of Abatement Form from the county clerk.