McHenry County Blog

A press release from State Rep. Mike Tryon:

Tryon Bill that Saves Park Districts Money on Energy Costs Receives Unanimous Support in the House

SPRINGFIELD….. A bill that has the potential to save Illinois Park Districts up to 30% on their energy costs received unanimous support in the Illinois House last week and is headed to the Senate for consideration.

State Representative Mike Tryon (R-Crystal Lake), Chief Sponsor of House Bill 2232, said the bill allows park district officials to take advantage of electricity deregulation and shop for alternative electric suppliers and cheaper rates.

“This bill has great potential to save park districts a lot of money,” said Tryon. “And since park districts are funded primarily through taxes, this is also a win for taxpayers.”

Under the provisions of the bill, park districts may enter into a contract to purchase energy from a utility or an alternative retail electric supplier for a term exceeding one year, but not to exceed three years.

“Park Districts have significant electrical needs that extend beyond their main buildings,” Tryon said. “They provide security lighting at park facilities, lighting for baseball fields and tennis courts, heating and pumping of water for swimming pools, and much more,” said Tryon.

“Since we already allow our municipalities and our county governments the ability to take advantage of electricity deregulation, it only makes sense that we extend the same money-saving opportunity to our park districts.”

Peter Murphy, President and CEO of the Illinois Association of Park Districts, said he was pleased the bill received unanimous support in the House.

“The Illinois Association of Park Districts commends Representative Tryon for bringing this legislative initiative forward,” he said. “It’s a common sense bill that saves taxpayers money.”

Today we are looking at Park Districts with territory in McHenry County to find out if any are close to their maximum rate limits. The source of this information is the Tax Rate page of the McHenry County Clerk’s web site.

As long as the rates are under the limit enough, districts can continue to obtain the extra tax dollars which the Property Tax Cap allows.

That is a 3% increase for next year.

In such cases, it does not matter that one’s property value has decreased.

Park Districts that had debt outstanding at the end of 1994 or 1995 were granted the ability to sell bonds in perpetuity without voter approval as long as the amount of interest and principal are the same as the amount paid in that benchmark year.

It something like a revolving credit card that never has to be paid off.

Such bonds are undoubtedly financing the new building at Crystal Lake’s West Beach.

There certainly was no referendum passed.

Marengo’s Park District is at the 10 cent limit for its Corporate Fund already. That accounted for just 29% of the tax rate, however. Another fund, the Recreation Fund, is not near its limit. It took up 24% of the tax bill this year.

That, with another 35% of the bill not limited by the Tax Cap means Marengo taxpayers should not hold their breath hoping the Tax Cap will cut their Park District tax bill next year.

The Park District tax bill was cut last year, Heather Shepard told me. because a bond was paid off.

The first park district on the McHenry County Clerk’s list, Barrington Hills, is near its maximum. Its maximum rate is 10 cents per $100 of assessed valuation and it’s rate this year is 9.965589 cents per hundred.

Multiply this year’s rate by the increase in the Consumer Price Index (3%) and you will see that the Barrington Hills’ rate would be 10.25 cents per hundred.

Administering the Tax Cap the McHenry County Clerk’s Office will say, “Sorry,” so to speak, “you can only get 10 cents per hundred.”

The Cary Park District, on the other hand, is at its maximum tax rate for its Corporate Fund right now. That’s 35 cents per hundred.

Thar Corporate fund amounted to 53% of its total tax take this year.

Cary’s Recreation Fund is getting close to the limit, but won’t reach it for about two more years.

When that happens, about 70% of the Park District tax rate will be prohibited from increasing.

Crystal Lake, on the other hand, has about three more years at current rates of inflation before it bumps up against its maximum Corporate Fund rate of 10 cents per hundred.

Almost as large is something called an “Additional Corporate Fund.” It’s maximum is 25 cents per hundred and this year it is only at .4 cents, so there is plenty of room for growth there.

There is also a “Recreation Fund” with a 12 cent per hundred maximum. It is at 8.9 cents.

There are also a couple of other funds under their smaller maximum rates with no limit and all the bond paybacks, including ones issued without referendum approval, so the Tax Cap won’t have much effect on the Crystal Lake Park District for some time.

In any event, from a levy workshop I thought the Crystal Lake Park District is planning to tax to the max in the coming year.  Turns out the Board changed its collective mind in the intervening week and decided only to raise taxes by 0.45%.  See story here.

The Huntley Park District is not close to its maximum tax rate limits.

There is also another factor in play which could cause many more tax districts statutory rate limit problems.

Mandated by the State Revenue Department, assessment levels will decrease by 9%.

Logic tells me that a district less than 12% below its statutory rate limit will not get the maximum amount allowed under PTELL, the acronym of the property tax cap law.

Real estate tax bills being sent out in McHenry County this year will total $783,689,437.41 this spring.

That compares with $773,325,977.50 a year ago.

That’s an increase of 1.34%, which those with good memories will recall is less than the 1.5% allowed by the state’s Property Tax Cap.

McHenry County

McHenry County government’s tax bill–just under 10% of the total tax bill –will be $78,285,064.42.  That’s compared to $76,846,500.12 last year, up 1.87%.  The County Board, you may remember, voted to take every dime possible under the Real Estate Tax Cap.

Education

The Big Daddy in the Property Tax Game is always education.

Including junior colleges, elementary and high schools, that category consumes almost two-thirds (66.4%) of our tax bills.

$520,283,124.49 this year; $511,040,206.22 last year.

That’s almost a 1.8% increase.  The Tax Cap does not cover bond payments, so my guess is that some districts back-ended bond payments to keep taxes lower in past years.

Junior Colleges

Looking at the junior colleges separately, we see that the total tax bill is $31,323,344.25 this year, while it was $30,347,809.74 last year.

That’s a 3.2% hike.

Since the junior colleges are getting so much higher a percentage the the education group as a whole, it would probably be interesting to see what the unit, grade and high school districts are getting in comparison.

Unit Districts

This year the unit districts will pull in $202,025,310.67, compared to $199,937,737.99 last year.

The difference?

A bit over 1%.

Elementary Schools

Grade school districts are charging $174,244,829.51 in 2012.  Last year’s bill was $171,086,182.51.

Doing the division yields a hike of over 1.8%.

High Schools

The last component of the educational tax bill is high schools.

$112,689,640.06 is the bill this year, compared to $109,668,475.98 this year.

Up 2.7%.

So, with the exception of the K-12 unit districts, which generally have lower tax rate limits, it appears the higher one goes in the grade level, the deeper the educators dig into our wallets:

• Unit Districts – +1%
• Grade Schools – +1.8%
• High Schools – +2.7%
• Jr. Colleges – +3.2%

McHenry County College covers most of McHenry County with the exception of District 300 School District, which is in the Elgin Community College District.  Small parts of McHenry County in the Barrington School District are in the Harper College District and a bit in the Wauconda School District goes to the College of Lake County.

Cities and Villages

Municipalities are next in the order of those pecking at our pocketbooks.

$66,644,908.46 being billed this year, compared to $66,885,115.04.

To their credit, cities and villages actually are taking less money out of our checking accounts for real estate taxes–about 4/10 of one percent–than last year!

That’s worth a headline, don’t you think?

Fire Protection Districts

Let’s look at Fire Protection Districts.

$40,598,421.16 this year, $41,448,795.39 last year.

No one looks at how Fire Protection Districts are governed or what they spend, yet, so far, this category of tax district has been parsimonious with our tax dollars.

It should be noted that some municipalities have their own fire departments, e’g., Crystal Lake, so the $40 million, plus, does not comprise the whole cost of fire protection.

The FPD’s are taking over 2% less this year than they did last year.

Townships

Townships will take $25,770,362.84 this year, less than the $25,577,572.45 last year.

That’s an increase for the governmental form taking the most heat in the metropolitan media of $193,000, about a three-quarters of a one percent increase.  It should me noted that township officials are up for election next spring.

McHenry County Conservation District

The next highest taxing entity is the McHenry County Conservation District.

It will slice $19,317,898.84 out of property owners’ income this year.

Last year the total was $18,964,957.38.

The tax hike is almost 1.9%.

Library Districts

Library Districts cover a lot of the county (although Crystal Lake’s is in that city’s budget).

This year they ask you to pay $15,902,674.96.  Last year it was $15,901,974.39.

The Property Tax receipts for Library Districts will almost be constant.  Up just $700.

Park Districts

Park Districts take about as much out of the private sector as Library Districts, although municipalities like Lake in the Hill, McHenry and Woodstock do not have separate taxing districts.

$15,370,365.51 will be taxed this year compared to $15,059,395.19 last year.

The increase?

Plus 2%.  More than the Tax Cap allows, so, as with others that exceed 1.5%, it probably has to do with bond payments exempt from PTELL.

Sanitary Districts

The rest of the districts are under $1 million, so I won’t bother with them except for the Sanitary Districts, which like Fire Protection Districts, no one ever examines.  There are only two of which I am aware, the Lake in the Hills and the Island Lake (re-named the Northern Moraine) Sanitary Districts. ( I wrote about the McHenry County Health Department’s suing the latter  in a thrust for revenue, but that’s the only time I have dipped into that type of government other that attending the dedication of both of their waste treatment facilities.  The “Royal Flush” in Island Lake was a  hoot.)

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Hoe to find your bill here.

$677,590.39 is the tax “request” from Sanitary Districts this year.  It was $667,056.58 last year.

Essentially no change for Sanitary Districts, up just $534.

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ow to find you