Taxes for Schools, This Year & Last Year

Since schools comprise the bulk of property tax dollars, I thought some might be interested in seeing how they changed from last year to this year.

Comparing McHenry County school taxes between 2014 and 2015.

Comparing McHenry County school taxes between 2014 and 2015.

Although the percentage change column is labeled “% Change + of -” the first thing you’ll notice is that they all are billing more this year than last year.

Two high school districts–Crystal Lake and Marengo–did come in under 1%, as did Algonquin Unit District 300.

In fact, District 300’s tax bill increased less in McHenry County than any other school district’s–plus just under 6/10 of one percentage point.

Looking at the elementary schools, one can see Nippersink (in the Richmond-Spring  Grove area) and McHenry hiked taxes more than 3%.

That’s twice the rate of inflation.

Prairie Grove, Crystal Lake and Cary were all above 2%.

Fox River Grove increased it tax burden the least–1.36%.

Wonder Lake’s Harrison District was also under the 1.5% increase in the Consumer Price Index.

Among high school districts the range was high.

Crystal Lake’s 7/10 of one percent increase was the lowest.

Richmond-Burton’s 8.35% was the highest.

Looking at the unit school districts, the McHenry County section of Barrington School District 220 took a tremendous hit–almost 25%.

Because it is a tax district in four counties, strange things happen in the tax process.

Interestingly, the lowest increase also was posted by an overlapping tax district.  What used to be called Carpentersville District 300 now is referred to as Algonquin District 300.

It’s hike for McHenry County residents was less than 6/10 of one percent.

Of the unit school districts wholly in McHenry County, the range was from 2/3 of one percent in Woodstock to 3 1/2% in Richmond-Burton.

With both its grade school and high school topping the tax hike chart, folks in Richmond and Spring Grove might be paying more attended at school board races two years from now.


Comments

Taxes for Schools, This Year & Last Year — 3 Comments

  1. McHenry HS scores are not good, they should not get raises until scores improve.

  2. The problem with education funding in Illinois is the same as the problem with the entire public sector in Illinois:

    WE PAY PUBLIC SECTOR EMPLOYEES MORE THAN THE TAXPAYERS CAN AFFORD.

    Comparing Illinois public school employees involved in instruction per capita to the per capita number for the other 49 states and D.C., we rank number 28 with number 1 having the highest number of residents per employee.

    However, when we look at what these people are paid by each resident, we rank number 41 with number 1 having the lowest dollar amount per resident.

    Unless legislation is passed in Springfield to put an end to work stoppages by the public sector (holding children ransom), I do not see this statistic being changed in a positive fashion.

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