A press release from State Rep. Allen Skillicorn:
Skillicorn Bill Seeks to End Property Tax Increase Loophole
SPRINGFIELD – State Representative Allen Skillicorn (R-East Dundee) is sponsoring legislation in the House of Representatives to end the use of a loophole that allows school districts to levy taxes beyond the tax cap.
House Bill 773 prevents school districts from levying higher property taxes in a particular fund and then transfer the additional tax revenue to a tax capped fund.
“The Tax Foundation just reported that Illinois has the third highest property taxes in the nation,” said Skillicorn.
“In 2015 alone, the Illinois Department of Revenue reported that property owners paid over $28 billion in taxes on property. It is because of loopholes that allow taxing bodies to side-step tax caps by transferring between funds that we have communities that are paying five or six times the national average in property taxes. We have to stop this because property taxes are driving people out of Illinois every day.
Under current law, Illinois school districts are able to transfer surplus taxes and interest from specific funds or make loans from one fund to another.
This process allows districts to circumvent the levy caps under PTELL by levy more than needed in one fund and transferring it to another.
An example of this abuse occurred in McHenry County in 2014 when Harrison School District 36 had amassed more than $3 million in its transportation budget that only had annual expenses of roughly $337,000.
The district was sued. To avoid future lawsuits, the district transferred more than $3 million from is transportation fund to its education, operations and maintenance funds.
House Bill 773 specifically addresses the process District 36 used in McHenry County to prevent it from being utilized anywhere else. To learn more about this legislation, visit.
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The bill is in a subcommittee of the Elementary & Secondary Education: Licensing, Administration & Oversight.
If I recall Tim Dwyer was suing the Woodstock district in regards to these tax shenanigans, as well as other districts for excess surpluses.
Any come to conclusion, or are they still in the courts?
Skillicorn is a rhino he knows his bills wil never get out of committee while he sits back and waits for pay check on broken budget.
Thanks Rauner
It’s RINO ‘Joe and Karen’ and Skillicorn is more conservative than many republicans in McHenry County.
As for waiting for a paycheck, the General Assembly is not getting paychecks right now so at this point, it’s volunteer work.
Thank you Allen for at the very least, bringing this issue to the forefront to educate taxpayers.
Tax caps are in place to help protect us and should not be manipulated by school districts in order to pad budgets.
If Allen is really interested in cutting property taxes he will file a bill doing away with corporate welfare.
He claims he’s against corporate welfare, so why hasn’t he filed that bill yet?
He can start with Rauner’s new pet project, a “private” corporation charged with handing out our tax dollars to corporations without transparency or accountability.
The school districts have been gaming the system for YEARS using this loophole, which is why the schools are SEVENTY-THREE PERCENT of the property tax bill.
Will this change? That depends on how willing people like Skillicorn are to battle the SCHOOL DISTRICTS and their mega-unions –