District 202 Board of Education Approves 144 Million Dollar 2006 Levy

Plainfield Community Consolidated School District 202 will ask the Will and Kendall County clerks for $144,716,615 in local property taxes following the Board of Education's approval Monday of the district's 2006 levy.

The levy is the school district's official request for its share of local property taxes. The Board held a public hearing on the levy, as required by law, at its regular meeting Monday night and approved the levy later during the meeting.

The initial levy request is 19.25 percent higher than the 2005 extension. However, district officials expect the levy to increase by less than 19 percent. The extension is the amount of local taxes the district actually receives.

The state tax cap law limits the amount of new money the district can levy each year to either the rate of inflation or 5 percent, whichever is less. For the 2006 levy, the increase is limited to 3.6 percent.

As a result of the tax cap, District 202 cannot receive about $20.6 million of tax dollars this year. Over the past five years, the district has lost about $32 million in tax dollars because of the tax cap.

Of the total amount of the levy, approximately 80 percent or $116.2 million dollars will go to the districts' operating funds, which include Education, Operations and Maintenance, Transportation and Working Cash. About 20 percent or $28.5 million dollars will be allocated for Bond and Interest.

District officials will be able to calculate the 2006 extension and resulting tax rate after the district's equalized assessed valuation or EAV is finalized early next year. Currently, officials expect the district's EAV to increase by approximately 22 percent.