The District 153 school board adopted its $28.2-million budget for fiscal year 2023 on Tuesday, Sept. 27. The district expects to have a $1.8-million operating deficit.
The budget shows an increase in the state’s Evidence Based Funding of about $900,000. Cook County hasn’t yet provided the district with its property assessment numbers, so the district projected a 3.1% increase in property taxes.
The 2023 fiscal year runs through June 30, 2023.
The district’s 2022 budget of $25.6 million had a deficit of $1.3 million.
The district has been holding down costs and using state and federal grants to cover some expenses, but getting late EBF numbers from the state — and no numbers from the county — has made this budgeting cycle difficult, said Alex Bosche, a member of the board’s Finance and Property Committee.
“It’s looking a little better than we were 6-8 weeks ago, but we still have a structural deficit we need to address through the Nov. 8 ballot,” he said.
The Nov. 8 referendum vote for Homewood District 153 schools will allow for an increase in the educational rate that has remained stagnant for 30 years. The proposal calls for the current tax rate of $4.40 per $100 assessed value of property to jump to $5.60. At the same time, the overall tax rate will drop within the next three years because the district is paying off its general obligation bonds.
“The money in the working cash bonds we sold in the last referendum (in 2016), we planned to use all of that to meet our structural deficits and we indeed use all of that to meet our structural deficit. When that money is gone, money from the referendum that is on the ballot we will begin using to erase our structural deficit,” said Shelly Marks, president of the District 153 school board.
Getting additional state money now “is very fortuitous, but it does not change our need in any way, shape or form,” she added. The state says the district is funding schools at 65% of what the state describes as adequate.
The board also took a step to cover late tax payments. Cook County is changing the computer system in the assessor’s office. That has delayed the 2nd installment tax payments. Property owners would have received the bills in July for a payment in August or September, but the county now says bills won’t be sent out until mid-December.
With tax revenue lagging, District 153 board members took action to cover its largest debt — interest on the second half of the bonds purchased after voters approved a referendum in 2016. The board agreed to take $1.7 million from its Working Cash fund and make a transfer to its Debt Service fund to cover the interest.
Marks said the transfer avoids yet another borrowing through tax anticipation warrants which would have meant additional interest payments. When the late tax payments come in, the Working Cash fund will be repaid.