The District 203 Board of Education is nearly decided on how much to abate from its 2017 property tax levy.
Since January the board has been discussing reducing part of the levy.
Throughout this discussion the board looked at multiple scenarios of how much to reduce the levy by, whether it was one million, two million, three million, or the full amount of the levy at, four million dollars.
“Due to the level of uncertainty out of state funding, uncertainty in years ahead that we can’t forecast and predict or project, I would not be comfortable recommending any abatement greater than a million dollars out of the full levy,” said Superintendent Dan Bridges.
At their most recent meeting, the board discussed that while the district’s reserves are healthy, they aren’t extravagant, and it would be better to reduce the levy on the lower end at the one million dollar mark.
“I think that the idea of abating a million does a little bit for tax payers, protects us for program enhancements if we feel program enhancements are where we want to go in any particular years. But [that] also keeps us safe in the event that there would be a property tax freeze. So it sort of ensures that in all of those situations we’re going to be able to give the kind of quality education that we want for our students,” explained Kristen Fitzgerald, the board president.
All board members agreed with passing the one million dollar abatement option to the next meeting on March 19 for approval.
Naperville News 17’s Christine Lena reports.
