D308 Candidates Discuss Maximum Levy Of Property Taxes

OSWEGO, IL — Candidates running for the four open seats on the Oswego School District 308 Board of Education for the April 6 election, discussed property taxes during a virtual candidate forum hosted by the Aurora Area League of Women Voters on March 10.

The question they were asked was: Will you vote to levy the full amount allowed by law to avoid future crises and/or mitigate the current budget crisis created by previous boards that did not vote for a levy extension?

Candidates Donna Marino, Eugene Gatewood, Keisha Earl, Katie Heiden, Eulalia Valdez, Jennifer Johnson and LaTonya Simelton participated in the forum.

The Board of Education approved its 2020 property tax levy in a split vote of 5-2 in Sept. 2020.
Marino said the district cannot "leave money on the table right now and expect to properly educate our kids."

"Yes I will...unless some miracle happens and we get the revenue that we need, yes, I certainly will because it's money left on the table," she said. "If you think that your property values are going to go down because of an extra $200 in taxes a year, wait until your school tanks. Wait ‘till the state comes in and starts running your school and there is no board because the state is in control. Watch what happens to your property values then. It’s going to be awful."

For now, Marino said the district needs to take in whatever funds it can to keep schools running and solve its current budget deficit before bringing in new revenue from corporate sponsorships, grants and other avenues.

Simelton said that she looks at the tax levy as a "cost of living increase."

"Anyone who works a job or has some form of income, they probably expect a cost of living raise from their employer. The school district is no different in that regard," she said. "In order to continue to provide the services that we need, we don’t want to be derelict in our duty when it comes to bringing in the revenues and the incomes that we rightly need and should have in order to educate our students. I don’t know anyone who would pass up a cost of living increase on their job, and so it’s up to us as the owners to make sure that we are doing everything that we can in order to accomplish the goals we put in place."

Keisha Earl said that she was worried about her neighbors.

"I believe our taxpayers right now have just been taxed enough," she said. "Due to the pandemic, we already know that funds are low. We need to take into consideration the financial burden that this will create for the SD308 families."

Parents chose to move into the district, Earl said, because of the unique services and education their children would receive and to levy may hamper the district's growth. Instead, said that she would consider looking at other funding options, such as developing relationships with new and existing area businesses to promote funding and growth.

Valdez was in agreement with Marino and Simelton and said that she would "absolutely, absolutely" levy the full amount available to the district.

Gatewood said simply levying funds is not a tax increase.

"There's a difference between a levy and a referendum. A levy is simply receiving the funds due to the district based on the tax revenue that we have,” he said. "So we must levy every single year, otherwise the funds that were due to the district cannot be retroactively allocated.
“So the district will miss out on the percentage of revenue increase that would have happened over the course of the years that we don’t levy, and that’s funds that we could use in order to improve the quality of our school system."

Heiden said that it was necessary to match rising costs with inflation, adding that while she was in support of levying property taxes, she did not believe it would be enough.

"We are going to have to look at community resources, we are going to have to look at programs, we are going to have to look at events, we are going to have to look at registration," Heiden said. “We need to look at this as a whole picture because yes, everyone is talking about levying and inflation and rising costs, but there is a much larger picture in this and we will have to look at this as multi-layered, and we will have to impact every area possible to meet that per-pupil ratio of funding."

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