Voters outside C-U defeated sales tax for school facilities
By: Jodi Heckel
Thursday, November 06, 2008
Proponents of the 1-cent sales tax for school facilities used the property-tax relief promised by most school districts in the county as a selling point.
So they and school officials were surprised – very surprised – to see the proposal voted down in nearly every precinct outside Champaign-Urbana, including those offering the largest tax abatements in the county.
Mahomet residents voted it down in all five precincts. It lost in the Unit 7 school district as well, and in St. Joseph. The owner of a $150,000 house in those districts would have saved an estimated $125, $352 and $134 (in the St. Joseph grade-school district), respectively, in property taxes.
Meanwhile, the tax passed in nearly every precinct in Urbana and most in Champaign, where the property-tax savings would be less – $67 in Urbana and $45 in Champaign for a $150,000 house. Even the student precincts passed it, despite opposition from the University of Illinois Student Senate.
"I'm just astounded that apparently people didn't understand" the amount of property-tax relief, said Urbana school board member John Dimit. "We obviously did not communicate that effectively. Our campaign was quick."
The sales tax was defeated by 300 votes of the more then 76,000 cast.
"I was shocked at how it played out," said Champaign school board President Dave Tomlinson. "The way it has played out was the polar opposite of what I expected.
"Certainly there's anti-tax sentiment," he said. "I think that's why we were so concerned and so adamant about property tax relief. That was the message I tried to portray from day one. That's the message that has to go out, that property taxes are going down."
That message apparently didn't reach all voters. It became clear in the past few days to Fred Koss, president of the Unit 7 school board, that some residents didn't understand how the sales tax and property tax abatement would work.
"I think we probably didn't do as good a job as we needed to do to explain to voters what this really meant in the way of reduction in property taxes and the impact it would have had on them," Koss said.
The board members said it is possible the school districts could decide to put the question back on the ballot again in the spring, but first the district superintendents need to meet and look at why the proposal didn't pass in the county. Dimit said the proposal might have a better shot at passing in an off-year election.
"During a national election, there is a crowded agenda in getting voters' attention and getting them to understand your issue," he said.
"Given some time for people to learn more about it, it might be more successful," he added.
In the meantime, the school districts must consider how to pay for their building needs.
The Champaign school district is proceeding with plans for rebuilding Washington Elementary School and expanding Garden Hills Elementary School.
It planned to use some of its share of the sales tax money to pay for the projects, which would add seats to both schools and meet a consent decree requirement to do so.
"I'm pleased with the vote in Champaign, because I think it will show the judge there was a good faith effort in Champaign to try to get that funding," Tomlinson said of the consent decree issue. "It showed we worked extremely hard to get it done."
But the plans for Washington and Garden Hills "are subject to funding and they always have been," he said. "The construction boils down to one thing, and that's money."
He said the district will look at other ways to pay for building projects, but realistically, the only other way is through a property tax proposal. Dimit said Urbana must consider that as well.
"We have to fix our preschool situation," Dimit said. "If that means approaching voters with a property tax increase, we'll have to do it, and that's not our only critical property need."
Although they were disappointed with the loss, the school board members were pleased with how close the vote was, given the economy.
"I think we need to be pretty impressed that we came as close as we did," Dimit said. "When we started this process, the economy had not become a headline."