Homeowners in the Monmouth-Roseville district could be getting some property tax relief from District 238’s Board of Education.Superintendent Ed Fletcher is recommending a .35 percent increase to the levy or a 27 cent decrease from last year.
A home owner with a taxable value around $45,000 would pay about $123 less per year.
This after last year when the board approved a 14 percent levy hike, largely because of a fear that a tax-imposed property tax freeze would take place.
Fletcher tells WGIL the proposed decrease is partially due to an expected rise in assessed home value. Equalized Assessed Value in the district rose about 2.4 percent.
“I think the bigger thing for our Board of Education was they looked at fund balances and felt comfortable with them and there’s always uncertainty at the state level but they felt good about where our fund balances were at and decided to look at some decreases,” Fletcher says.
A portion of last year’s big increase can also be attributed to working cash bonds the Monmouth-Roseville Board authorized to do Health Life Safety work on district buildings.
They made a large increase to the bond and interest levy to cover debt obligations.
Less than a five percent levy increase doesn’t require a truth-in-taxation hearing but every year Monmouth-Roseville does so anyway in the interest of transparency.
They’ll do so again this year, prior to their Dec. 13 meeting at 5:45 p.m.