Each year in the month of November, the Coal City Community Unit District 1 Board of Education approves placing its tentative property tax levy on file. The tax levy is the amount of property tax revenue intended to cover district expenses for the coming year.
For tax year 2024, payable in 2025, the school district is seeking to collect $34.2 million in corporate and special purpose property taxes. The amount outlined in the tentative levy represents a 22.95% increase over the actual levy from the previous year. The amount extended for debt service is $3.7 million bringing the total estimated property taxes to be levied to $37.9 million, an increase of 20.1% from the actual 2023 extension of $31.6 million.
The levy is calculated on the equalized assessed value [EAV] of the district, and as of Oct. 30, the Grundy County Assessor's Office estimated that value to be $1.175 billion with a rate setting EAV of just over $959 million. The latter figure is calculated to include reductions that come as a result of exemptions and approved tax increment financing [TIF]. This represents an increase of 2.96% from the previous year.
Out of a value of $959 million, $520 million is assigned to Constellation’s Dresden Nuclear Generating Station. That figure is based on the terms of a negotiated agreement Constellation has with seven local taxing districts, including the school district.
Last week, a legal notice framed by a heavy black border was posted in the local newspaper announcing a public hearing on the proposed property tax levy. The format of the notice is determined by the State of Illinois.
In preparing the tentative 2024 levy, the district’s Chief School Business Official Jason Smith develops two plans—one that accounts for no change in the value of the GE-Hitachi Nuclear Energy facility in Goose Lake Township (currently $6.13 million) and another that represents the value the District has secured through an appraisal, estimated at over $200 million. The $200 million value is over what the Grundy County assessor and Board of Review have placed on the facility. It is the latter version that the Unit 1 Board of Education approved and placed on file at their November 6 meeting.
“For the last three years, the District has filed tax objections against the $6.13 million valuation, so what the levy represents is one that places additional value over what the Board of Review has traditionally put on GE-Hitachi by about $200 million,” Smith said, noting that figure is based on an appraisal commissioned by the seven taxing district that receive property tax payments from that site.
“That is what we believe is the value of that facility and that will be the argument that we will make with the Board of Review,” Smith said. An objection to the value assigned by the county has been filed with the Board of Review, the 4th year of taking this action.
The levy on file would allow the district to capture any increase that should be assigned to that GE-Hitachi property, from the assessor, Board of Review, or the Illinois Property Tax Appeal Board.
“This levy strategy assumes that the Board of Review will respond favorably to our argument regarding the value of the GE-Hitachi Nuclear Waste Facility. As explained in previous years, this property is significantly under-valued, in the District's opinion. Our appraisal of that property is nearly $219 million, as opposed to the Assessor's opinion (and Board of Review decisions) of $6.13 million. As a result, our levy request when compared to the extension received in 2024, represents a 20% increase. If the Board of Review should find in the District’s favor, this levy strategy allows the District to capture these additional industrial tax dollars, ultimately lowering the tax rate for the remaining taxpayers. In the event that the Board of Review holds the value of $6.13 million, the trigger rates outlined in our agreement with Constellation will apply, and the levy will be reduced, resulting in a 2024 tax rate (payable in 2025) of about $3.40. This is exactly what has happened in the 3 previous years of the District filing our tax objection. If we did not consider the GE-Hitachi facility, our levy request would have been an increase of about 1.23%,” Smith said.
Located on Collins Road in Goose Lake Township , the GE-Hitachi facility houses 17 million pounds of spent nuclear fuel, the majority of that shipped to the site from nuclear facilities in California, Connecticut, Minnesota and Nebraska. It is the only high-level nuclear waste storage site in the country.
The district first filed an objection to the value assigned to the GE-Hitachi site with the county’s three member Board of Review in 2021. At that time, the Board of Review adjusted the value of the site from $3.2 million to $6.13 million. There was no change in the facility’s EAV from the Board of Review in 2022 or 2023, and that is the value that is included 2024 estimated values. As stated above, the District has already filed its 2024 tax objection.
Based on the value assigned by and maintained by the Board of Review, the school district and the six other local district’s have submitted appeals to the Illinois Property Tax Appeals Board [PTAB] for the 2021, 2022 and 2023 tax years.
“Right now we have no estimate on what the time frame is, as most estimates that run through the docket in that system could be several years to a decade or so for a case to be heard,” Smith said. “However, this levy strategy protects the interest of the remaining taxpayers in the District, if and when the Assessor, Board of Review, or PTAB rule in favor of the District’s appraised value”.
The tentative levy is available for public inspection on the financial operations page located under the district tab on the website at www.coalcityschools.org.
As Board vice president and finance committee member Shawn Hamilton points out, “taxes are not going up 20%. In fact, over the last decade, the School District’s Tax rate has increased less than 1% per year, and our $3.40 rate is significantly below the $4.44 tax rate in 2007. I am proud to serve on the Board with a strategy of protecting our residential taxpayers through sound financial strategy and conservative budgeting”.
The tax rate for 2023, funding the 2024 academic year, was approximately $3.40 and the Board anticipates the rate for the 2024 levy to remain about the same.
As Smith notes, the levy document is subject to change prior to the public hearing and Board approval at the December 4 meeting. A required Truth in Taxation hearing on the levy will take place at the start of that 6 p.m. meeting.
The final levy must be approved and filed with the county clerk on or before the third Tuesday in December. The Board of Review hearings are expected to be held in early 2025 and the final levy extension will be completed by the county in the spring.
Learn more at https://tinyurl.com/CC-Levy2024