DANVILLE — District 118 is tackling financial woes by planning to issue $5 million in working cash bonds and is proposing a 4.84% tax levy, which will be on display for 20 days.
Todd Pence, the interim finance director says the district is bringing their tax rate back to the 2024 level after the rate was 4.15% during 2026.
“The levy is what you ask for,” he told the board. “The extension is what you actually get.”
Pence said if the district requests what the projected EAV holds at $545 million, the district will get around $4.8 million more in revenue.
“The bottom line is always ask for more than you’re going to get, so you don’t leave money on the table,” he said.
The proposed request for property tax revenue from the district will not cause homeowners’ property tax bills to rise 23.3%.
The board voted 6-1 to display the proposed levy for 20 days followed by a public truth in taxation hearing at 6:30 p.m. on Nov. 18.
“The bottom line is, if you don’t have the best thing we could do for the value of your homes is have a good school district. Period,” Pence said. “If you want the value of your home to go up, you need to have good schools.”
Board member Chis Easton asked Pence if the rate would need to go up next year.
“Do you anticipate that we would have to go up to five (percent) next year?” Easton asked.
“I think once we get the rate back up there, it’ll just be a normal increase of whatever the EAV is going up,” Pence said. “I don’t think you’re going to have to do much with the rate once we get it up there. I don’t see this being an every year type of thing — shouldn’t be… We just kind of bite the bull at one time and get it back up there, and then again try to keep it where we’re not hurting people.”
If the projections hold, the district estimated its revenue would rise from about $21.4 million to $26.2 million — roughly $4.8 million more. The actual amount the district receives depends on final property assessments and county calculations.
That doesn’t mean every homeowner’s property-tax bill will rise by 23.3%.
“But your bill, your actual property tax bill won’t go up,” Superintendent John Hart said. “It will go up, but not at the rate of just what the district’s asking.”
Pence also briefly talked about how the district’s intent of issuing $5 million in working cash bonds will play out.
“We will abolish that into the education fund, so it’ll zero it out, and then we’ll recreate it,” Pence said there is around 3 million in that fund. “And then, when the assuming everything goes through, when we do the bonds, that money will go into the working cash bond and sit there… “
District TIF Updates
And good news in the TIF District sector or Tax Increments Finance Districts. The city of Danville agreed to return its share of revenue to the district.
“The city would “work us into the 25% of what we’re generating, getting that back to us,” Pence told the board.
Also, the Campus Corridor TIF near DACC is expected to end. “With that, we’ll receive not only the tax increase, but the money that was raised in the TIF will get a portion of that back,” Hart said the district will receive around $420,000 annually from that TIF district.