All posts by C. J. Summers

I am a fourth-generation Peorian, married with three children.
Peoria Public Schools, Public Building Commission

Anatomy of District 150’s tax levy, Pt. 1

2 Comments

You’ve all seen the levy on your property tax bills. It’s the biggest levy of all — Peoria Public School District 150. Total rate for 2005: 4.49151%. But what really goes into that rate? How is the sausage made, so to speak?

Well, that information is available from the County Clerk in the form of a “Tax Computation Report.” I got a copy of it, and your levy from District 150 breaks down like this:

Fund Name Max. Rate Actual Rate Percent
Education 2.18000 2.18000 48.5361
Bonds 0.00000 0.19275 4.2914
Oper & Mtce 0.50000 0.50000 11.1321
I.M.R.F. (Pension) 0.00000 0.15277 3.4013
Transportation 0.20000 0.20000 4.4528
Fire Safety 0.05000 0.05000 1.1132
Special Ed 0.04000 0.04000 0.8906
Tort Immunity 0.00000 0.38520 8.5762
Social Security 0.00000 0.18299 4.0741
Lease 0.05000 0.05000 1.1132
Public Building Commission 0.00000 0.55780 12.4190
TOTALS 4.49151 100.0000

Although there’s not enough room in my blog layout to show this in the above table, there is some additional information on the tax computation worksheet.

First, the way it works is this: the district requests a specific amount of money (levy request) for each category. Based on the equalized assessed value (EAV) of property in the school’s taxing district, the county calculates the rate they’d have to charge to collect that much money. If the calculated rate is higher than the maximum rate, they obvioiusly can only charge the maximum.

So, for example, in 2005 the school district requested $27,951,565 for the Education fund. Based on the rate-setting EAV for the taxing district of $1,235,731,719, the county would have to impose a rate of 2.261944%. However, the maximum allowable rate is 2.18%, so that’s what they charged, resulting in an estimated $26,938,951.47 in revenue for the Education fund, or about $1,012,613.53 less than the district requested.

Notice that the district is at the maximum rate for every category that has a maximum rate.

Secondly, something interesting to note is the impact tax increment financing (TIF) districts have on District 150. You may have noticed that I earlier referred to the “rate-setting EAV.” That’s to distinguish it from the “Total EAV.” The difference between the two is this: the rate setting EAV has any property within TIF districts taken out. That’s a big difference. The total EAV for District 150’s taxing district is $1,293,403,719, which means the rate setting EAV is $57,672,000 less than the total EAV.

So, how does that translate to District 150 income? It means District 150 lost out on $2,590,343.64. Per fund, that works out this way:

Fund $ Lost to TIF
Education $1,257,249.60
Bonds $111,162.78
Oper & Mtce $288,360.00
I.M.R.F. (Pension) $88,105.51
Transportation $115,344.00
Fire Safety $28,845.00
Special Ed $23,068.80
Tort Immunity $222,152.55
Social Security $105,534.00
Lease $28,836.00
Public Building Commission $321,694.41
TOTAL $2,590,343.64

Now, the argument is, of course, that if there were no TIF there would have been no development/property improvement, and thus the school district wouldn’t have seen that $2.5+ million anyway. Still, I think it’s good to see what the impact of our TIF policies are on the school district; it could lead to adjustments to how the city implements TIFs in the future. For example, would we get the same economic development benefit, while mitigating the impact on schools, if TIFs were only implemented for a shorter time period?

I’ll save my last observation for the next post so it doesn’t get lost in this one.

Museum Block

No surprise: “Peoria Riverfront Museum” wins

15 Comments

Here are the vote totals from www.namethemuseum.org:

  • TOTAL VOTE NUMBERS -5328
  • PEORIA RIVERFRONT MUSEUM – 2658 – 50%
  • ILLINOIS [RIVER VALLEY] MUSEUM – 1389 – 26%
  • PORT OF EXPLORATION MUSEUM – 617 – 12%
  • MUSEUM ON THE SQUARE – 375 – 7%
  • HEARTLAND CENTER – 162 – 3%
  • WRITE IN’S – 127 -2%

I find it funny that “Peoria Riverfront Museum” got 50% of the vote in a five-way race despite the fact that museum names with “Peoria” in them “didn’t test well” in focus groups. I suppose that should give us all pause as we consider the value of such groups.

Thank you to the museum collaboration group for listening to the public on this one. There were some really good choices this time around (second place winner “Illinois River Valley Museum” was a good name, too) and it’s clear the winning name has a lot of support.

Now, let’s see if we can’t listen to the public some more and get that design to conform to the Heart of Peoria Plan….

Peoria Public Schools

Thousands for administrators; not a cent for truants

9 Comments

Peoria Public Schools logoFrom today’s Journal Star:

District 150’s truancy assessment center is in danger of being shuttered this December because its grant money will run out.

But the Peoria Area Chamber of Commerce is stepping forward to raise $40,000 necessary to keep the program alive this year, and the chamber intends to raise enough money to keep it running for three years.

[…] The district can’t afford to foot the bill right now, but Associate Superintendent Cindy Fischer said in three years, the district should be in better financial standing and able to do so.

Ironically, Fischer is one of two administrators (Herschel Hannah is the other) the district is budgeting to give a $30,000 per year pay raise. That’s approx. $60,000 between the two of them per year. So, the district is in great financial standing to give an extra $60,000 to administrators, but not in good enough financial standing to fund the $40,000 needed to continue their successful truancy program.

You can draw your own conclusions on the district’s priorities.

Peoria Journal Star, Peoria Public Library

No pre-school planned for library expansion

Recently, the Journal Star reported: “The new [library] layout has areas sketched out for a preschool, small career center and even a group study room.”

It turns out that the pre-school part of that report was in error. I received this comment on one of my earlier blog entries:

I am Ed Szynaka, Library Director for the Peoria Public Library.

This is a good blog. Some infomation that might prove helpful.

The Journal Star made an error making reference to a child care center. We have no plans for a child care center. We do envision a story hour room and a very graphically attractive youth area.

Also the K merchandise building was just mentioned as an example of a possibility.

The Library Board has not accepted any plan and in fact has set aside the next 70 days for discussion, public meetings and debate of the plan. Our website will start listing meeting, times and places. We encourage everyone to participate.

I will try to answer questions on this blog as time permits.

Thanks,

Ed Szynaka
Peoria Library Director

The sketch to which I assume the Journal Star referred is this one (see original PDF here):

South Branch Concept

This is a concept drawing of how an expanded Lincoln branch could be arranged. There is an area labeled “Pre School,” but as you can see in the context of this sketch, it refers to stacks of children’s books at a pre-school reading level, not “a pre-school” that kids would attend.

My thanks to Ed Szynaka for writing and clearing things up!

Peoria Journal Star, Peoria Public Schools, Public Building Commission

Why the PBC shouldn’t fund school construction

3 Comments

I read a great argument against using the Public Building Commission to fund school construction. It came from an unlikely source: the Peoria Journal Star. Of course, it was from the PJS of 15 years ago, about two years before the state legislature took away the PBC’s power to bond for school construction. Take a look at this editorial from December 1, 1991, page A8 (emphasis mine):

What would you think of a business that advertised a product or service at a specific price, and then charged you almost 70 percent more when you got to the store? You’d probably think you’d been misled. You might not shop there again. You might tell your friends not to patronize that store, either. Even if the product you bought was of high quality, it would be the principle that mattered, because you’d been lured to that store under false pretenses.

In a way, that’s what Peoria School District 150 has done with its school facilities expansion and your tax dollars.

When District 150 pitched its blueprints to the public 18 months ago, administrators said the expansion would cost about $15.5 million, the second largest capital improvement in the school district’s history. Through a series of eight public meetings, that number was repeated time and again. Hardly any opposition was voiced. The school board approved the plan; the district hired architects and began tinkering.

Suddenly the expansion of eight schools costing about $9 million became nine schools costing $13 million. Suddenly the construction of two new schools at a cost of about $3.5 million each assumed price tags of $7 million and $6 million respectively. Suddenly a $15.5 million expansion has become an estimated $26 million expansion (pending the Public Building Commission’s approval for the two new schools), the largest in District 150’s history.

District 150 can do this because, unlike virtually every other school district in central Illinois, it does not need voter approval to issue bonds to pay for new construction. That’s because it has a rich uncle at the Public Building Commission, which is subject to no one’s authority but its own. Examples like this one are why this newspaper has a philosophical objection to PBCs and the way in which they allow local governments to circumvent the will of the people who pay their bills.

Continue reading Why the PBC shouldn’t fund school construction →

Peoria Public Library

Public meeting dates on library expansion set

3 Comments

The Peoria Public Library, before going to the voters and asking for money for expansion, is holding several meetings soliciting public input. Some other public bodies in Peoria could learn from their example. The meeting dates are:

  • Thursday, October 19 – 4:30 p.m.
    McClure Branch Library, 315 W. McClure
  • Saturday, October 21 – 2:00 p.m.
    Lakeview Branch Library, 1137 W. Lake
  • Wednesday, November 1 – 7:00 p.m.
    Dunlap Middle School, 5200 Cedar Hills Drive
  • Tuesday, November 14- 7:00 p.m.
    Common Place, 514 S. Shelley
  • Tuesday, December 12 – 7:00 p.m.
    Main Street Branch -107 N. E. Monroe Street

I already have some questions I’d like to ask at one of these meetings. After reading the executive summary of their proposed plan (available on their website), I’m still a bit dubious that they can offer the same or better level of service at the main branch if they take some of the employees there and move them to a new North Peoria branch.

I understand the concept of having an open floor plan, thus fewer people can staff multiple departments. But won’t we lose expertise? If you have a specialist in Business and a specialist in Art & Music, and you take the Art & Music person and put them up north, then ask the Business person to oversee Business and Art & Music… aren’t you losing something? Or at least putting more strain on the existing staff?

I know they’re trying to keep costs down, and that’s commendable. But if they’re going to add a 35,000-square-foot branch, I think it’s only realistic to expect they’ll need more staff.

Peoria County, Peoria Disposal Company

Waiting for my PDC subpoena

8 Comments

I see Peoria Disposal Company has sent subpoenas to opponents of their landfill expansion plans. That’s nice. I wonder if I’ll get one, since I, too, opposed the expansion. I wonder if all the letter-writers to the Journal Star’s forum who opposed the expansion will also have to testify.

It’s a shame that PDC, which has had such a good reputation in town, is now poised to throw that away in their effort to force more out-of-state toxic waste down our throats. Guy Brenkman sued the county and won his “right” to put his Fantasyland strip club on Farmington Road (another form of toxic waste), and now he’s universally reviled. I guess they care more about making money than having a good reputation. Too bad they couldn’t just graciously accept the County Board’s decision, like a good neighbor.

City Council, City of Peoria

It wasn’t “zoo money”

6 Comments

The Journal Star’s headline this morning is a bit misleading. It reads, “Zoo money switched to demolition.” It was actually street improvement money that was switched to demolition:

The City Council took $100,000 once slated to help create a grander entrance to the new zoo and instead voted to use it to demolish vacant problem properties.

The council voted unanimously Tuesday to move the money since 3rd District Councilman Bob Manning said there are no longer plans for a grand entrance in lower Glen Oak Park. Manning, who represents the park and the Glen Oak Zoo area, said the money is needed for demolitions.

There were preliminary plans to update the Glen Oak Park entrance at the corner of Abingdon Abington and Perry streets to make it a “grand entrance” to the zoo. Manning set aside $100,000 to help in that effort by updating the city’s portion of the intersection, perhaps putting in a roundabout.

But when the zoo scrapped plans to put a “grand entrance” there, it freed up that $100,000 to be spent on a higher priority elsewhere. Manning recommended, and the council approved, spending that money on demolition of condemned properties instead.

So, I understand the headline, but it certainly gives the wrong impression. It makes it sound like the city is taking money away from the zoo, which is not the case. It was never “zoo money.”

City Council, City of Peoria

Council not about to take fees off the books

Remember those underground storage vaults and pedestrian walkways that “encroach on the public way” downtown that was the subject of some controversy a couple months ago?

Well, there was some follow-up on that at last night’s council meeting. At the council’s request, staff reviewed the ordinance that charges fees for encroachments and gave the council some choices on what to do. They could (a) keep the current ordinance and fee structure, (b) keep the ordinance and modify the fee structure (to reflect inflation over the past 30 years), or (c) keep the ordinance but eliminate the permit fees.

The city, desperate for money, chose option (b) with little discussion or disagreement (although Mayor Ardis and Councilman Nichting voted against it). These updated permit fees are estimated to bring in over $100,000 per year into city coffers.

What happens now is city staff has to do an inventory of all the underground vaults in downtown and notify those businesses that they are going to start collecting permit fees on them again. Since these fees haven’t been collected since the early 1980s, the city’s records are woefully out of date and incomplete.

My take: This was the right decision. The city has been contemplating new public safety fees and raising property taxes because they are so short on funds, so collecting fees that are already on the books is a no-brainer. City staff should never have stopped collecting these fees in the first place, since they never received council authorization to do so. The council ought to enforce the ordinances they already have to raise money before they raise taxes or create new fees.

Peoria Public Library

Library looks north

12 Comments

Is this the face of the new North Peoria branch of the public library? That’s one idea in the library’s $35 million plan:

A proposed new 35,000-square-foot branch would cost $11 million, and include a computer lab and large children’s area. Szynaka suggested a vacant building, such as K’s Merchandise, which is going out of business, could even be retrofitted.

I suppose it’s fitting for the suburbs to have a plain-vanilla building for their library. Still, it’s a shame that civic structures warrant no special architecture anymore. Architecture — especially for civic buildings — was supposed to inspire and delight; now most buildings are “designed” more by engineers than architects, always with efficiency being paramount and aesthetics being an afterthought or add-on. The library deserves better.

On the one hand, I appreciate their willingness to consider reusing an existing building. But that building was designed to be disposable; libraries should have an air of permanence. In short, it should look like a library. Maybe that’s part of the plan. I’ve called the library and asked for a copy of the consultant’s report.

The most unrealistic part of plan as it was reported in the paper is this: “If staffed more efficiently, library officials believe they can build a new North Peoria branch without adding employees.” All this means is they’re going to take staff from the downtown branch and move them to the North Peoria branch, meaning more work for each current staff person. I doubt the library is overstaffed at the moment; they’re always hopping when I’m in there, and I often have to wait in line at the reference desk. This “efficient staffing” will probably mean a longer wait time to talk to a librarian.

Now, I sound all negative here (hey, it sells papers, right?), but really, other than these two concerns, I’m actually excited about the prospect of the library getting a facelift. I’m a big fan of the Peoria Public Library and would like to see some money and new life pumped into it. Their research materials are excellent and they have a very helpful and knowlegeable staff. I’m looking forward to hearing more details about their expansion plans in the near future.