Probably. After all, the Illinois General Assembly passed Senate Bill 2477 at the end of 2006 in order to give District 150 the ability to access the Public Building Commission for five years.

Or did they?

They did amend the Public Building Commission Act, but they didn’t specifically name District 150. Instead, they changed the definition of “municipal corporation” so that it made an exception for any school that met certain criteria. This amended definition would “include a school district that (i) was organized prior to 1860, (ii) is located partly within a city originally incorporated prior to 1840, and (iii) entered into a lease with a Public Building Commission prior to 1993, and its board of education.”

The idea here was to write the definition so narrowly that only District 150 would qualify. That means District 150 would have to meet all three criteria in the legislation. Peoria’s public school system was chartered by the state in 1855, so the first criterion is met. And of course District 150 most recently entered into a lease with the PBC about 1991-1992 for Lincoln Middle School ($5 million) and Valeska-Hinton Early Learning Center ($7 million), so criterion number three is met.

But what about the second criterion: a school district that “is located partly within a city originally incorporated prior to 1840”? Well, now that’s an interesting question. The City of Peoria was incorporated April 21, 1845. 1845 is obviously not “prior to 1840.” So some have made the case to me that District 150 is therefore not eligible for PBC funding under SB2477.

On the other hand, the Village of Peoria was incorporated on March 11, 1835. Perhaps this is the date of which the bill writers were thinking. But the legislation doesn’t say anything about a “village.” It says “a city originally incorporated prior to 1840.” Cities and villages are two separate and distinct municipal corporations in Illinois.

Splitting hairs? Maybe. But then again, maybe that split hair could save the taxpayers upwards of $60 million they would be forced to pay without a referendum. So, perhaps it’s not such a crazy question after all: Is District 150 authorized to use PBC bonding authority?