When the Bloomington-Normal Airport Authority Board meets on Dec. 17 to approve the annual property tax levy, the amount of money it wants to raise will apply to property tax rates in Bloomington-Normal alone, not the entirety of McLean County as airport leaders had hoped for more than a year ago.
The move will delay a modest amount of tax relief for Bloomington-Normal residents and a small rate increase for residents of rural McLean County for another year.
The governing body for the Central Illinois Regional Airport [CIRA] has not yet transitioned from the Bloomington-Normal Airport Authority to the Central Illinois Regional Airport Authority as authorized by lawmakers and signed by Gov. JB Pritzker in August 2023.
Airport authority board chair Alan Sender said the original hope was to approve the transition in May of this year, based on the start of the airport’s fiscal year.
“We had to wait a very long time to get direction from IDOT [the Illinois Department of Transportation],” said Sender.
Now, the legal creation of the new airport authority as a governmental unit will be in May 2025, affecting property tax bills payable in 2026.
Sender said the airport’s lawyer queried IDOT about technicalities in creating the new taxing body that had to go above the Division of Aeronautics to the agency general counsel.
“Questions related to the intricacies of the Illinois Airport Authorities Act,” said Sender, adding CIRA did not get a final answer from IDOT until last month.
“We live and die by the FAA and IDOT. They tell us what to do,” said Sender.
Sender said the airport does not want to finalize the conversion before May to avoid the expense of an extra legally required audit — one for the Bloomington-Normal Airport Authority, and the second for the new CIRA authority taking place in a single budget year.
The original proposal to create a county-wide taxing district dates to a decade earlier than when it will take effect. The idea for the change is to broaden the revenue stream in case federal funding for airports dries up, a prospect that could become more likely under a new administration in Washington. The proposal did not prove popular with rural residents, though some other airports serving mid-sized cities in this state have similar structures.
When the new government unit finally takes off, Bloomington and Normal will appoint two members each to the new board. Current board members are willing to serve on the new body, said Sender, but there will be fewer available spots on the board after three members come on to represent rural McLean County.
The McLean County Board already has approved John Pritts, Max Foor, and Gerald Thompson, for the rural slots.
This year’s airport levy, up for approval later this month, will likely rise about 2% in total dollars, said Sender. A 12% rise in total property value in Bloomington Normal means the tax rate to support the airport will fall a penny to 11 cents per $100 of equalized assessed valuation.
By comparison, school district property tax rates in the region are reckoned in multiple dollars. Sender said had the airport kept the same tax rate as the current year, it would have generated about $260,000 more than will be the case under the estimated rate.
