McLean County school districts are including transparency dashboards on their websites to help people visualize where revenue from the 1% countywide sales tax would be spent.
Both Unit 5 and District 87 dashboards show spending will see a three-way split between property tax relief, facility work and school safety. Unit 5 Superintendent Kristen Weikle and District 87 Superintendent David Mouser spent much of a February meeting at the Bloomington Public Library clearing up misconceptions about whether the tax would benefit the community — for property owners and non-property owners alike. It showcased the confusion some have had about the referendum.
The leaders of several school districts in the county decided to find a way to show people how the funds would be utilized.
“We wanted to quantify the property tax relief associated with this. That's something that we've been talking about as a narrative. But in this day and age, you know how it is, sometimes people don't trust narrative. They want to see facts,” said Mouser.
Several school districts have formally pledged to direct no less than a third of the revenue from the sales tax toward property tax relief, allowing the sales tax to pay for school expenses currently funded by property taxes.
“We've said from day one that that's got to be part of this, and we stand by that, and so we're putting that in our transparency dashboard,” said Mouser.
Though this promise is only in place for the next five years, Mouser says he believes the pledge and the transparency dashboards both prove the countywide commitment to continuing property tax relief into the future.
“Our goal is to have this continue,” said Mouser. “To continue to provide property tax relief, because we know it's important. I would not be in support of this if there was not a property tax relief that was part of it. And so for me, personally, as an educational leader, I think our goal would be to continue this moving forward.”
Another planned use of the tax revenue would be school facilities. When a similar tax referendum failed in 2014, this was the only possible use for the tax revenue. Both school districts have repairs set to start this summer that they say can no longer be put off.
Unit 5 has HVAC and roof repairs to be made, and Weikle said after last week’s wind storm she still is not sure if the Chiddix Junior High School roof can survive the next one. District 87 plans to make repairs to its HVAC and roofs as well, in addition to infrastructure not deemed compliant with current health and life safety regulations set by the State Board of Education.
A full list of spending needs for both school districts are on their respective transparency dashboards, and both districts will start facility repairs in the summer.
“Unit 5 will have to borrow money if we don't find another revenue source. And so with borrowing money, we'll be not only paying back what we borrow, but we'll be paying interest, and that would fall to property owners solely,” said Weikle.
“If we had to borrow $52 million to take care of the needs in the next five years, our taxpayers would be paying $10 million in interest alone,” Weikle said previously about interest rates.
The third destination for tax revenue is mental health providers. Unit 5 currently pays for mental health staff through the education fund put in place in 2023 to avoid budget cuts.
“Property owners are currently paying for that but because this is an acceptable use of the county facility revenue, we would use another third to help pay for those salaries, therefore reducing the amount paid for property owners,” said Weikle.
The tax is on the ballot across McLean County in the April 1 election. Early voting is now open.
