Tax Information

Understanding your tax bill 
District 6 operates under the Property Tax Extension Limitation Law, or the Tax Cap. This law slows the rate at which taxes rise by establishing a limit on the increase the district can receive from the previous year. This limit is 5% or the Consumer Price Index (CPI), whichever is lower.

The D6 portion of the tax bills residents will receive in May is in compliance with the Tax Cap legislation. The D6 portion will show a smaller increase than last year because the district will return to taxpayers a monetary credit through an abatement.  


How Taxes Are Calculated

Tax Bill
 
In May of each year, residents receive their tax bills (payable in two installments: June and September). Information about tax bills for any property in the county is available at www.lakecountyil.gov.

Tax Cap
The Property Tax Limitation Act limits any increase in property tax dollars to 5% or the CPI (Consumer Price Index), whichever is less. The overall impact of the tax cap has been to slow the rate at which taxes rise. New construction contributes additional dollars. Note that the cap limits the actual dollars received, not a percentage. The tax cap applies to the total dollars received by the district; taxes on individual properties may change by various percentages, depending on the value of their property. 

Tax Rate
The county clerk calculates taxes by applying a rate to each property value; the owner of a single family home pays the same rate as the owner of a condominium, but the total dollars are more for the higher-value property. 

New construction
After the county clerk calculates the capped amount of tax dollars the district may receive, new construction is factored in; the total amount becomes the base for the calculation the following year. 

Referenda
School districts must ask voters for permission before they can levy (request tax revenues) funds beyond what the tax cap allows; this is done by referendum. 

Teardowns/remodels
The difference between the value of the existing structure and the value of the rebuild is exempt from the cap, minus any applicable exemptions. The taxes generated by the property value before alteration or rebuild is calculated under the cap. After one year, the dollars generated by the entire property come under the cap. 

Equalized Assessed Valuation (EAV) 
Your taxes are based on the EAV of your home (one-third fair market value). Increased EAV does not increase the dollars D41 receives beyond what the cap allows, but it does affect how much each property owner pays. 

Appreciation
Appreciation does not increase the tax dollars coming to the district beyond what the tax cap allows.


ABATEMENT FAQs 

The Board of Education (BOE) will abate a portion of the 2019 tax levy from the Bond and Interest Fund. The estimated abatement amount will be approximately $XX million. This means that your real estate bills will be less than they would be without an abatement. 

What will the 2019 abatement mean for me?  For Lake County residents, it will mean that your overall school district portion of the tax bill will be lower from last year if all other factors remain constant. Each year the tax burden shifts between counties, which may cause an increase or decrease in your tax bill.  

What is an abatement?  The real estate tax process is complicated, with many moving parts.  An abatement is a process where the taxing body (the school district) submits a request to the county clerk's office prior to March 1 indicating that it declines to levy (request the funds) the total amount designated to pay 100 percent of its Bond and Interest payments. The clerks then deduct the abatement amount from the total amount needed to pay all of the Bond and Interest payments for the upcoming fiscal year. The District will then transfer money from the funds that it utilizes to pay for day to day operations of the school district to the Bond and Interest Fund to offset the abatement amount and pay the debt that is due that was not funded by the levy process.  

Why not just lower the levy?  Just lowering the levy could negatively impact students and the organization and in the long term may put additional pressure on homeowners to maintain the appropriate funding levels needed in the future. The tax cap laws do not allow for taxing bodies (the school district) to simply lower its request in one year without permanently losing access to the funds in the future if the need arises or an emergency needs to be addressed.  Additionally, with $5.1 billion in building assets and mechanical systems, the future infrastructure needs will not decline.  While there is an interest in moving away from borrowing to fund current capital projects, lowering the levy versus an abatement will place additional future borrowing pressures on the homeowners’ tax bills if the District does not have the ability to fund the projects from its operating funds due to choosing to lower the levy versus using the abatement process. 


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