Senate Sponsors: RAUSCHENBERGER-WOOLARD. House Sponsors: O'BRIEN-MENDOZA Short description: SCHOOLS-BONDS-TAXES-BUILDINGS Synopsis of Bill as introduced: Amends the Property Tax Code and the School Code. Makes changes to the Property Tax Extension Limitation Law concerning excluding bonds issued by school boards for fire prevention and safety purposes from the definition of "debt service extension base" and the exclusion of certain extensions from the aggregate extension for a school district. Repeals a provision in the Law concerning not reducing a school district's State aid. Makes changes to provisions of the School Code concerning urgent and required items in a school building safety survey report, bonds and taxes for fire prevention, safety, energy conservation, disabled accessibility, school security, and specified repair purposes, increasing the maximum tax rates that may be levied by certain school districts for certain purposes, referendums for tax levies, the capital improvement tax, and increasing the debt limitations of school districts. Effective immediately. SENATE AMENDMENT NO. 1. Deletes reference to: 105 ILCS 5/17-2 105 ILCS 5/17-2.3 Removes amendatory provisions and restores current law concerning tax levies for operations and maintenance purposes and capital im- provement purposes. HOUSE AMENDMENT NO. 1. (Tabled May 25, 2001) Adds reference to: 35 ILCS 200/18-190.5 new 105 ILCS 5/34-53.5 new Further amends the Property Tax Code and the School Code. Allows the Chicago Board of Education to levy a capital improvement tax to produce, when extended, a maximum specified amount. Allows the Board to issue bonds against any revenues to be collected from the tax and to pledge those revenues as security for the payment of any such bonds. Excludes extensions made pursuant to these provisions from the definition of aggregate extension under the Property Tax Extension Limitation Law. Provides that the requirements under the Law for a direct referendum on the imposition of a new or increased tax rate shall not apply to tax levies that are not included in the aggregate extension pursuant to the amendatory Act. In the backdoor referendum provisions, makes changes concerning who may file a petition requesting that the question of the adoption of a tax levy be submitted to the voters of the district, when a backdoor referendum is required for a rate increase for fire prevention, safety, energy conservation, disabled accessibility, school security, and specified repair purposes, and how many registered voters of a district are required to sign a petition requesting that a proposition to issue bonds for those purposes be submitted to the voters. STATE DEBT NOTE, H-AM 1 (Economic and Fiscal Commission) SB 22 (H-am 1) would not affect the bonding authorization of the State and, therefore, has no direct impact on the level of State indebtedness. FISCAL NOTE, H-AM 1 (Department of Revenue) SB 22 (H-am 1) has no fiscal impact on the State. All property tax proceeds are local government funds. STATE MANDATES NOTE, H-AM 1 (State Board of Education) SB 22 (H-am 1) creates no State mandate. All decisions are made at the local level and will depend on actions of local school districts in levying health life/safety taxes or in issuing bonds. HOUSE AMENDMENT NO. 8. Adds reference to: 105 ILCS 5/1B-4 from Ch. 122, par. 1B-4 105 ILCS 5/1B-5 from Ch. 122, par. 1B-5 105 ILCS 5/1B-8 from Ch. 122, par. 1B-8 Deletes everything after the enacting clause. Reinserts the contents of the bill as amended by House amendment No. 1 with the following changes. In the provisions allowing the Chicago Board of Education to levy a capital improvement tax, provides that the failure of the Chicago City Council to take action to approve or disapprove the initial tax levy within the 60-day period shall be deemed disapproval (instead of approval) of the initial tax levy. Amends the School District Financial Oversight Panel and Emergency Financial Assistance Law of the School Code. Allows a financial oversight panel created pursuant to a petition filed by a school district to petition the State Board of Education to be reconstituted as a panel having the powers, duties, legal status, and privileges of a panel established by the State Board for a district that has had its financial plan rescinded by the State Board for violating that plan. Provides that any moneys provided to a board of education as a loan shall not be subject to any limitation on debt established under the Article of the School Code concerning debt limitation. Changes provisions concerning a separate tax levy for emergency financial assistance repayment purposes. Makes other changes. Effective immediately. HOME RULE NOTE, H-AM 8 (Department of Commerce and Community Affairs) SB 22 (H-am 8) concerns finances of school districts. The legislation does not pre-empt the home rule powers of a local government. FISCAL NOTE, H-AM 8 (State Board of Education) SB 22 (H-am 8) will have no fiscal impact at the State level. The fiscal impact of the underlying health, life, safety pro- visions at the local level will depend on actions of local school districts in levying health life/safety taxes or in issuing bonds. The provisions relating to Round Lake help pro- vide the climate for the State to agree to the $5.6 million loan. The maximum amounts of the new capital projects tax levy for the next several years would be as follows (assuming infla- tion of 2.5%) per Chicago Public School District (CPS) #299: levy year 2001/extension year 2002 maximum tax levy $ 3.6 million tax rate with no EAV growth 1 cent impact on home with $100,000 market value $1.73 levy year 2002/extension year 2003 maximum tax levy $ 7.2 million tax rate with no EAV growth 2 cents impact on home with $100,000 market value $3.46 levy year 2003/extension year 2004 maximum tax levy $11.0 million tax rate with no EAV growth 3 cents impact on home with $100,000 market value $5.27 levy year 2004/extension year 2005 maximum tax levy $14.8 million tax rate with no EAV growth 4 cents impact on home with $100,000 market value $7.08 levy year 2005/extension year 2006 maximum tax levy $18.7 million tax rate with no EAV growth 5 cents impact on home with $100,000 market value $8.96 Starting in 2031, after all the existing CPS #299 debt service tax levies have expired in 2030, the extent of the levy would be equal to the inflationary growth described above plus $142.5 million. This would allow CPS #299 to use, without increasing taxes, all of the tax headroom that will be available when the existing CPS #299 debt service levies expire. The initial tax levy made by the board must have approval by the Chicago City Council. Approval must be affirmative rather than by inaction. STATE MANDATES NOTE, H-AM 8 (State Board of Education) SB 22 (H-am 8) creates no State mandate. All decisions are made at the local level and will depend on actions of local school districts in levying health life/safety taxes or in issuing bonds. The provisions relating to Round Lake and CPS are also local decisions or permit State funding of local districts. HOUSING AFFORDABILITY NOTE, H-AM 8 (Illinois Housing Development Authority) SB 22 (H-am 8) would likely have the impact of increasing local property taxes, thereby increasing the cost of owning a resi- dential property in the identified geographic areas (i.e. con- tiguous counties to Cook County). The specific financial impact cannot be determined, however, as none of the individual pro- ject budgets/bond issues are known, which will result in dif- fering homeowner impacts based on local tax bases/levies and EAV factors. HOUSE AMENDMENT NO. 10. Deletes reference to: 35 ILCS 200/18-185 35 ILCS 200/18-190.5 new 35 ILCS 200/18-201 new 35 ILCS 200/18-200 rep. 105 ILCS 5/1B-4 105 ILCS 5/1B-5 105 ILCS 5/1B-8 105 ILCS 5/2-3.12 105 ILCS 5/10-22.14 105 ILCS 5/17-2.2 105 ILCS5/17-2.11 105 ILCS 5/19-1 105 ILCS 5/34-53.5 new Adds reference to: 35 ILCS 200/18-181 new Deletes everything. Amends the Property Tax Code. Provides that any taxing district that has an equalized assessed valuation for the year 2000 that is at least 15% less than its assessed valuation for the year 1999 may contract, within certain limitations, with certain electric generating stations newly constructed within the taxing district for the abatement of the station's taxes for a period not to exceed 20 years. Makes provision for repayment with interest if the owner of the station closes the station before the expiration of the contract period. Provides that this authorization for taxing districts to enter into such a contract shall not apply to an electric generating station with an equalized assessed valuation of less than $150,000,000 and that the authorization expires on January 1, 2002. Effective immediately. Last action on Bill: SESSION SINE DIE Last action date: JAN-07-2003 Location: Senate Amendments to Bill: AMENDMENTS ADOPTED: HOUSE - 2 SENATE - 1 END OF INQUIRY Full Text Bill Status