Don Grady is a CPA and Professor of Accounting at National Louis University, Chicago
I continue to receive correspondence from our Sun City neighbors concerning the school/property tax issue. There is a wide variety of perspectives on the issue. Many have stated that they feel we should pay the tax because someone paid for us, and we should continue to pay as stewards of the education system. Others have said they shouldnāt pay the tax because they have paid their fair share in the past and our Sun City community does not contribute to the cost of the education system (i.e. none of us have children in the schools), so we should not have to pay the school tax.
I listened with great interest to the recent forum for board candidates, and it seemed that those residents in attendance were strong supporters of continuing to pay property taxes. Those candidates who were subsequently elected voiced their support at the forum for keeping the property taxes as they are. I donāt expect much change coming from the new board.
I received the following idea from one of our Sun City readers, Chuck Chodl. Chuck offers an alternative that is somewhat of a compromise. Chuck wrote: āI have been reading your columns in the Sun Day newspaper since inception but, over the last few months, with increased interest due to the conversation regarding taxes in Sun City for schools. I am one who does believe that taxes for schools make the community better and stronger. I also believe that we are way overcharged for these facilities. As noted, we canāt really use the facilities for educating our children. Schools do keep the community strong and good schools provide a good future, so taxes for them are inevitable. I have been thinking of a way to keep our taxes in Sun City Huntley at a reasonable rate without creating a separate taxing school district and still provide the school district with needed revenue by paying our share. Freeze the rate of taxes paid to the school district at the rate it was when the home was purchased. The rate would increase to the current level only when the property is sold. This keeps revenue coming in to the district. We would be paying a fair share. In this scenario, the taxes could never go up for schools but they could go down, creating a fair and equitable way for Sun City residents to fund schools we can never use but still support the important segment of our community.ā
I have and will continue to support Chuckās comments about the importance of quality schools to the community. My comments have never been about cutting quality or even the cost of running the schools, only about who should pay for it. Chuckās recommendation to āfreeze the ratesā to the level of when the property was purchased would at least address the issue for those taxpayers with fixed inĀ¬comes. The buyer would know what the tax liability would be at time of purchase and not have to worry about future inĀ¬creases in the tax. However, the taxing authorities have only been willing to āfreezeā the assessed values of property and not the tax rate that is apĀ¬plied to the assessed value. So, we continue to pay increased taxes as they proceed to raise the rates each year.
ā¢ Send in your questions and ideas to: Sun Day, FruĀ¬gal Forum Column, P.O. Box 7505, Algonquin, IL 60102, or, by email to: thefrugalforum@gmail.com.
