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Health & Fitness

District 200 Property Tax Rate up 10.64%

Wheaton and Warrenville taxpayers will see a 10.64% higher tax rate from Community Unit School District 200 on this year's property tax bills.

Wheaton-Warrenville School District 200 homeowners will see their tax rate paid to District 200 increase about 10.64% on this year's tax bills, according to the DuPage County Clerk's office.  Revenue Department staff indicated that the preliminary rate for 2012 tax bills payable in June and September will be $4.8474, a 10.64% increase over the 2011 rate of $4.3812.  The 2011 rate had increased by 8.35% over the 2010 rate of $4.0437.

Regular readers of my columns know that tax rate increases do not mean that the actual tax bill will necessarily increase by the rate amount.  Tax bills change based on a combination of the taxes levied by government bodies, the amount of debt service on bonds, and property values. 

District 200's debt service on bonds, which directly hits property tax bills and is not subject to the tax cap, will more than double in the next five years (from $16.3 million in 2013 to $34.7 million in 2018, according to the District's auditors (page 77 of the audit report, page 93 of the pdf), and this will significantly increase tax bills.  Those auditor's numbers do not include the additional $23.4 million in total debt service that would be added if the upcoming Jefferson Preschool tax increase referendum passes. 

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It is important to note that the annual tax increase numbers for the Jefferson referendum being promoted by the District do NOT include the tax increases that will already occur just to service the debt the District already has.  See the footnote on the District's chart.

The huge increase in debt service is the result of prior "back loaded" financing plans by the District that deferred payments of principal, causing taxpayers to be on the hook for increased interest costs because more money was owed for a longer period. 

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