Signs point to an increased tax levy as the Galesburg School District struggles with a looming $2.6 million deficit.
Superintendent Ralph Grimm gave his recommendation last night to the District 205 Board of Education to increase the district tax levy just below 4.99 percent, the maximum allowed in order to avoid a Truth in Taxation hearing.
“It’s a 4.97 percent increase in the extension amount that was asked for last year,” Grimm says.
After last night’s meeting, Grimm said he expects the board to approve the 4.97 percent tax increase during next month’s regular meeting.
The levy would bring with it an estimated $914,000 in revenue, cleaving off more than a third of the deficit.
According to numbers provided at the meeting, it would also spell about $20 to $28 in additional property taxes paid annually by owners of homes valued between $55,000 and $75,000.
Also discussed during last night’s meeting was the district’s plans to step away from the Knox Warren Special Ed Cooperative, following suit with every other school that participated in the co-op.
“The co-op’s going to continue to exist in some form or fashion,” Grimm says, “we just don’t know what that’s gonna look like. And probably it’s going to exist without District 205 students participating in it.”
Should 205 opt out of the co-op, changes would take effect July of 2017
