D86 Flat Levy Gets Final Approval

The Hinsdale Township High School District 86 Board of Education voted 4-3 Monday night to finalize a flat levy for Fiscal Year 2015, meaning it will collect the same $72,605,822 from district taxpayers next June and September for capped funds that it is during the current Fiscal Year 2014.

Board president Claudia Manley voted in favor of the flat levy along with Victor Caisni, Ed Corcoran and Richard Skoda. Kay Gallo, Michael Kuhn and Jennifer Planson voted against the levy.

“The tax-and-spend mentality has plagued our generation in Illinois,” Corcoran said. “We can stop it here and now.”

Manley said she’s thinking about future generations and doing right by them in not automatically taking every dollar the district is legally allowed.

“I think someone has to say, ‘We need to take a deep breath and stop for at least one year and live within our means,” Manley said.

Gallo proposed a 1.7 percent increase over last year’s levy—equal to the 2012 CPI—with the condition that all of the additional money will go only to the district’s education fund. Her motion was voted down by the same 4-3 split before the flat-levy vote.

Planson said she questioned several expenditure assumptions that were used to project future surpluses even with the flat levy, including staff health benefits that are subject to negotiation, savings that are expected as a result of replacing or not replacing future retirees, and the lack of consideration for pension costs that could possibly be passed on to the district by the state government.

She also said the difference between a flat levy and a 1.7 percent levy might not be a huge amount this year, but the lost money will compound year-over-year because one year’s levy can grow based only on the previous year’s levy.

“It’s very near sighted to look at not just beyond this year,” Planson said.

Manley said the fact that the money not taken this year will compound in future years is in fact a good thing.

“That’s exactly the point,” the board president said.

The vote came after approximately an hour of public comments, both for and against the flat levy. The lower sections of the Hinsdale South auditorium, where the meeting was held, were nearly filled to capacity until the levy vote. Manley said 30 people signed up for public comment. 

The 4-3 roll call was identical to the preliminary vote regarding the flat levy in November.

There are plenty of ways to keep up on Hinsdale-Clarendon Hills news:

• Sign up for our daily email newsletter

• Like us on Facebook

• Flat D86 Levy 'Reckless and Shortsighted'
• Flat D86 Levy Would Be 'Tragic Mistake'
• D86's Flat Levy Shows 'Fiscal Responsibility'
• Supporters of Flat Levy in D86 Should Be Applauded
• D86 Flat Levy 'Appears Most Unwise'