South Cook News

Kathy Piccolini, business manager for the Chicago Ridge School District, briefed board members on the tentative 2022 tax levy.  

"So really, just in summary, we're asking the board to approve the tentative levy at 5% over last year's extension, plus new property," she said. "We do understand that this levy is preceded by a historic period of low inflation. So this is a big ask. We also as a school district are experiencing labor shortages and rising labor costs and overall operating costs due to supply chain costs plus supply and demand, basically everything it touches just is costing more money."

Piccolini explained a few key terms about the levy, explaining the levy is what the district asks for, CPI (consumer price index) is the inflation factor and EAV, which is Equalized Assessed Value. She also explained the tax cap law that prevents them from requesting any more than 5%, even when CPI is greater than 5%.

The CPI for 2021, which is what they determine the 2022 tax levy off of, was 7.5% so the district can levy a maximum of 5% for 2022. This is the highest percentage in recent records, with the closest year coming in 2009 with 4%. The 10-year average is 1.95%. 

The board discussed how maxing out their levy ask at 5% would affect taxpayers and whether they should bring down the amount. While it was considered, economic trends and costs for the school district mean that not asking for as much as they can would be very risky for the district and could easily lead to them not being able to keep the lights on. The board will officially approve the levy at a later date.