The Arlington Heights-based Township High School District 214 Board of Education voted Thursday evening to maneuver ahead with hiring a lobbyist to signify the college district’s pursuits, in response to not too long ago filed laws that will create tax breaks for “mega projects” like a possible Chicago Bears stadium at Arlington International Racecourse.
Board member Dan Petro stated the transfer is “basically so [a lobbyist] can go to Springfield and make sure our part of the story gets heard” because the district seeks to affect how a lot property tax cash is skimmed off the invoice of a possible developer – and due to this fact stored out of colleges’ coffers.
District 214 is the second native college district to approve hiring a lobbyist this week. The Palatine-based Community Consolidated School District 15 Board of Education greenlit an identical measure at its assembly Wednesday.
Interim SD214 co-Superintendent Kenneth Arndt stated he had been assembly with the superintendents of District 15 — an elementary college district — and Palatine-based Township High School District 211 day by day and interviewing candidates, and deliberate to slim down an inventory of eight candidates within the coming days.
SD214 board legal professional Ares Dalianis stated the casual plan among the many three districts, which all stand to see monetary impacts from a possible Bears stadium district, is to separate the prices of a lobbying workforce 3 ways. The estimated value of a lobbyist could be between $7,000 and $11,000 every month, he stated.
Board President Bill Dussling stated he and the board have main excellent questions on how the proposed growth would affect the district’s operations, from the variety of college students within the proposed residential space who would enroll within the district to the amount of cash that wouldn’t circulate to the district because of property tax incentives.
“Our focus is to try to get to the point where we understand what’s going on,” he stated.
Dussling stated he could be assembly with the invoice’s sponsor, state Sen. Ann Gillespie, D-Arlington Heights, “in the next few days just to explore what is going on and where we’re all headed.”
He stated the college district has additionally been in communication with the village of Arlington Heights.
“This whole thing is fluid. It’s moving so rapidly,” the board chief stated.
Dussling added that he and the board are dedicated to collaborating with Arlington Heights officers all through the method.
“We always want to be good partners with the village,” he stated. “We’re in a community that appreciates the schools. But we also have to protect the district because that’s what we’re about and that’s where our focus is.”
The Bears haven’t but closed on the sale of the 326-acre property after signing a $197.2 million buy settlement in September 2021.
In September 2022, workforce officers revealed a set of plans for a multi-billion greenback redevelopment that would come with a stadium and sprawling mixed-use leisure, business and residential district on the racetrack web site.
However, Arlington Heights leaders and Bears brass have each emphasised {that a} potential growth continues to be preliminary, with the one formal pact between the village and workforce to date being a “predevelopment agreement” that gives a highway map for the way the village and workforce may work collectively ought to a purchase order transfer ahead.
The Bears have said that they may search public help to construct the mixed-use business, leisure and residential district. Mayor Tom Hayes has stated Arlington Heights would solely present public funding as a “last resort.”
Senate Bill 1350, which Gillespie filed Monday, may create as much as 40 years price of tax breaks to a developer investing no less than $500 million in a challenge. The invoice proposes to freeze property taxes on a web site for a further 17 years after an preliminary interval of 23 years.
To get the 17 12 months extension, the municipality the place the event is positioned would wish to seek out {that a} challenge is of “substantial public benefit,” thus making a developer eligible for a certification from the Illinois Department of Revenue.
In lieu of full property tax funds, the laws supplies for a “payment in lieu of taxes,” or PILOT, {that a} developer would pay to the host municipality. Dalianis instructed the SD214 board Feb. 2 that the fee could be lower than what the developer would in any other case pay in property taxes.
Dalianis additionally instructed the board District 214 is at present “on the outside looking in” as legislators, Arlington Heights officers, workforce representatives and different stakeholders push the invoice by way of the lawmaking course of.
He stated Thursday that it’s within the district’s curiosity to be concerned in setting the particular fee, notably for the reason that residential district may enhance the scholar inhabitants.
SD214 at present enrolls almost 12,000 college students throughout six colleges, together with John Hersey High School in Arlington Heights and Buffalo Grove High School in Buffalo Grove.
“Once the base is frozen, if there’s a residential component, you are not getting those tax dollars. There’s going to be a mismatch between taxes generated and what the need is,” stated Dalianis.
Since the fee in lieu of taxes would make up a few of that mismatch, “it’s hugely important that you have a seat at the table to determine that special payment,” he instructed the board.
Arlington Heights Village Manager Randy Recklaus beforehand instructed Pioneer Press that the village was “encouraging the parties who are working on this (bill) to listen to the school districts.”
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Source: www.bostonherald.com