Sycamore school board approves countywide sales tax referendum

SYCAMORE – A referendum proposing a countywide 1% sales tax benefitting DeKalb County school districts was approved by the Sycamore school board Tuesday, although more district approval still is needed before it gets on the November ballot.

Board of educators from school districts representing 50% of DeKalb County students have to approve the referendum in order for voters to find the question on the Nov. 5 general election ballot.

Vice President of Sycamore School District 427′s board Michael DeVito ran Tuesday night’s meeting in the absence of president Jim Dombek. He stressed that the board does not have the authority to levy the tax without voter approval.

“This not to impose the sales tax, this is a vote to decide if this should go on the November ballot for voters to decide,” DeVito said.

[ New sales tax in DeKalb County for public schools? Here's what we know ]

Sycamore joined Somonauk, Sandwich and Hiawatha school districts in approving the referendum. The initiative does not yet have enough support from DeKalb County school districts to make it on to the ballot for the next election.

Unless the DeKalb School District 428 board authorizes the referendum, nearly every other school district in DeKalb County would need to join the four supportive school districts before Aug. 18, officials have previously said.

Sycamore Superintendent Steve Wilder said Tuesday he doesn’t like the idea of a new tax but recommended the board authorize the referendum because if voters approve a new sales tax, it could generate revenue for facilities he said the district needs to tend to.

Sycamore officials previously estimated the tax could create $10 million in revenue for area schools.

“I didn’t necessarily know this when we started this conversation, but the majority of the tax would be paid by people who do not own property in DeKalb County,” Wilder said. “Forty-two percent of purchases made in DeKalb County are made by people who live outside of DeKalb County altogether. Of the 58 remaining percent, not all of those people own property, so the majority of this sales tax would be paid for by people who are not currently paying property taxes.”

Each school district with students residing in DeKalb County would receive revenue from the tax weighted proportionally to the respective district’s share of DeKalb County students, according to Sycamore district estimates.

The sales tax would tax everything municipal and county sales taxes apply to except cars, trucks, boats, mobile homes, farm equipment and various services.

The Sycamore school board approved the sales tax referendum in a 3-2 vote. Board members Alex Grados, Beth Marie Evans and James Chyllo voted in favor, while DeVito and Eric Jones voted against.

Before the vote, Jones said he’d done a lot of thinking about the sales tax and found it difficult for him to be supportive.

“I have a lot of issues. Obviously with our current tax situation I don’t think that there’s anybody in the county that would come forth and say ‘We need more taxes,’” said Jones, before recanting other taxes that impact areas residents. “[There are] real estate taxes that are through the roof, and then I’ve received some letters from concerned constituents today, so I have my doubts that this would even pass if it got on there. But just as a board member and representative of the community, I struggle to support adding additional taxation to our district.”

If the sales tax proposal isn’t authorized for the Nov. 5 general election, officials from DeKalb County school districts could choose to put it on the ballot in a future election.

Jones said he thinks funding issues should be resolved in Springfield.

“I think the initiative that we as a community need to take on is really with our downstate representatives and Illinois state board of education,” Jones said.