EDWARDSVILLE - At their regular meeting on Monday, Dec. 18, 2023, the Edwardsville Community Unit School District #7 (ECUSD7) Board of Education voted unanimously to approve the 2023 tax levy.
“Madison County has forecasted a 9.6[%] increase for the Edwardsville School District, and the estimated tax rate will be $4.67,” explained Board Vice President Terri Dalla Riva during the finance committee report.
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Later in the evening, the Board voted unanimously to approve the levy. Members Kristen Pfund and Lynne Sanderson were absent.
The vote followed numerous discussions over the past few months. Before voting, Board member Bob Paty clarified that the tax levy had not changed from the last time the Board discussed it during their regular meeting in November. Dave Courtney, the district’s chief financial officer/chief operations officer, responded that it had changed “just slightly” from the previous estimate.
During the Nov. 27 meeting, Courtney explained that the estimated tax levy will allow the district to budget more accurately for the 2024–2025 school year. The amount of money that the district levies, or asks for, is an estimate because the district will not know the Equalized Assessed Valuation (EAV) until April. The EAV is usually approximately 33% of a home’s value.
“The 2023 estimated EAV increase for all properties in the district is approximately 1.3%, with an additional 8.2% increase due to township multipliers required by Illinois statute,” ECUSD7 explained in a summary of the Nov. 27 meeting. “This results in a projected 9.5% increase for the 2023 tax levy, potentially lowering the tax levy rate from $4.69 to $4.67 if the EAV growth rate remains constant.”
As of Dec. 18, the updated estimate was a 9.6% increase, but this keeps the tax levy rate at $4.67, a decrease from previous years.
You can watch the full Board of Education meeting on the official ECUSD7 Facebook page.
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