001[music] >> Your soul. >> [music] >> Your soul. >> [music] [music] >> It's a buck. We are going to get started. Would like to call to order the Tuesday, April 21st special meeting of the Waukegan District 60 Board of Education. Can we have a roll call, please? Ms. Fabian? Yes. >> Ms. Hannah? Yes. Ms. Lenzing? Present. Mr. McBride? Present. Mr. Ramirez? Yes, present. Mr. Riddle? Present. President Rodriguez? Here. Okay, I believe everybody's present. Uh next item on the agenda is a pledge of allegiance. Ms. Howlett, could I ask you to lead us in the pledge of allegiance? Would you, please? Pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. You can be
002seated. Next item on the agenda is public comment. Do we have a sign-up sheet? No sign-up sheet is not Are there any names on it? Okay. Next item, we have a special presentation on the county school facility sales tax. And Ms. Hennessey, I believe you are leading that presentation? I am. Thank you so much. Thank you for having us tonight. Elizabeth Hennessey with Raymond James. I have Kyle Harding here from Chapman [music] and Cutler, uh who acts as bond counsel. And we understand the board had some additional questions uh after it reviewed the resolution to uh initiate the public question um so it would go on the ballot. That's the resolution the board was considering to direct the regional uh superintendent of schools to put the question of the county school facility sales tax on
003the ballot. And then the companion resolution of intent discussed Waukegan School District 60's intent to provide tax relief with any proceeds of that um uh the county's facility school sales tax. So, what we're here tonight is we put in a question and answer for you. And uh Kyle is going to go through the first six questions, and then I'm going to go through the next seven questions, and we hope we cover all your questions, but we are here to answer all and any questions you have um that we don't cover through this presentation. So, Kyle's going to start. Thank you, Liz. Again, Kyle Harding, Chapman and Cutler. Appreciate the opportunity to to present to the board. Um and uh Chapman appreciates the the the relationship we've had with the district for a long time. Um
004I work with uh a lot of school districts throughout the state that are in counties that have adopted the or implemented the sales tax. And so, hopefully, again, well, as we're going through these questions, if there are any other ones, hopefully, some experience that we can pull on draw on to help answer those questions. But we're starting with uh what is the sales tax? It's a countywide tax. So, that's what's unique about the school facility sales tax. It's a countywide tax. So, all of Lake County would uh have a sales tax where the proceeds could only be used for school facility purposes. Um What can those revenues be used for is the second question. It's a limited revenue source. So, the only operating dollars that can be the only operating expenditures that you can use
005the school facility sales for is for SROs, school resource officers, and mental health professionals. Those provisions were added a few years ago. Otherwise, school facility purposes is defined as bricks and mortar improvements. It's it's capital facilities consisting of building structures and durable equipment. That's the statutory definition. So, what have we seen uh Illinois school districts use this revenue for? New school construction, significant, you know, classroom additions. We've seen energy efficiency improvements, technology upgrades, safety and security improvements um are being financed either through a bond issue or pay-as-you-go with these revenues. Um and also debt relief. We've seen a lot of our school clients that are receiving the school facility sales tax either leverage that revenue into a bond issue, which Elizabeth will talk about later, meaning that we no longer have to use property taxes
006to repay that debt. We're going to use this revenue source to pay the debt. Or to use that revenue source to actually pay down tax-supported debt. So, you've issued some bonds outstanding. There's property tax levies on the books. You can use this revenue source to pay for the that debt service and take away an existing tax levy. So, again, debt debt relief is a significant component uh of what you can use the sales tax money for. Um what does it apply to? It's a it's a general met merchandising tax. It's a retail tax. Um this So, this is the same sales tax base that that applies to the state sales tax, the 6.25 state sales tax. So, that's going to cover uh you know, restaurants, gasoline, department store purchases, convenience store purchases, um and and
007online purchases that that the the General Assembly passed a law several years ago to to help with the um um with online purchases and where those purchases are being made at. Um and so that that has that has increased a lot of sales tax collections in those counties that had the school facility sales tax. Um So, I had mentioned that the sales tax base is the same as exists for the state sales tax state sales tax, the 625. That means where there are some things that uh that are excluded or exempted. So, the first one is registered or titled vehicles. So, right off the top, that's not subject to this school facility sales tax. Um so, that would include cars, trucks, ATVs, boats, RVs. Um importantly, uh like groceries, so unprepared food, uh drugs and
008medicine get pulled out statutorily. Uh and then there's a lot of exceptions that get pulled forward into this sales tax that apply to all the other sales taxes as as well. So, um farm equipment, farm parts, uh farm inputs technically are is not an exception, but it's not a sale at retail. Um and there's a lot of information that's available on the Illinois Department of Revenue's website under their local tax allocation. If there's more information you want to see about exactly what particular exceptions would a- apply to this sales tax. Uh I mentioned that I work with a lot of a lot of school districts in counties that have adopted the sales tax. 58 counties now have the school facility sales tax. Um And then the last question that we got was to talk about
009what the current sales tax is in Waukegan and where would go with this increase. Currently, you are at 8.50 uh sales tax. And that uh that comes from that state's sales tax of 625. That's the base. And then on top of that, there's a 1 and 1/2 cent uh home rule sales tax from the city. And then there's the 75 cent RTA sales tax. So, you put those together and you're at at 8.50. If you added another 1 cent county school facility sales tax, you'd go up to 9:50. I'm going to take the next group of questions starting with question seven. How much of the sales tax is paid by non-Lake County residents? So, there was a study done by uh PGAV Planners that looked at cell phone data to figure out who was in
010the largest retailers uh in Lake County. And based on that study, 52% of the retail transactions come from non-Lake County residents. Um when you think about the major uh tollway uh 41 and the various uh transportation arteries in the county, um that's where you see a lot of people stopping, buying gasoline, buying merchandise uh from convenience stores, buying fast food. Um so, that's how that study comes up uh or that's why we see 52% of retail transactions in Lake County coming from people who don't live here. Driving from Wisconsin, driving from Chicago, uh driving out west. So, um that's a very interesting statistic I wanted to make sure you're aware of. So, um what are district-wide capital needs of Community Unit School District 60, including health, life, safety, as described in the capital improvement plan
011fiscal year '21 through '23? So, your 10-year capital improvement plan that you did in FY '21 uh that is uh commendable that you actually go out 9 years with that looking into your future. There is over 122 million of needs, and that's in 2021 dollars, so I'm sure those dollars are a bigger number today. So, we want to just think about that because that may be funded with this county school facility sales tax. So, the next question is how much money would the 1% county-wide sales tax generate for District 60? So, um as you know from our presentation last uh February, a few months ago, uh the amount of sales tax received by District 60 is based on your enrollment. So, District 60's enrollment is 11.7% of total enrollment in Lake County. So, you would
012get 11.7% of the sales tax, and based on estimates from uh county-wide sales, um November '24 to October '25, 1% of that is 121 or 121 million is a total, 1% of that is uh sorry. Sorry. 1% of the total sales tax is 121 million. 11.7% of that is 14,124,513. So, each year, if this went through, District 60 would get 14,124,513 based on the sales going back to the year ending October of '25. Sales can go up or down depending on the economy, but this is just a good estimate for you to think about um in this uh analysis. Now, I think your last meeting you looked at the resolution initiating the public question and the resolution of intent, which was kind of a companion resolution that the board could adopt that pledges to the
013taxpayers that you would use the funds from the county school facility sales tax for uh tax property tax relief. As you know, property taxes are high everywhere in the state of Illinois. So, what the idea is is that you would use these funds to address your capital needs instead of issuing bonds. So, given that the district needs money to address its capital needs, um you're going to get that money somewhere. You're either going to use it through your budget, and then there's less of your budget available for educational things, you're going to issue bonds, which can increase property taxes, um or you're going to issue life Whoops. Life safety bonds, which are able to be issued now without referendum, they just require a public hearing, or you could go to the voters with a referendum.
014Those are some examples of the way you can fund your capital projects. So, this intent resolution says, we're going to give taxpayers of Waukegan District 60 taxpayer relief, and some of the ways we'll do that is number one, you could abate debt service levies that are currently securing existing or a new capital project, including health life safety bonds, or instead of using property tax bonds for capital projects such as health life safety bonds, you could issue bonds secured by that county facility sales tax. So, question 11 then goes on to say, how much would it cost the average taxpayer in District 60 to fund the capital improvement plan uh with property tax-backed bonds or levies? The answer is, if District 60 issued a general obligation bond for 122 million to fund its capital plan as
015uh set forth back in 2021 with payments of 14,124,512, same as the sales tax you're estimated to get per year, it would increase property taxes for the owner of a home valued at 231,782, which is the average sale value if you look at Zillow in Waukegan. It would increase the tax property taxes by over 300 per year. So, if we go down, we can see that calculation. We've got the 25 EAV already from Lake County. If we look at the sales tax payment as a debt service payment from a property tax bond, that would be 14,124. That's 98 cents on the tax rate, and on a 231,782 home, that's 301 dollars and 54 cents a year to pay off a bond of 122 million. I'm using this as an example so we can contrast that
016cost with the cost to a resident of Waukegan of the sales tax. So, um number 12 says, do you have an estimate of how much the sales tax will cost the average resident of Waukegan? So, again, we're talking about a 1% sales tax. So, going through uh online and looking at census data, uh based on retail sales for an individual in Waukegan, estimated annual spending on retail goods such as clothing, electronics, home goods, personal items, hobby entertainment goods is between $8,000 and $10,000 annually, according to estimates based on information reviewed by the district and the census data for Waukegan. An additional 1% sales tax on those amounts would mean an additional 80 to 100 dollars. So, that would be an estimate, a rough estimate, of what that 1% sales tax would cost a typical individual
017in Waukegan. Of course, annual spending on retail goods can vary widely based on the needs and income of individuals living in District 60, but again, we just relied on census data to try to answer this tough question for you, which I know came up at your last meeting. How much will this cost a typical Waukegan resident? So, if we look at the cost of 80 to 100 dollars per year to receive a payment into the district of 14,124,513, and contrast that with a property tax-based bond that would cost that same individual over 300 dollars a year, you get a sense for the value of the county facility sales tax to fund capital projects instead of relying on property taxes. So, let me just stop here um and see if this makes sense or if you
018have any questions. Yes. Something to Um yeah, so I just want to go back. I have a couple of things to clarify. So, when it comes When it comes to life safety, there it goes. Um that's more of an indirect way that the um CFST is going to help pay for life safety. It's more you can use those funds to get the bonds or can pay off the bonds that you get for life safety, not direct life safety. Okay. Um and when you're talking tech upgrades, are you talking more infrastructure like security cameras for buildings or you talking malware software or you talking about our one-to-one Chromebook program for our students? I'll let Kyle take that. Perfect. Yeah. Um so the the statute is is pretty concise with respect to what a school facility purposes
019other than it does include anything that's life safety. So maybe the first place to start certainly with some of those security improvements is to find out if they qualify as life safety eligible. If they do, then it's a school facility purpose. Okay. And then after that it's it needs to be uh capital facility consisting of building structures and durable equipment. And there's there isn't any additional clarity that's provided in the in the statute for for to to help with that. Um but we're typically what what we've seen [snorts] in Illinois is that these these dollars have been used for facility improvements, you know, long-term capital, long useful life capital improvements. Okay. Thank you. And then when it comes to the online purchases and you said the legislation has gotten really good at that. I guess
020I would like some more clarification. So is it a Lake County resident in their home making their Amazon purchase gets the 1% sales tax? Is it visiting people going to Six Flags needing something from Amazon delivered to their hotel also gets the sales tax? Is it like resident-based or is it where you are physically located when you make the purchase? >> in the in the leveling the playing field uh General Assembly uh res- that that law that was passed like 20-ish, I think 2022, it was an attempt to to to make online sales be the location where the person's making the purchase. So in both of your examples those would be taxable transactions. >> Okay. But if I'm in Chicago making a purchase, it's not coming to Lake County schools. Right. >> Okay. Perfect. >>
021There's there's there's another aspect of of other sales taxes which we don't have for the county school facility sales tax which is a use tax which as a technical matter if you bought something in another jurisdiction at a lower sales tax, but then you came back and you used it here, as a technical matter you're supposed to pay the difference. I'll highlight that that we don't have a use tax with respect to the county school facility sales tax. >> Okay. Cuz that's a lot of tracking to figure that out. Okay, cool. Um and then can you just clarify for the community the first year in which Waukegan Public Schools and other schools in Lake County would receive funds in their district once >> Okay. Okay, so there's there's two deadlines that exist in the statute
022for if the referendum is goes on the ballot and is approved, it automatically is imposed by the Department of Revenue as long as the county clerk files the abstract of votes with the Department of Revenue. So there's no longer any action for the county board to go ahead and implement the tax. It's self-imposing if the referendum is successful. The two deadlines in the statute are May 1 and October 1. So if you're looking at a November general election, the first deadline that you can hit is going to be May 1 of 2027. That means the tax would start in July of 2027. There's about a 3 and 1/2 month lag from when the sales taxes are made, collected by the retailers, remitted to the Department of Revenue, and the Department of Revenue pays the regional
023superintendent who then pays the school districts. So it would be October September, October of 2027 would be when you'd start to see dollars. So essentially once it's passed, we can estimate roughly a 6-month period for the different stages to occur. 5 to 6 months. A little longer than that. Yes. Yeah, July would be when it it would start in it would start in July. That's that's the deadlines are January or July. So it would start in July. Mhm. Because because you can't hit the October deadline anymore because the referendum is not until November. And so the sales tax starts in July and the and it just is there's some lag time from when the taxes are collected by the retailers, paid to Springfield, Springfield pays the regional superintendent, regional superintendent has to calculate what everyone's
024percentages are based on your relative population, uh your student enrollment, and then pay checks out to you monthly. Okay, great. And I just have two more. So you brought up enrollment, that's actually one of my questions. I think a concern that we're seeing in our district is declining enrollment. So the board, yes, we're seeing that 14, but I don't think we can continue to project a consistent 14 million unless you know, people are having more babies nowadays and people are deciding to stay in the district. So that's something that we just need to factor in as a board and not saying don't do this because of that, but we need to just curb our expectations of what the final payout's going to be for us in the long run. Um and then mm either you
025or Ms. Polk can jump in on this one because we constantly hear we are losing our base when we go to um raise our taxes essentially or raise the tax base and then we go to the abate process. Is there a possibility that we plan to abate and lower the property tax for our residents here, but it not go through and then they get hit double-whammied? Well. So if you want to rephrase it, Ms. Polk, so it triggers your conversation, feel free. Me. No, what I'm saying is you rephrase my question to him so it triggers the conversation you guys are having. The microphone. Ms. Polk, the microphone. I'm sorry. Uh board president, board members, superintendent, it's interesting because I asked that very question uh on yesterday, I believe, when when we spoke about it.
026But because we don't levy for debt, it's it's not going to affect our um tax base, but you could elaborate on it a little bit more. Okay. If the question is about the impact um uh with respect to the property tax extension law and and and the con- the concept that the statement that was made earlier is that District 60 is a tax cap district which means each year you can increase your aggregate extension base. You can grow it by up to CPI. But if you don't but then whatever you do each year becomes the new base going forward. So if you don't max out, you don't you start from that base again going forward. Our tax cap school districts that whenever they can try for uh tax abatement um not wanting to affect that
027base to give the board the most flexibility for levies going forward would try always to abate uh levies that are go to pay bonds. Levies that go to pay bonds are outside the tax cap law. Those are outside the aggregate extension. So you can you could you guys could uh if you had the authority from from life safety approvals from the State Board of Education um you could do a life safety bond deal, and put a levy on the books to pay that, and then use this revenue source to pay those bonds and take away the tax levy, and that would have no impact on you under the tax cap law cuz your bond levies are outside that CPI limitation on under the tax cap law and the growth of your revenues. There's levies that
028are subject to the cap, and then there's levies that are outside the cap. Ms. Hannah, before you see, I'd like to get clarification on something. If I may. Okay, um the last paragraph that we're showing on the screen is the estimated cost for an individual in Waukegan is approximately 80 to $100. That means that a family of four this would cost them anywhere between $320 and $400 for a family of four. Is that correct? As opposed to the $300. You know, we weren't talking about the the census data we were using looked at an individual who is an adult, not necessarily kids spending. So this is an an individual in Waukegan. So I don't think you can automatically multiply that times four if they have, you know, three kids and a wife. So it's just
029per adult individual is what we were trying to get at here. So I you know, I think you know, children or not children is not really uh clear from the census. Okay, then then it should be stated differently then because it says for an individual in Waukegan, and I mean individuals are of all ages and sizes. Yeah, no, it's adult, yeah. Okay. >> For the average adult consumer. >> Okay, Ms. Hannah. Yeah. >> [clears throat and cough] >> Okay, um going back to usage of revenue. Um talked about selling. Uh would this would our uh school athletic field be part of those uh that eligibility? Yes. Yes. Okay. The one question. My other question is um regarding the Okay. You got to explain this to me in the step uh because I know what a
030TIF is. Mhm. Okay. And if there are TIF districts, will that impact this process? It will not impact the sales tax. That's the beauty of the sales tax. It's totally separate from property taxes. So, you know, when a TIF district comes on, it freezes the EAV at the current value and all the improvements don't get uh taxed by the other taxing bodies like the school district, the park district. They don't get access to that incremental value. Sales tax has nothing to do with that. So, it comes to you just dependent on the sales in Lake County. So, you know, right now, because prices have risen, especially on gas, these the sales tax in all counties in Illinois and across the nation are higher than ever. Why? The price of gas has gone up. So, you
031know, that means the pot is bigger and your slice uh will reflect that. And okay. And so, if the governor removes the sales tax on gasoline, that's going to impact us, right? Or that's going to uh impact the revenues. Yes, that would impact it, but I think there's a couple taxes and Kyle can correct me. There's a motor fuel sales tax and then there's just the regular 6.25% sales tax. So, you know, it just depends what they decide to do. I've heard other states to hitting the motor fuel sales tax as opposed to the general sales tax. So, if they hit that as opposed to the general sales tax, it will not be impacted. Okay. And um But but but if the General Assembly decided any But if the General Assembly decided any class of
032retail sales need to get pulled out, like there's no The the the exception for farm equipment and farm inputs is already a or farm equipment and farm parts, machinery parts, that's already a um a special grant by the General Assembly that said, we we want to facilitate something here. If they if they pulled any of those retail sales out, it would lower it would lower what you could get. Right. 100% Right. >> But that But that would require a General Assembly action. General Assembly, okay. Um And then as far as the business owners, how will this impact them? Because in my concern with the businesses, um because Waukegan we're always losing business, okay? But the businesses that employ individuals, right? And as you know, the um the minimum wage is rising for those people, right?
033And won't this be an extra burden on those businesses? Well, it's not something the business has to pay. I think the question is, will having that extra 1% So, we saw that 8.5% is the sales tax total for Waukegan right now. So, anybody going into a store has to pay the 8.5. If the 1% goes on, it becomes 9.5% To the extent that discourages an individual from going to that store or going to any other stores in Lake County, then that would be a negative. But remember, how do they get out of that extra 1%? Well, what? They go to Wisconsin. You got to drive there. There's time. There's inconvenience. They're not going to go to Cook County cuz they're at 11 and 1/2. So, they're definitely not going south. But it would you know,
034the sales tax is county wide. So, it wouldn't negatively impact Waukegan versus other towns in Lake County depending on what their base sales tax is. And they're all, you know, we looked at a chart in February that showed all the other Lake County towns sales tax. And uh they're all around that 8.5. Some lower. Not very many that are lower than that, maybe 8%. There's a There's a lot more lower than that. Yeah. And the And the only thing that I would add to that answer is that, you know, this is an opportunity to This is an opportunity to fund some facility improvements off a different tax base than your property tax base. And so, the the issue It's very hard to quantify that, but if if if the $122 million that the district needs
035to raise for necessary facility improvements has to come from somewhere, you're comparing the impact of a sales tax versus the impact on presumably these business owners that may also live and pay property taxes in the district. And And I understand that that is That's why these are all great questions and I understand why we're There's an additional meeting to talk about it. And one more, Mr. Rodriguez. And so, the um Oh. Go ahead. I'll >> [clears throat] >> come back to me. So, I get um that this is all, you know, estimates and so it might be 121, it might be 100. Like we don't know what's going to happen in the future. Um I am going to vote yes cuz I believe that our community should be the ones to decide, you know, our
036our citizens who are having to pay the extra should decide. So, my question is, you said there was 58 counties in Illinois that have passed this. How many passed it in the first round, like the first referendum? And um second question, have you had any studies to see, you know, throughout Lake County what the feeling is or any kind of surveys to kind of get a general idea of how many people would be willing to pass something like this? Thank you. Miss Babcox, I was going to ask you. I can answer the the first question about I mean, I have an actual map here that I could I didn't go through and add it and add it up, but I'd say, I don't know, at least a half of them seem to have asked more
037than once before it passed. And we also have had a fair amount of counties that have asked multiple times and it and it hasn't passed. Um it's It's been considered in I think about 70 counties over 102. Um And then the second question was about uh referendum >> Yeah, have you had Have you done any kind of surveys or studies to see what the average Lake County citizen feels about this tax and adding it? Outside my area, I mean, I I'm I'm your bond lawyer and I'm familiar with the statute and can answer questions about that, but I am not a referendum consultant. And Well, I can answer a little bit of that. I mean, what's important for each school district, because this is a county facility sales tax for schools only. Each school district
038has to describe to their community what they're going to do for with that sales tax. So, it's There's hard to have a general answer. But the way um I I think where we get the most favorable uh reaction from voters on this sales tax referendum is when a school district makes it very clear, we're going to use this sales tax to, for example, address our health, life, safety needs, address our 122 million capital plan. You know, there's specific things in there that you if you're planning to do that, you should talk about. Um so, the more specific and the benefit uh whether it's abating property taxes or on debt service uh or doing a new project like the fields. You need to be specific about that. So, the voters know, if this passes, this is
039what we can expect from School District 60. Um if it passes and we get that amount, right? Cuz we Right. It's going to be Yeah. I mean, it's a it's a good estimate, right? But It's going to be plus or minus. We can't say for sure that's what we're going to get. Yeah. And I thought of another thing regarding the question regarding answer regarding enrollment, which is yes, the district's enrollment can and will change each year, but your percentage is also based on how enrollment changes in all the other districts. >> Right. And they're all dropping, too. It's a It's a moving target is Yeah. And I also if I can go back to a a or remember Lansing, I I think I know what your question was, which was the concern about sort of
040a double dip of Yes. We're we're issuing bonds to now payable from a property tax and we we don't make the abatement one year because we decided we want to use the school facility sales tax for something else. And so, now our residents are paying sales tax plus we have the And the And the way you can do that, and the district has a history of this, you can issue an obligation where you promise, you make a covenant that you'll use the revenue source to pay debt service. I don't remember when we did that for you, but we Okay, 2017 you have you've issued some alternate bonds where there's a backup tax levy which gives the investor comfort that this is a very strong obligation, but there's a covenant that you actually won't extend those
041taxes. And so it's it's not possible without violating covenants for for those taxes to get extended to to pay the bond. And so that would I guess my clarification on that was more so if you go for abatement is it 100% guaranteed? At the time if if we were to go with the other approach of we have some general obligation bonds they're payable from a tax levy. At the time you make that abatement the the covenant with the bondholders is you have to have dollars in hand. Okay. So you can't make an abatement now and saying before my debt service payment at the end of the year Mhm. we'll have enough money to make the payment. The bondholders are always secured by a tax levy or dollars in hand. And so if the sales tax
042was if we had expected $14 million, but it was less than that you wouldn't at the time you make the real answer to this is going to be the first year that you give some property tax relief might be a little bit later because you have to wait for some of the money to come in till you have it in hand at the time you make the abatement. Okay. Okay. Mr. Chairman. Yeah, I remember in terms of Lake County because that's what we're talking about, right? Um I don't know if you all are um if you all know the answer to this, but um how optimistic are you that this that the referendum will pass in Lake County? What I just asked. How's not touching this one? Yeah, that's what I asked. You know, I
043think it's probably too soon to say. Um a lot of school districts in the county are considering the same resolution you are uh April, May, and June to get it on the ballot, but once they say yes, we want it on the ballot, they know they have to tell their community what it means to them. What does it mean to them dollar and cents? So to the extent they do that the referendum will have a better chance of passing. Will it pass first time? I just don't know. So I I'm cautiously optimistic. Mr. Riddle. Okay. I have like three or four questions. Um one the first one is how many you just mentioned how many count how many school districts in Waukegan are currently considering this? Have you spoken to all of them? How many
044how many school districts and we're the largest um with is you know population wise and how many children um are needed? I mean we if we were we're to go first is there a reason for us to pass this motion here this resolution? Correct? Right. >> Because was it 50% of the kids are needed in order to get this on the ballot? Okay, that's that's the answer for that question. Well, the answer is so far and we're sitting here in April two school districts have approved the resolution. Um I as I mentioned there's a lot of them considering the resolution and making their decision in the next couple months, so we'll know then. Okay. My second question is what uh uh school districts um or counties in Illinois you you mentioned 50 some have approved
045this. Are there any urban districts like ours is like Rockford, you know, is this similar district is that county approved it? What school districts what counties that have maybe a lower income populations? Of course Lake County's actually a very wealthy county, but what school districts have are using this currently because I had queried it looked like mostly farm districts. Yeah, so so probably the best examples would be Peoria um McLean County Okay. That's good. Bloomington. Yeah. I hear Rock Island. Okay. Okay. And what was the last one? Champaign. That was the second county that had Okay. And then what would you see as an incentive? I mean certainly our district this would be one of the few ways the only way I see that that we would get money from the entire county being you
046know, because normally it's property taxes that provide you know, most of the revenue for school districts. Um a lower income district like ours a lot of our people shop in other areas go out to Gurnee, we go out to Libertyville, Vernon Hills and none of that tax revenue comes back to us. Um so this is this would be great. It seems to me it'd be very equitable. Um but what would be the incentive for some of the folks living in Libertyville or Lake Forest or Lake Bluff or Gurnee even? Why would they what's the selling point for them to use this? I mean certainly they can use this for their schools, but a lot of them already have you know, pretty nice buildings. So what's the incentive that you would use or other people that
047when they when you promote this what's the incentive for them to vote in favor of it? I'll take a stab at that. I mean honestly all the all the school districts could use this. They're all facing health life safety needs. In fact, the Lake County did a survey to see what the current health life safety needs are of school districts. They're all even though they might be wealthier communities, they have older school buildings all that need this kind of help. So they're all getting funds and the incentive for them is the same as it is for you guys to help reduce their property tax burden and address their capital projects at the same time. And it's shared equally because however many children they get their kids are getting just as much as our kids are
048getting. My other my final question is um Waukegan seems to have just a little bit higher you know, because the city has a 1 and 1/2% uh sales tax which they added. Now they have a casino and they're getting the tax revenue for that. Do you think it might be possible and I guess we'd have to talk to the mayor and the city council, but for them to since we're the school district our school district is not getting any of that revenue might they consider dropping 1% of their sales tax and just having a half a percent instead of 1 and 1/2 >> [snorts] >> and it would be kind of a wash out for Waukegan people because then we wouldn't see the taxes go up at all. We wouldn't impose So is that a
049Have you heard of anybody ever doing that? Is it a possibility they got a new revenue source and they thought yes, hey our school really need that money. Yeah, there I mean there are some home rule municipalities in the state that um that when approached with this option have have at least contemplated approving a sales tax their own school sales tax in an effort to not share the revenue with with other communities in the in the county especially if they believe that they are the retail center. So maybe this is more of an answer to your first question which is you know, Waukegan retail sales are also going to be going to build schools or improvements in Libertyville and trying to figure out you know exactly how the dollars move is there's a lot of
050variables on that. As you mentioned some Waukegan residents pay property taxes here, but they might have made an expenditure outside the city and so they're not paying the the the the the um the city's home rule sales tax, whereas maybe somebody else that lives next door did pay it in there. So it's really hard to track that, but yes, there is some flexibility that exists with uh a home rule municipality, but I would tell you that the what the city will say is that they don't have you know, they don't have EBF and they don't have your Mhm. you know and they are home rule, but they also don't have your property tax. Right. I see it as an incentive for Waukegan folks to shop continue to shop. I mean many of them go to
051to Gurnee or [snorts] or you know, shop at at the big stores the big box stores. Um Wisconsin we're not going to get any, but I mean it would be an incentive if if you were shopping in Wisconsin wait a second, let's go to Costco. I I mean let's get Costco, let's go to Sam's or somewhere else you know, shop because now the taxes are some of those tax dollars are coming back to our Waukegan kids. So yes, that's that's kind of my question. Um I think it's going to be a good sell. I think we have to you know, provide it, but it certainly seems to me like a very equitable way to fund schools and like you said all schools are are in you know down the road they're not going to be
052getting a lot of money right now and this is a way to equitably educate children and it's we all buy the stuff we want anyway, so this is a tax that that we would pay to and it wouldn't be so onerous as far as you know, our real estate. We hate to see our tax on real estate go up. So I like the tax and I will vote for it. I mean I don't like tax in general, but I will vote for this one because it seems like an equitable way to do it and as Ms. Fabian said we're all eventually letting the taxpayer decide. It's not going to go in into effect unless the taxpayer decides. Thank you. Mr. McBride. Uh I guess I guess about an hour and a half a lot to
053say just like Ms. Fabian said because there's a need in the district. Uh I'm just not concerned, but I am trying I hope that uh trying to get across the finish line. That's the main that's the main thing. And I think that when I think about uh anything you're trying to get across and even myself trying to be a board member you have to network. And I'm sure that uh municipalities like park district uh are mayor's office, township, they're all going to have to become a part of this because they all it's going to gain from this one way or the other. And I like it uh what you had on your screen when you're talking about the 300 versus 80. I see the benefit for the taxpayer. And uh that money does come in
054um Ms. Polk and Brian don't have to come up to the podium like they're doing start talking about taking money from the taxpayer the taxpayers. Right. So uh once again without having to say a lot yeah you you got my uh blessings on this one. Yeah. I think I think what underlies that that comment is the fact that if if you were a community that um like a small rural community where the exact same real um sales tax base was the same as the property tax base, this would just be a question of which sales taxes we like better, which one's less regressive. And I think the property tax generally is a less regressive tax. But there's been some evidence that's been provided to you or studies that suggest to you that there are some
055sales taxes that are being paid by people that don't live in District 60 that would be helping to build District 60 facilities. And that 8% you keep talking about, is it 8% on the dollar? Can I I think Ms. Prisco wanted to say something. Do you have a microphone for her? Thanks, Steve. So as a resident, I think it would be important for the ones that have approved this, what did they do to um educate the community to get them to agree to this? Because what you're saying, I mean you really have to understand the benefit of it, right? I mean it from what I heard and I was listening to it, I understand now. So I appreciate that. But for this community, you really have to educate them on signing up for this. So
056for the ones who have signed up for it, the communities, how did they educate the community in order to get this to pass? So August 17th is the deadline to put the question on the ballot. So assuming it gets on the ballot and you know you're going to have uh a vote on November 3rd, what the district needs to do is have public meetings, town halls, videos, information on your website. What does this mean to me? What are we going to get for this? How much is it going to cost me? And we can help you uh and Ms. Polk and Brian also with helping uh to bring all that to life for the district. Thank you. Ms. Lenzing. And then Ms. Hannah. Um I just want to clarify when it comes to the business
057owners, right? Because they have to purchase things to put into their store to then sell. So are from what you were saying, it sounds like they're not going to have this 1% implied when they make purchases to fill their inventory. They should seek clarification from Department of Revenue, but it's a it's a retail sale. So a sale that's not a retail >> Beautiful. Just want to make sure. And then the other piece that I had is um Mr. Riddell, when you talk about incentive for me, I wish more taxes were of this structure because it I think we get so siloed in thinking we need to take care of just Waukegan. We need to take care of just Winnetka. Just Glencoe. All of these individual communities. And the piece is these kids don't stay in
058Waukegan to work all the time. They are going to be employees in many other Lake County cities. [clears throat] So if you want qualified employees, you need to educate properly and provide proper facilities for students to be able to learn for every student in our county. So for me, that's the incentive. Every kid should have access to a quality education. We have been redlined. We have faced systemic racism that has put us in the position that we're at. And we are trying to climb out of a big hole that these other communities historically have built for us. So the incentive is your workforce. You are getting an educated workforce. For the networking, I completely agree with Mr. McBride. I think we will also need to connect with the other school boards. And as a representative
059of Waukegan, possibly attend their meetings to say, "Hey, you might have concerns that roughly 14 million of these dollars are coming into Waukegan, but let's remind you again why that's beneficial for you." Right. So that they don't go the route of well we'll just do it ourselves and cut people out. How many school districts are there in Waukegan? Is it just three? Waukegan District 60 or Lake County? Because we're Waukegan. Waukegan, District 60, Woodland, Warren. Our residents could possibly go to Zion, Beach Park. >> No, I'm talking about >> No, the city. So he's talking so Waukegan Township, which is different than the city of Waukegan. >> about Waukegan city limits. >> only one school district for Waukegan Township. What Mr. Rodriguez is saying for the entire city of Waukegan, we have students that live
060in the city of Waukegan. However, They go to Zion. >> their school districts are different townships. Right. So yeah, some of them do go to yes. >> For example, Fountain Square is not in Waukegan District 60. It's in Woodland School District and Warren School District. Right. Yeah, so he's asking do we know how many school districts are within the city of >> think there are only three in Waukegan. Right. Is that correct? Does anybody know? Is there more than Yeah, cuz we go to Zion, we go to Beach Park. Beach Park, yeah. Yeah. Really? Yes. Yes. Yeah. That's why we had a mayor that lived in a lived in Waukegan in a different township. That's also you know you go out there where Woodland and Warren. Warren, Woodland, yeah. Yeah, Woodland Warren, yeah. Yep. Yeah.
061I I think Ms. Ms. Lenzing hit it right on the head though. This is a this is for everybody. And this is this is one opportunity for people who purchase things. And then like you said, almost half the population that's going to contribute to this don't even live in Lake County, which is terrific as well. What other tax can you get that is going to help all of our kids and half of it is going to be paid by folks that don't even live in Lake County. That's cool. And then the other thing I think I like what Ms. Lenzing said is the fact that this is the one opportunity for everybody to help all kids in Lake County. All kids. And there's a there's a real reason for that. And it's and it's a
062less onerous kind of tax, really. It's you don't have to buy that if you don't want. It's a retail tax, you know, it's make your own if you want, but you know, it's so it's a really it's a retail tax instead of a where you live. Everybody's got to live someplace. Pay your real estate tax. This retail. Ms. Hannah. Um Last question. Um and you heard um Mr. Rodriguez say that Fountain Square pay. It's not in the Waukegan District 60 boundaries, right? Right. But it is in um Waukegan. Yes. Right? Look at the casino, right? And now they they sell alcohol. They sell prepared foods at the casino, right? Because this is county wide. Now we don't get any revenue from the casino. Now >> [clears throat] >> will we will that be included >>
063Yes. in this sales tax uh process? Indeed it will. And it doesn't matter that we're not in the boundaries. >> Right. Right. Just like all of Lake County, all that sales tax goes into a big pot. And the ROE takes that pot and splits it up proportionally based on enrollment. So in that casino sales tax where they're selling alcohol and to go food and restaurant food, they will definitely pay this 1% sales tax. And some of it will come back to you. 11.7% of it. At least we're getting something from the casino. So even Great America, you know, you go to Great America, our kids go to Great America, we all go to Great America and have fun, but we don't we don't get any of that tax dollar. Now we would start getting some
064of that tax dollar. Yeah, I like that. I like that. Anybody else? Anybody out there? All right, well thank you very much. >> Yes. Thank you. Nice information. [clears throat] Thank you much. Thank you, Lisbeth. Mr. Hardy. Thank you. We're going to be put to work. At this point and we board president can we get that presentation and it can it be sent to all of us? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, we get that. Great. Great. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. Information there. Thank you. Took notes but I did they not have anything else before we go into close session. Okay, just so that everybody knows we will be going into close session for discussions on personal matters and we will just go into open session briefly just to adjourn. Okay, so there will
065be no further discussion in open session and no action taken. I like to ask for motion to move to close session. So moved to discuss matters that fall under the he's anxious. We're ready. I'm ready. >> [laughter] >> I'm ready. Go ahead [clears throat] board president. Discuss matters that fall under the following category that is an exception to the Illinois Open Meetings Act. Exception C1 specific personnel appointment, employment, compensation, performance, and dismissals. Motion by Mr. Riddell. >> So moved, yeah. Second. Seconded by Ms. Lenzing. Can we have a roll call vote, please? Ms. Fabian. >> Yes. >> Ms. Hanna. Yes. >> Ms. Lenzing. Yes. Mr. McBride. Yes. Ms. Ramirez. Yes. Mr. Riddell. Yes. President Rodriguez. [snorts] >> Yes, motion carries. We are now in close session. Thanks everybody. 6:59 Thank you. Those are good comments,
066too. Nice to see [music] you, Ms. Briscoe. Thank you. >> [music] [music]