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Thursday, July 31, 2014
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D-428 could face steep tax hikes Payments on bonds used for new schools will increase starting in 2018 By KATIE DAHLSTROM kdahlstrom@shawmedia.com DeKALB – The average homeowner in District 428 could see their annual property tax bill spike by $600 by 2021 unless leaders change plans for paying off school construction bonds or property values skyrocket. Although the owner of a home worth $200,000 in 2008 has paid about $330 in prop-
erty taxes annually toward repaying the bonds, those payments will jump to $550 in 2018 and reach $944 by 2021, according to a report from financial consultants at William Blair and Company. That assumes property values make modest increases and the district does not refinance or pay down its debt using some of what’s left of a $21 million grant. “We don’t have a plan determined yet how to address
this, but we are working on it,” School Board President Tracy Williams said. This potential increase is caused by a drop in property values within the school district and the way the district leaders structured the payments on $108 million in bonds they issued after a voter-approved school-building referendum in 2008. The district borrowed the money to pay for a new DeKalb
High School, Cortland Elementary School and other building improvements in four installments from 2008 to 2011. District officials structured the debt so payments would be flat for the first nine years and increase in the last 11 years. At the time, area property values were expected to grow between 5 and 7 percent annually. In 2007, the average annual property value growth based on the last decade was over 7
By the numbers The average owner of a home worth $200,000 in 2008: n Paid about $330 in property taxes for District 428’s debt service in since 2011 and will until 2017 n Owns a home that now has a market value of $147,000 n Will pay $550 in property taxes for the district’s construction bonds in calendar year 2018
percent. Since then, the housing market collapse has caused property values across DeKalb County to spiral down. In the past five years, the value of property throughout District 428 has dropped by an average of 5 percent a year. Andrea Gorla, the district’s assistant superintendent of business and finance, said the easiest fix would be for new
Source: 2014 report from William Blair and Company
See TAX HIKE, page A6
911 dispatch costs weighed
Deadly strikes hit U.N. school, market area Israeli artillery shells claim at least 116 By KARIN LAUB and TIA GOLDENBERG The Associated Press
Officials in smaller communities, such as Waterman and Hinckley, are unhappy with the proposed budget. At a county law and justice committee meeting on July 21, they said they cannot afford the future increases, and are considering looking elsewhere for services, such as a private company. “It’s not something we can do,” Waterman Police Chief Chuck Breese said. “Small towns can’t afford what they’re doing. We’re trying to find the best option for the village of Waterman and we’re not going to limit our options.” To split costs evenly, each department’s share would be determined by its number of calls for service to the communication center. In 2013, Waterman was billed $16,719 for dispatch services, records show. The budget calls for
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – Israeli artillery shells tore through the walls of a U.N. school crowded with sleeping war refugees and back-to-back explosions rocked a market filled with shoppers Wednesday as Israel’s stepped-up campaign against Gaza’s Hamas rulers claimed at least 116 Palestinian lives. After the strikes near the shopping area in Gaza City, bodies lay scattered in the streets as the wounded screamed for help. “Where is the ambulance?” one man moaned as he lay on the bloodsoaked ground. Some 3,300 Gazans seeking refuge from the fighting had been crammed into the U.N. school at the Jebaliya refugee camp when a series of Israeli artillery shells hit before daybreak, turning a classroom where families had been sleeping into a tragic scene of bloodied clothing, bedding and debris. Assad Sabah said he and his five children were huddled under desks because of the constant sound of tank fire throughout the night when suddenly mayhem struck. “We were scared to death,” he said. “After 4:30 a.m., tanks started firing more. Three explosions shook the school. One classroom collapsed over the head of the people who were inside.” Palestinian health officials said at least 17 people were killed and 90 wounded in the school attack – the latest in a series of strikes the United Nations says has hit U.N. facilities that are supposed to be safe zones in the 23-day-old war. “Where will we go next?” wailed 56-year-old Aishe Abu Darabeh, sitting dazed outside a classroom after the shelling. “We fled and they are following us.” Israel’s military said no U.N. facility had been intentionally targeted during Wednesday’s operation, but troops had responded to Hamas mortar fire directed at Israeli soldiers near the school. However, the chief of the U.N. aid agency for Palestinian refugees expressed “anger and indignation” at Israeli forces firing toward a U.N. facility even after being told 17 times, including just hours before the shelling attack, that it was filled with civilians. “Enough is enough,” Pierre Kraehenbuehl told The Associated Press, noting that six U.N. schools have been hit since the fighting began. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
See 911, page A6
See GAZA, page A6
Photos by Danielle Guerra – dguerra@shawmedia.com
DeKalb County Sheriff’s Deputy Rebecca Taft fields a dispatch call Thursday in the communication center of the county’s public safety building in Sycamore. On average, about five dispatchers man the center during a given shift, fielding 75-100 calls during a 24-hour period. The DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office currently provides dispatch service for nine police and 12 fire agencies around the county.
Price for county-provided service may increase for area’s small towns By JESSI HAISH
Voice your opinion
jhaish@shawmedia.com SYCAMORE – Larger police departments that rely on the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office for police dispatching have been subsidizing smaller ones for years, and say they want contributions to be more equitable. The Sycamore Police Department and DeKalb County Communication Center commissioned a study last year into the center’s operation and cost. The study showed that Sycamore and Genoa were paying a greater percentage of the costs than the call volume for which they were responsible. For example, in 2013 Sycamore contributed $610,500, but should have paid $599,330, if calculated by the number of police events handled, as the future budget plan aims to do. “We’re paying too much for a piece of the pie,” Sycamore Police Chief Don Thomas said. While larger departments want what they consider a more equitable split, some of those smaller departments say if the cost of using dispatch service goes up, they’ll have to look elsewhere for service.
How many times have you dialed 911 in the past two years? Vote online at Daily-Chronicle.com.
DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office trainee Noelle Wold asks DeKalb County Sheriff’s Deputy Kim Stiles a question after she dispatched an officer from the communication center. New dispatchers go through a 16-week training period focusing on monitored on-the-job training. The county provided dispatch services to the smaller communities for free until 2003, when it began charging them. However, call volumes and communities have grown since, and DeKalb County Sheriff Roger Scott says it’s time for the smaller departments to take on more of the cost themselves.
In response to the study, the sheriff’s office and county administrator Gary Hanson devised a seven-year plan to increase rates on the smaller communities’ county police services, with the amount due each year through 2020 rising by 5 percent each year to cover an estimated rise in the cost of living.
Inside today’s Daily Chronicle Lottery Local news Obituaries
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National and world news Opinions Sports
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