Chambana Sun

Martin Hickman, business manager for McLean County Unit District 5, is painting a dire picture to anyone who will listen.

“We’re counting on.. payments from the State of Illinois,” he recently told WMBD-TV, the CBS affiliate covering Bloomington-Normal and Peoria. “There’s a lot of uncertainty.”

He told Lee Enterprises that the state owes his district $5 million, and if he doesn’t get it soon, he’ll just have to borrow the money.

“We’re going to have to ask for a much bigger loan,” Hickman said.

Neither Hickman, whose total 2014-15 compensation was $135,956 before counting a taxpayer-funded pension contribution worth tens of thousands more, nor school superintendent Mark Daniel (base salary: $190,000) have mentioned how the district might cut spending to make ends meet.

That’s even though a Chambana Sun analysis shows the district spent a record amount $145 million in 2015, and has continued to increase its spending as local home values have plummeted.

Over the past decade, the analysis shows home values in Bloomington-Normal have fallen by 18 percent. But District 5 has actually increased its burden on local property taxpayers by 21 percent.

It isn’t for lack of alternative funding. State and federal subsidies to the district have increased even more over the past decade-- 26 percent.

A 2016 analysis of property taxes in Illinois ranked McLean County as having the 14th highest effective tax rate-- 2.23 percent-- of all 102 Illinois counties.

This means a homeowner who paid $150,000 for a Twin Cities home in 2005 paid $33,450 in property taxes over ten years ($3,345 per year). Currently, the same home would be worth 18 percent less, or $123,000.

School District spending typically makes up 80 percent of a homeowner’s property tax bill.

McLean County Unit District 5

Total Spending

McLean County Unit District 5 spent 22 percent more in 2015 than in 2005, in real (inflation-adjusted) dollars.

2015: $145,340,467 + 22 percent

2005: $118,840,189 (inflation-adjusted)

Property Tax Revenue Raised

McLean County Unit District 5 raised 21 percent more in 2015 than in 2005 from Normal property taxpayers, in inflation-adjusted dollars.

2015: $113,180,329  + 21 percent

2005: $93,307,310

EAV and property values in district

According to McLean County Government, home values in Unit District 5 rose 18 percent from 2005-2015. But actual home values over the same period fell by 21 percent.

2015: $2,056,052,269 + 18 percent

2005: $1,732,981,124

2015: $159,000 - 21 percent

2005: $201,844

Sources: Zillow and Bloomington-Normal Association of Realtors

State and Federal Subsidies

McLean County Unit District 5 received 26 percent more money in subsidies in 2015 than in 2005 from state and federal taxpayers.

2015: $32,160,138 + 26%

2005: $25,532,879