Proposed tax expansion causes concerns
Rural McLean County residents are expressing concerns over a proposed expansion of the taxing authority of Central Illinois Regional Airport in Bloomington-Normal to include all of the county.
Illinois Senate Bill 684 is pending in Springfield and a committee hearing is set for this Wednesday (April 19) at 3 p.m. in the Stratton Building. This amends the Airport Authorities Act and creates the Central Illinois Regional Airport Authority and provides that the new Authority shall assume the rights to all property, assets, and liabilities of any dissolved authority.
Currently, it is primarily Bloomington-Normal residents who pay property taxes to the airport and McLean County Farm Bureau opposes this new effort.
“Most of the rural communities don’t see any of that really direct economic benefit,” MCFB Assistant Manager Anna Ziegler told The Central Illinois Farm Network.
McLean County Farm Bureau feels it is more appropriate for the taxing district to remain as is. Ziegler points out that Airport Authority statistics show 26 percent of traffic comes from Bloomington-Normal, three percent from rural McLean County and 71 percent from outside of the county. MCFB suggests a different type of revenue such as user fees.
“The total equalized assessed value of farm property in McLean County has increased about 67 percent in the past 10 years. That’s just the values farm property owners pay taxes on,” notes Ziegler.
Farmers are paying significantly higher taxes just based on those certified values alone before even considering any tax rate increases for bodies such as school districts, townships and fire protection districts.
“We’ve seen a significant growth in the amount of taxes that farm property owners pay and so that’s part of our opposition is that this additional taxing body is piling on top of those other increases.”
Lexington Mayor Spencer Johansen is chairman of the McLean County Mayor’s Association, which opposes this proposed expansion of the taxing authority for CIRA. The group found out about this over a month ago as it started under a different bill number in Springfield which they were monitoring.
“At the last minute, they switched it as a shell bill so it passed the Senate and that has kind of accelerated our move to try and halt it in the House,” said Johansen.
Johansen claims no one from the Airport Authority has approached the mayors or towns and they even invited them to a meeting.
“We were basically told we should have known about it and we should have read their minutes and attended their meetings but at no time did they approach any of the rural mayors and say this is what we are proposing.”
This has “rubbed the association the wrong way,” according to Johansen. He said this would typically be a referendum where voters decide the outcome and somehow the Airport Authority found a way around it.
It would be a new tax on farmers and small-town residents. For example, the tax base for the village of Carlock is lower than what the Airport Authority is.
“If this passes, the residents of Carlock will be paying more property tax to the Airport Authority than they will the village of Carlock,” explained Johansen.
Johansen believes this would have a different outcome if it would have gone before the voters. He refers to it as a non-transparent process.
“It’s bad where we get to that when one taxing body can impose a new tax on other taxing bodies without the voters having a say.”
“The House is currently reviewing the proposed legislation,” said Jaclyn Driscoll, press spokesperson for Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch, in a statement to The Central Illinois Farm Network.
Welch is listed as the House sponsor of the bill while Senator David Koehler is the Senate sponsor.
Phone calls to the Central Illinois Regional Airport were not immediately returned on Monday and Senator Koehler was unavailable for comment.
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