Montgomery County superintendents consider sales-tax hike

Superintendents in Nokomis Community School District 22 are gearing up to push for a county-wide sales-tax hike.

Nokomis Community School District 22 Superintendent Scott Doerr recently announced that all four school superintendents in Montgomery County are set for a push to hike the county’s sales-tax rate in an April referendum. Montgomery County borders Sangamon County and is due south of Springfield in central Illinois.

The sales-tax announcement came at the same public meeting where Doerr announced a 5 percent property-tax increase for the 2014 levy to be collected in 2015. Currently, the county-level sales tax rate in Montgomery County is 0.25 percent. The County School Facility Tax, or CSFT, could raise the county sales-tax rate to 1.25 percent, a 400 percent increase.

When it comes to property and sales taxes, Illinois residents already pay their fair share. Illinois has the 10th-highest average sales-tax rate and the second-highest average property-tax rates in the nation.

Notably, Montgomery County residents defeated the same proposal in 2010, when 62 percent of voters rejected the sales-tax hike.

In order for the measure to be placed on the ballot for the consolidated elections on April 7, school districts representing more than 50 percent of the county’s student population must pass resolutions by Jan. 20, 2015, and the county clerk needs to certify the measure by Jan. 29, 2015.

The following school districts are located in Montgomery County, Illinois:

Nokomis Community School District 22

Litchfield Community Unit School District 12

Panhandle Community Unit School District 2

Hillsboro Community Unit School District 3