LM summer 2023

CPPRT ... cont’d.

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While schools will likely be taking a hit this upcoming year, how does that compare to funding before the two-year spike? At the end of the day, school districts are still ahead of what they received for the decade prior to this two year spike. For example, if your district received $3 million each of the past two fiscal years, taking away one-third would be $2 million. Before that, the amount was closer to $1 million, in this scenario. That’s still twice as much as you received previously. Can you share recommendations for superintendents on budgeting? I would recommend in the tentative budget, which superintendents are probably working on now, a CPPRT revenue estimate of 25 to 35 percent less than they received in 2023. A real conservative number for your budget for FY 24 would be 33 percent less. The Illinois Department of Revenue is required to come out with CPPRT estimates for all governmental bodies in the state and those numbers are typically published in the first week or two of August. Right now, we’re just kind of reading tea leaves. When we see the Department of Revenue estimates in August, you have an opportunity to make a modification if it’s a significant difference. Also, I’d like to point out that the Illinois Municipal League will release a much more detailed article on the state of CPPRT coming up in the next issue of their magazine. That will be a good resource to look at.

Instead of taking the full $800 million in one year, are you aware of any discussions about a more gradual take back? I would hope they’re exploring the possibility of soften ing the blow on districts. However, I think it would be tough to advocate really strongly for that because we are still expecting to receive twice as much as we have in the prior years. The devil’s always in the details for these types of matters. How does the wild swings in CPPRT funding impact a district’s EBF? CPPRT receipts are a variable that’s included in the EBF formula, so the more CPPRT you receive, the less additional EBF you receive. The opposite is also true. The less you receive in CPPRT, the more EBF funding you receive. I will say, however, that it’s certainly not a dollar-for-dollar exchange. Any final thoughts for superintendents? Like I said before, you’re going to receive less CPPRT in FY 24 than the last two years. Also, those COVID federal grants are being spent out, so you need to pay attention to what the dollars were spent on and think about how you are going to pay for it going forward. As we know, those dollars are not going to be there forever.

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6 LM Summer 2023