The Knoxville School Board approved the tentative amended budget at their teleconference meeting Monday night.
Superintendent Steve Wilder told board members that there were some changes to revenue due to the stay-at-home order from Governor J.B. Pritzker that was in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Wilder told board members that school districts usually get early tax money in May and June that account for more than half of property tax revenue but this year, with the change in payment due dates, he was told to expect much less.
“I’m not going to lie to you, I still have my doubts about that,” Wilder said in the meeting. “One of the reasons I was doubtful was because for the last couple of weeks tax bills hadn’t gone out but after confirming that today I feel a little bit better about that, especially because I know some people will escrow those taxes so we will get some of that money; and I’m kind of going off of the best guesses right now in estimating that we’re going to get half of that 55 percent.”
The other half of District 202’s revenue is evidence-based funding. Wilder shared that from what he’s heard, EBF money will come in on time this year but next year is up in the air.
“I’ve heard all stories. From state revenue being down 20-40 percent. Estimates coming in pretty consistently that the state will be short about 6-7 billion dollars, 7.2 billion was the last number I heard. Really a lot of uncertainty about how the state is going to make that up.”
Wilder said that the state budget for next year is a big issue that lawmakers are working on during their shortened legislative session.
The budget is on display for 30 days and will be approved again next month.
