The Southwestern Illinois College Board of Trustees is proposing an 11.05% increase to its property tax levy for taxes payable next year, with the largest share dedicated to paying bonds to fund campus improvements.
On Wednesday, the board approved a $43.36 million in property tax levy for tax year 2025 to help meet its estimated budgetary needs for the 2027-28 school year — a nearly $4.3 million increase over the $39,042,742 the previous year.
The proposed levy will be submitted to counties within the district for approval and may be adjusted. Tax bills are typically sent out in the spring, with payments due in July and September.
Despite the higher levy, SWIC projects its tax rate will be similar to the previous year, provided its estimated Equalized Assessed Valuation, or EAV—the total taxable value of properties in its district—is accurate.
SWIC Chief Financial Officer Jacob Wheeler said the district expects EAV to increase 8% from the previous year. According to documents provided by Wheeler, SWIC expects the tax rate to be 0.3856. This is on par with the 0.3850 rate Wheeler provided for tax year 2024.
SWIC’s taxing district includes all or parts of eight counties. Wheeler said the tax rate for each county may vary slightly.
The owner of a home with a market value of $200,000 would pay approximately $258.35 in property taxes to SWIC. That amount may differ for property owners who live in a tax increment financing, or TIF, district.
“We take pride in providing a quality education … (and) we do that while making sure we’re not overextending the taxpayer,” said Robert Tebbe, SWIC’s chief enrollment development and institutional planning officer.
In recent years, SWIC’s levy increases have been closer to 4%
The larger-than-normal increase is due to two bond issuances totaling roughly $62 million that the board approved this summer, Wheeler said. The proceeds primarily will fund a shooting facility for the college’s Police Academy in Belleville and a new building on the Red Bud campus that will house Perandoe and the Career Center of Southern Illinois.
The 2025 levy will also help repay $18.5 million in working cash bonds that the district issued in December 2023, Wheeler said. One of the most significant projects from that bond sale is a new 7,800-square-foot Career and Technical Education building on the Red Bud campus. Construction began in June, and the building — which will house welding, industrial electricity programming, and forklift training — is set to open in spring 2026.
Editor's note: This story was originally published by the Belleville News-Democrat. Madison Lammert is a reporter for the BND, a news partner of St. Louis Public Radio.
