Evanston school districts will receive a gift from the city this year — in the amount of more than $200,000 each.
Evanston City Council members voted last Monday night to extend the tax increment financing revenue sharing program started two years ago. The unanimous vote by City Council allocates a share of the revenues with Evanston School District 202 and Evanston/Skokie School District 65. The revenue is from the city’s Southwest TIF district, which includes the Howard Street/McCormick Avenue shopping center, which includes Best Buy, Target and Jewel-Osco.
District 65 Superintendent Hardy Ray Murphy said negotiations between the city and the school districts to institute the program began years ago. This will be the third year of the TIF-sharing program.
“It was something we all thought would be mutually beneficial for the schools and the city,” Murphy said. “The city graciously allowed us to share their revenue with them.”
Ald. Steven Bernstein (4th) said exact revenue figures are not available yet, though the two school districts could share as much as $600,000.
“That’s the most (the districts) thought they could get out of it,” Bernstein said. “If it’s more (than $600,000), they’ll try to get more.”
Murphy said his district would receive 60 percent of any allocated money and D202 would receive the remaining 40 percent. Under this plan, if the TIF district produced $600,000 in shared revenue, D65 would see $360,000 and D202 would get $240,000.
The stipulations of the revenue-sharing program require the districts to spend the money on career counseling and technology programs, Bernstein said. Some aldermen were apprehensive the council had little time to analyze the past benefits of the program.
Ald. Lionel Jean-Baptiste (2nd) had requested to hold the vote for two weeks to get more information, but he said he was in favor of the program.
Ald. Gene Feldman (9th) said the schools should be praised for putting the money from the program toward ends that have been established by the city.
Over the past two years, Murphy said, the money in D65 has been necessary for aspects of the curriculum that have been ignored by other grant programs such as industrial arts courses.
“These courses are an integrated part of our curriculum,” Murphy said. “So (the money) has been very helpful for us.”
Bernstein said revenue sharing represents another benefit of the TIF program, despite early protest from area residents.
“TIFs have worked in this town,” Bernstein said. “Obviously there was some consternation because people (in the Howard Street/McCormick Avenue area) didn’t want this big shopping center next door. … But when the city decided to convert the program to a TIF district, they cleaned up the land.”
Bernstein said although the Southwest TIF district had been in place for a number of years, the opportunity to share revenue with the school districts only recently developed.
“We hadn’t been able to give the funds before,” Bernstein said. “You don’t want to give them $10, so we just waited for the fund to build up.”
Despite the requirements of the TIF program, Bernstein said it is beneficial for both districts.
“It’s money they don’t have to report,” he said. “Basically it’s like a gift. It’s found money.”
