What Is a Sales Tax for School Facilities?

Background: Recognizing the need for Illinois schools to remain competitive and to reduce the burden of school facility funding on real property owners, Illinois legislators passed the Illinois County School Facility Tax Act (CSFT) in 2007. The intent of the law is to provide both a new source of funding for public schools, and an alternative source of funding to traditional property tax revenues. The CSFT provides for a retail sales tax of up to 1% on “non-essential” goods sold in the county for funding school facility needs. Similar laws have been enacted with success in many other states, including in Iowa, where the option was passed by every county. To date, the county school facility sales tax has been approved in 51 Illinois counties and will be on the ballot in three more counties in November 2018.

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