Heartland starts equity tax levy talks, hears from Lincoln campus director
LINCOLN — Heartland Community College is continuing to use the state's equity tax provision to levy additional revenue from property in the district.
In a meeting at the college's Lincoln campus on Tuesday, trustees adopted an equity tax resolution for taxes payable in 2025. Under state law, Heartland can to levy the additional property tax to bring its revenue in line with other community college districts throughout the state, said Noah Lamb, vice president of finance and administration.
The state said Heartland would be allowed an equity tax rate of up to $0.0629 per $100 equalized assessed valuation, bringing the college's combined education, operations and maintenance and equity rates to $0.2879 per $100 EAV, not including other funds with dedicated tax rates, Lamb said. That total tax rate would make Heartland's share of the taxes on a $165,000 house about $158.
The equity tax could provide as much as $3.4 million in additional revenue for the college for the fiscal 2026 budget, but that estimate is based on the current year's equity tax revenue, Lamb said.
"This special tax really allows us to utilize those funds within the general operations and that operating account ... (while) being cognizant that this is really a year-over-year thing," Lamb said. "I also want to keep in mind that the equity tax will not increase the overall tax rate."
An equity tax is adopted annually, and Tuesday vote will be followed by a hearing to allow the public to weigh in on a proposed levy amount, which has not been decided yet.
The board will meet again in November to hear more on what the overall property tax levy will be, and will vote on the proposed levy in December. The public hearing will happen sometime before the December board meeting.
Lincoln campus
The board also heard from the staff at the Lincoln campus about their new and ongoing offerings as well as an update on their current operations.
"I've been working here at the center for a little over 11 years now and certainly I enjoy the work that I do in interacting with the students in our community," said Heartland Community College Lincoln Director Jennifer Kirby.
Overall credit hours have decreased slightly from 2,083 credit hours reported in fall 2023 to 2,071 credited hours in fall 2024 but they are above the 1,959 credit hours reported in fall 2019.
Of those fall 2024 numbers, there are 303 credit hours taken by students at the Lincoln campus location, 396 credit hours taken by students from Lincoln at the main campus in Normal, 836 credit hours taken online and 536 credit hours from other areas like the College NOW program and programs on off-site locations.
Although credit hours did take a small dip, student enrollment in programs at Lincoln has increased from 273 students in 2023 to 283 students in 2024, which is 39 more students from the overall total of 244 students in 2019.
Kirby said the campus continues to engage with the local community through workforce initiatives at Lincoln High School and with other Lincoln-based employers to address the needs in the area.
They have been offering opportunities for students to receive certifications in welding and as certified nursing assistants and are looking toward offering professional development training for area employers.
Kirby said she and others will begin to look at building a five-year strategic plan for the campus focused on expanding programming to lead to more jobs and to partner with more organizations and businesses to expand their work.
"Jennifer's been doing a great job down here," said Heartland Community College President Keith Cornille. "She sort of really scratched the surface of all the great things she's done since being down here and she's always active in the community serving on boards and everything else."
Contact Mateusz Janik at (309) 820-3234. Follow Mateusz on Love Get our local education coverage delivered directly to your inbox.
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