From RVC President, Dr. Howard J. Spearman:

Recently, the Rockford Mayor challenged the Winnebago County taxing bodies to keep our property tax levy flat or reduce it. Rock Valley College (RVC) has maintained a flat levy over the last five years and found additional ways to reduce taxes in the future; therefore, we do not accept the challenge.

RVC has been fiscally responsible with taxpayer dollars. In 1965, the vision for funding community colleges was an equal division of 33% state, 33% local, and 33% student. Most recently, RVC has reduced its dependence on local property taxes by 6%, from 34.6% in fiscal year 2016 to 28.6% in 2021.

Based on the Winnebago County Certificate Rate by Levy Year (LY), from 2017 to 2021, RVC’s levy rate has declined by 9.7962%. Although we maintained our levy rate, we received a larger dollar amount due to the EAV increase, not because RVC requested a larger percentage.

We are proud to report that in March 2022, we refinanced $48 million in bonds, reducing the final maturity of those bonds by six years, saving the taxpayers approximately $7.7 million in future interest.

Based on the Real Estate Tax Rates for a Rockford residence, RVC accounts for less than 4% of the taxes. We are RVCProud that we make a big impact in our college district without making a major impact on your taxes.

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