Peoria County could temporarily pick up slack for the state of Illinois after preliminary approval to issue a $1 million line of credit to the Peoria Regional Office of Education to meet payroll.
In an unprecedented move, the County Board’s finance committee approved issuing the credit Thursday, though it still must be approved by the full board on March 11.
Still to be decided is the interest on the balance of the line of credit, though 3 percent was suggested.
The committee acted after hearing from Regional Superintendent Gerald Brookhart.
“My biggest concern is that this will never end,” said committee Chairman Jimmy Dillon. “Your problem has now become our problem.”
Although Peoria’s Regional Office of Education has received vouchers for disbursements, those remain unpaid. Supposedly, the money is there, but the appropriation has not yet been approved.
Delayed payments from the state of Illinois have created a cash flow emergency in the regional office’s Two Rivers Professional Development Center, an intermediate educational service provider.
Staffers for the regional office and Two Rivers are implementing a $12 million virtual school contract with state money.
The virtual school offers 130 courses, from core subjects such as math, English and science to foreign languages, health and business online. It serves about 120 schools across the state, with about 3,000 students in public, private and home-school settings from fifth grade through high school enrolled annually.
“If we don’t get the credit, the program shuts down. We can’t meet payroll,” Brookhart said.
Committee members questioned when the money would be repaid by the state, given the state’s habit of ignoring prompt payments, and they expressed concerns about setting a precedent.
The yet-to-be-approved agreement is due June 30, though if the regional office has not received the money by then, it will be allowed to make reasonable payments to the county until the balance of the loan, plus interest, is paid.
The regional office got approval from a commercial bank for a loan of up to 70 percent of the money vouchered with an interest rate of about 5 percent, Brookhart said. His office has $450,740 available with monthly payroll, bills and expenses and has been holding off on all nonessential payments.
The General Assembly last year approved legislation that increased the amount of money school districts, including the Regional Office of Education, could borrow from their anticipated revenue.
Karen McDonald can be reached at 686-3285 or [email protected].
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