McHenry County College Citizen Engagement Process Attracts 31

That’s the number I counted sitting at tables.

21 women and 10 men.

There were about 60 at the first meeting.

I continue to believe that spending $137,750 on this project is unmerited. St. Louis referendum tax hike facilitator UNICOM-ARC is the main beneficiary.

There were only two of us at our front and center table. Naturally, we were encouraged to move to tables where there could be more interaction.

One lady invited us over, saying there were too many college people at her table.

So, the number of non-college people and non-members of the organizing committee there were at the tables had to be pretty slim.

Moderator Steve Weskerna kicked off the meeting. He asked us to pretend we were McHenry County College trustees.

The topic was finances.

Acting CEO Ron Ally, the college’s finance guy this century, gave a power point presentation that I thought unfair at only one point.

He compared a 4.2% increase in property taxes to a 1.1% increase in tuition to 1% increases in enrollment and a whole list of expenses.

You can look at the slide above (click to enlarge any image), which compares

a one penny (per $100 of assessed valuation) increase in property tax rate bringing in $962,305
to
a $1 per hour tuition increase yielding $112,794.

I learned one compares comparables to comparables.

A 1% hike in MCC’s tax rate would yield $230,000.

A 1% hike in tuition would bring in about $101,000.

So, from an “issue framing” point of view, I thought the presentation was slanted toward raising taxes.

More on finances tomorrow.


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