The proposed budget by administrators which will go on public display August 17th has a hidden tax increase. Neither Superintendent John Burkey nor the board majority is publicly highlighting it.

You can see it hidden on page 39 of 62 on this link. If it doesn’t work anymore, as I have been told, try this one.

$1.6 million of debt is wiped out of this year’s budget and, thus, expenditures by shifting the debt repayment out of the budget and putting it into the bond tax rate. It’s called debt rescheduling.

Burkey’s plan is to have many millions of dollars of bonds and their interest payments shifted from within a tax capped limited fund to the bond tax rate, which has no tax cap limitation.

When you increase the tax burden on residents, however, you are increasing taxes on residents.

Huntley avoided going to referendum or a public vote to expand Marlowe Middle school.

It did it by pledging to pay for the school expansion out of normal annual tax cap limited funds.

With impact fees down, Burkey and Comptroller Mark Altmayer’s idea is to transfer paying for the expansion onto taxpayers in the form of a taxes hike.

Fiscal responsibility, Huntley School District style.

The more money and interest that has to be paid from the bond tax rate levy on taxpayers’ property tax bills, the more taxes will be paid. Altmayer is a resident of Geneva and not affected by higher District 158 taxes.

The District 158 budget is being balanced on two things;

• The first is on the backs of special ed parents losing federal IDEA funds.
• The second is because of this hidden tax increase.

I attended the July 14th town hall meeting.

The phrase “fiscally responsible” was used again and again by both Burkey and Altmayer.

I thought Board President Shawn Green position was there wouldn’t be tax increases. He described himself as a “conservative” at the July 14th meeting and at the tea party rally in Crystal Lake.