Questions I would ask:

1. Although pension benefits may not be impaired, Illinois law does not seem to guarantee that public employees are indemnified for taxes and penalties to supply those benefits.

Examples: the penalties paid by taxpayers to supply extraordinary (beyond statutory limit) pay hikes in final years of employment in order to spike pension entitlement, and the upcoming federal ACA excise taxes which will be due on extraordinary health care benefits.

Question: why would public employees not be taxed by the State or appropriate taxing body for reimbursement of taxes and penalties paid on behalf of these public employees?

2. Woodstock Unit School District 200 has amassed debt far in excess of statutory debt cap (13.8% of EAV, in other words 4.6% of total home value).

Beyond the stated debt, which is calculated on Principal only, there is enormous accrued unpaid interest.

There seems to be great incentive to defer interest payments in order to get principal debt back below cap, and then borrow more.

Question: why isn’t accrued unpaid interest ( that is, interest which is already owed and thus already a debt by law) considered in the calculation of available borrowing ability relative to statutory debt maximum 13.8%?

3. Tifs divert property tax money .Property taxes in Woodstock are 4.6% of total home value (13.9% / 3).

Tifs are not restricted to “providing infrastructure” for development projects and seem to now be created as profit centers for municipal managers and the developers who obtain their favor.

There seems to be no penalty for non- compliance with State tif reporting requirements.

Lakewood tif example: will dump all schoolchildren created by new tif housing units into a completely different school district than Lakewood citizens attend and fund with tax dollars, and it is on farmland and a golf course. 1999 tif ‘reform’ prohibits tif on a golf course.

Question: why is the State so reluctant to strictly regulate and monitor tifs in order to protect property taxpayers?