Still Time to File for Office for Tax Districts Like Schools

Deadline for filing for office for tax districts that can raise your taxes is Monday at 5 PM.

Teacher union-supported candidates have probably already filed. (You can see who has filed for school board here. It takes 50 signatures of registered voters to get on the ballot. Getting twice that many is always my suggestion.)

The following was written by attorney and County Board member Mike Walkup:

FILING FOR THE APRIL CONSOLIDATED ELECTION

Mike Walkup

Mike Walkup

Those of you who have been complaining about local property taxes have an opportunity this week to do something about it.

Local school districts usually comprise about 70% of your property tax bill.

You can file to be on your local school board, and thereby have a direct vote on their budgets and tax levies for the next four years.

Petitions can be filed up to 5 PM Monday, December 19th at the office of the school board.

You can also run for various municipal, park district, library district, Community College, and other boards the same way.

To avoid potential legal challenges, you need to do the following:

(1)    Get the proper petition forms.  These can be printed from the website of the State Board of Elections. www. Elections.il.gov., 2017 Candidates Guide.

(2)    Determine the correct number of signatures you need to get.  For most school boards it is 50.  For other offices it will vary somewhat.  Read the Guide to figure out how to determine that number for your race.

(3)    Determine the political boundaries for your district and solicit votes only from those people living in that district.

(4)    Fill out the top of the forms before you start circulating.  Leave the bottom blank.   Be sure to correctly name the office you are seeking and the date of the election.

(5)    Go door to door in your district, ideally with a list of registered voters sorted by address.  If you don’t have such a list, you will need more signatures.

(6)    Make sure that each voter uses a signature, and does not print their names.  If one person prints their name, others following them tend to do so and you have an entire sheet that is challengeable. Abbreviations for such things as “St., Ave.” are permissible.  Abbreviations for towns and the name of the county may be problematic.  You are allowed to fill that portion out in advance or after the voter signs their name and puts down their street address.

(7)    Get at least double, if not triple, the number of signatures you need, especially if you don’t have a list.

(8)    Fill out the bottom as circulator, take it to a notary, and sign in front of the notary, having the notary affix their signature and stamp and date their notary expires. Be sure they are registered in Illinois, not some other state.

(9)    Go to the County Clerk’s office,  at the county administration building on Ware Road in Woodstock, on Monday morning,  and fill out a Statement of Economic Interests.  They will tear off the bottom which is your receipt.

(10) Get a Statement of Candidacy from the State Election Board’s website.  Do not use the County Clerk’s website as she may have the wrong forms.  Use the Non Partisan election form.

(11) Complete the Statement of Candidacy, making sure the information, including the name of the office sought and the date of the election, correspond with the petition sheets.  If there are terms of different lengths involved in this election be sure to specify which term you are seeking on both the petition sheets and the Statement of Candidacy.  Sign the Statement of Candidacy in front of a notary along with the petition sheets signed by the voters assuming you were the circulator.  If someone else was the circulator they need to do that.   (If you are able to see the person signing the petition, someone else can circulate, such as where you are in the car and someone hops out to go to the door. Passing petitions in a bar or at a party or function requires that you be in a position to at least see each and every person when they sign.  Don’t leave them at a table and walk away.  Anyone of any age can be a circulator.)

(12) Number the petition sheets (the ones containing voter signatures).

(13) Staple everything (Petitions, Statement of Candidacy, and the Receipt for the filing of the Statement of Economic Interests, plus the optional Loyalty Oath if desired) together.

(14) Make a copy of the above.

(15) Wait until 4 PM and take them to the office of the school board, or City Hall etc., and file  the ORIGINALS.  Have them stamp your copy and give you a certificate of filing.

If you do all of this, you should avoid any successful legal challenges to your petitions.

FATAL ERRORS:  Not numbering pages. Not stapling pages. Not having either Statement of Candidacy or Economic Interests Receipt.  Using state rather than local Statement of Economic Interests form. Not having enough valid signatures (voter not registered at address listed, printed signature, nickname or married name used when not on voter registration in that form).  Slightly wrong office stated or wrong date of election used  may get by but don’t do it.   Statement of Economic Interests must be current and for the exact office sought, not office you currently hold which is different and outdated.

Remember, free legal advice is worth what you pay for it so you should consult an attorney and have him/her review everything before you start circulating and again before you file the completed packet


Comments

Still Time to File for Office for Tax Districts Like Schools — 16 Comments

  1. Why would we listen to Michael Walkup a double dipping looser. The Govenor had to get special legislation sent to him to stop people like Michael Walkup from running for two offices and double dipping on the tax payers dime. He is also trying to double dip again he is running for a township office at the tune of 87,000 plus his county board of 21,000 plus full benefits. DOUBLE DIPPING MICHAEL WALKUP. He could not win the chairmanship and now he is going to pick on others. I agree Stand Walkup is not half the man Jack is.

  2. Are school board members paid?

    I guess not or Walkup would run for school board himself.

  3. Why would anyone listen to a double dipchit named Josewhales who doesn’t know what they are talking about?

  4. School board members are not paid for the office they hold.

    However, it is a long-standing practice for the teachers union (IEA) to recruit candidates who teach in other districts or, in at least two instances locally, recruit spouses of district teachers to run.

    In the case of spouses of those who teach in the district for which they seek office, their household can have a direct benefit from the spouses votes–as has demonstrably happened locally.

    In the case of teachers who live in another district running, there is an indirect benefit through the IEA’s “you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours.”

  5. It’s too bad that school boards are not paid positions.

    If they were, we would not see school board members run for county board, and they could stay on the school board where they can do a great deal more to impact property taxes than they can at the county which is only the collector of the taxes, not the body that sets taxes, as was implied by Mr. Franks in his campaign and re-iterated by him in his first speech as Chairman.

    The Nunda Township Supervisor position pays $75,000.

    I appeared at the meeting where the salaries were to be set for the next term and asked that the Supervisor be paid only $21,000.

    A motion was made by one of the Trustees to reduce the Supervisor’s salary to $65,000 which failed to get a second.

    The Supervisor, who is running for re-election, then voted for four consecutive raises for the next Supervisor, which he hopes will be himself.

    That’s when I decided to run for the Supervisor position so I can reduce the salary for the next term myself.

  6. Walkup you cannot set salary until 4 years from now so you would be a double dipping politician

  7. Josewhales?

    I see you are still an idiot.

    You didn’t even read anything that anyone said.

    You are still telling lies!

  8. Josey:

    Some salary can be returned to the township.

    Also, if I am not in the seat in four years when the salaries are set, they will continue to be set at current levels until the End Of Time.

    I will reduce the office down to the essentials, and determine what salary is appropriate for the work that really needs to be done.

    If I am not there, it will not happen.

  9. I was also never proposing to double dip at the county.

    I put through the ordinance which reduces the Chairman’s salary by $21,000 if he/she is also a Board Member so it was always just the one salary.

    Franks distorted that, among many other things, to try to make it look like it was two salaries.

    It was one salary and one job.

    If a Board Member is also Chairman he/she doesn’t sit on any committees so there is no additional work.

    There would have technically been two sets of checks but the amount would have been reduced.

    Franks depicted that as “two paychecks”, and “two jobs”, which is technically correct but deceptive.

    That’s his hallmark.

    Also apparently yours.

  10. So Cindy you are saying it is ok for Walkup to get a salary from the Township and a Salary for County Board and that is not double dipping.

    Can he both places at once.

    No the supervisor is a full time position

    he would have to be at the county board during work hours and be collecting a salary for both at the same time.

    To me that is double dipping.

    So who is the moron one who cannot define something as it really is seems to be your problem.

  11. The whole point of my campaign is that the Township Supervisor position is NOT a full time position but it is paid as if it were because they have used population growth in the township for decades as a justification for continually increasing the salary with no showing that the work increased proportionately.

    They only do about one public aid emergency assistance application every other week and have a secretary to do the paperwork.

    How much time can that take?

    I don’t think the job should take more than five to ten hours a week.

  12. Walkup you do not even know what you are talking about. A lot like Tirio run on a position of elimination but once in office you will realize it is not a 10 hour job. But it sounds good for a political position to try to win the election and get the big pay check for four years

  13. Township Supervisor is a useless, do-nothing, vestigial position with no real duties or responsibilities (unlike the Township Tax Assessor and Highway Commissioner, who actually have to PRODUCE and DO something).

    Given this, I cannot think of a more perfect person for the job than Mike Walkup…

  14. While school board members are not paid, many school boards agree to pay for some or all of the local teacher union leader to be released from teaching duties to perform union activities.

  15. Unfortunately most of the readers will not grasp the significance of Mark’s comment so I will repeat it:

    “While school board members are not paid, many school boards agree to pay for some or all of the local teacher union leader to be released from teaching duties to perform union activities.”

    The taxpayers pay ADDITIONAL for union members to do union work.

    Kinda like George Soros’ various ‘foundations’ funding BLM demonstrators.

    Kinda like Mike Madigan funding signature gathering for Lichte.

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