Electronic campaigning is now the order of the day and two Woodstock School Board candidates are making use of that means of communication.
Susan Handelsman and Barb Gessert attack high taxes in their email message.
Susan Handelsman and Bert Gessert tell of overly high real estate taxes.
= = = = =
The District 200 sample ballot can be found below:
Woodstock School District sample ballot.
Property tax rate comparisons
+++++++++++++++++++++
The 4.6% property tax rate referenced is the effective property tax rate.
The effective property tax rate is multiplied by the property’s market value (price for which one can sell a property / house) to determine property taxes.
++++++++++++++
Using the table in the November 13, 2015 Chicago Tribune article, effective property tax rates ranged from:
McHenry County: 3.36% – 4.73% (4.00% average for the 45 listed municipality / school district / township combinations).
Cook County Residential: 1.86% – 10.48% (3.65% average for the 169 listed municipality / school district combinations).
Cook County Business: 4.64% – 26.2% (9.13% average for the 169 listed municipality / school district combinations).
DuPage County: 1.25% – 4.24% (2.76% average for the 46 listed municipality / school district / township combinations).
Kane County: 2.71% – 4.50% (3.62% average for the 30 listed municipality / school district / township combinations).
Lake County: 1.85% – 7.1% (3.60% average for the 52 listed municipality / school district / township combinations).
Will County: 1.99% – 7.38% (3.30% average for the 47 listed municipality / school district / township combinations).
+++++++++++
Note 1:
The Tribune table include school district and / or township for some municipalities.
So for instance:
Woodstock Dorr Township – 4.6%.
Woodstock Greenwood Township – 4.48%.
Wonder Lake Elementary School Districts 36 & High School District 156 in McHenry Township – 4.6%
Wonder Lake Greenwood Township 3.88%.
Wonder Lake Woodstock School District 200 – 3.86%
etc.
+++++++++++
Note 2:
The Residential and Business Tax Rates are different in Cook County.
In all the other counties, Residential and Business Tax Rates are the same.
+++++++++++
Note 3:
Chicago Residential effective property tax rate is 1.8%, one of the lowest in the Chicago metropolitan area.
Chicago Business effective property tax rate is 4.64%.
The most powerful politician in Illinois, Michael Madigan, lives in Chicago, his business is that of a property tax appeal attorney, and his client list includes some of the Chicago skyscrapers with very large property tax bills.
+++++++++++++++
Note 4:
Here is a summary of the average property tax rates sorted by County from lowest to highest, and the resulting taxes on a $300,000 house (keep in mind for instance higher property taxes sometimes result in lower home values and vice versa…there are a lot of factors).
County – effective property tax rate – property taxes on a $300,000 house or business.
DuPage County – 2.67% – $8,010
Will County – 3.30% – $9,900
Lake County: 3.60% – $10,600
Cook County Residential – 3.65% – $10,950
Kane County – 3.62% – $10,860
McHenry County – 4.00% – $12,000
Cook County Business – 9.13% – $27,390
Woodstock Dorr Township – 4.60% – $13,800.
Woodstock Greenwood Township – 4.48% – $13,440.
New School Board and New Mayor are paramount in Woodstock!!
Nepotism and empire building in Dorr Township too.
They voted last quarter of the year to DOUBLE THE SUPERVISORS SALARY! (claiming it was PT and should be FT but he had a FT assistant)
That’s how you know a township is building an empire!
There is no contest in Dorr Township for any office but Highway Commissioner.
D200 Incumbents Ignore 4.6% Property Tax Crisis
Barb Gessert and Susan Handelsman have my vote for Woodstock D200.
D200 School Board incumbents, L. William Natress III and Carl Gilmour, running for reelection are refusing to discuss the crisis Woodstock residents are facing.
D200 gambled on growth with the 2006 referendum to build new schools, but when the real estate bubble burst, D200 kept spending. With already sky-high property taxes of 4.6%, every time D200 spends more, the Equalized Assessed Value of our homes decline due to long term unsustainability.
I have been attending D200 School Board Meetings for the past two years. Presenting facts and figures to current D200 board members and pleading with them to find constructive solutions to our financial challenges, but only to fall on deaf ears.
We have an opportunity April 4th to elect two new board members who will be stewards for the taxpayers. We can change the path D200 is currently on. Vote Barb Gessert and Susan Handelsman for Woodstock School District 200.
If you want Conservatives on the School Board Bart GESSERT & Susan HANDELSMAN are the only ones that fit the bill.
I’m just voting for those two.
They’ve spent the past 3 years studying the budget/spending and our districts 4/6% Real Estate taxes.
Most of the candidates haven’t even attended the School Board meetings and don’t know the issues.
Schroeder has a conflict of interest-husband is a teacher there so she’s there for her own be$t interests.
Kockler is a teacher and is there to keep the teachers in the money as that will only help her.
Ferrarini doesn’t know the issues and wants to $pend on new programs.
Parisi is a go-along with the incumbents as displayed at the candidates’ forum.
Homuth is running with Parissi, and doesn’t seem up on the issues (b/c you have to go to the meetings, and like the others, he doesn’t!)
Farris never shows up to any of the candidate forums or the board mtgs.
I think he’s just there to split the vote.
Susan Handelsmann is a super star!
I know she wouldn’t have anyone running with her that she didn’t trust and who wasn’t educated on what’s going on with our school dist.
So they both have my vote.
Handelsman:
Spewing out hundreds of numbers to the public that are all not accurate.
If you watch the live feeds from the committee meetings you can tell very quickly that she does not understand how things in a school district function.
If you need examples I can give them to you.
Like asking why don’t we staff to attendance instead of current enrollment.
She is also wasting tax dollars by suing the district.
Gessert: I have listened to Handlesman at length. If she isnt writing Gessert’s material I would be shocked. Gessert is also suing the board even though she said at the library she was not.
Just because someone throws a bunch of data out there does not mean it is correct.
Remember DATA is NOT FACT.
Stop relying on other people’s words and look for yourselves.
I want someone who thinks our town will grow.
Who wants to preserve what good we have and improve on that.
These two act like everything we have done up until now is just a waste of money.
All they ever do is bring up the negative.
That just does not sit well with me.
When the local businesses start putting this slate’s D200 signs in their windows and up on their brick exterior walls in Woodstock, you know people are waking up!
Send me a photo of the sign, please.