McHenry High School Vendors Financing Tax Hike Referendum Campaign, Pay to Play?

The majority of the financing for the $44 million bond issue being pushed by the McHenry High School Board is coming from companies who sell goods and services to District 156.

Of the $5,000 in contributions reported to the State Board of Elections, $3,500 comes from those receiving taxpayer-financed checks.

  • $1,500 – Joseph Parys, Partner, Center Point Energy, Downers Grove, which sells natural gas to District 156
  • $1,000 – Midwest Educational Furnishings, Inc., which sells furniture to D156
  • $1,000 – Wuff Werner, ABM, Cleveland, provides custodial services for the district

That information was provided quite quickly because of Freedom of Information requests.

Some might characterize this practice “Pay to Play.”


Comments

McHenry High School Vendors Financing Tax Hike Referendum Campaign, Pay to Play? — 5 Comments

  1. Unlike your friend gasser, the District will use a bidding process for all these items should the referendum pass.

  2. Hey, Uncle Tom, it’s not that they will bid their items, the article is implying a pay to play or a quid pro quo.

  3. As a reminder, $44M is principal only.

    What is the estimated interest in dollars?

    The district is keeping it a secret.

    They are hiding it.

    They are being sneaky.

    Neither the interest in dollars, nor the estimated debt service schedule, is on on the district’s website.

    Typical for a school district bond referendum.

    You could call the district and ask for this information.

    They might promptly provide it.

    Or they might play games.

    Please so many units of governments play games, we have FOIA.

    Anyone can submit a FOIA request for documents indicating the estimated debt service schedule for the $44M if the bond referendum were to pass.

    The debt service schedule is the planned annual payments of bond principal and interest, from the district, to the bondholders.

    More information on that subject is here:

    http://mchenrycountyblog.com/2018/10/22/mchenry-high-school-tax-hike-committee-wants-yes-vote-to-keep-taxes-from-maximum-decrease/#comment-49184

    Be sure to ask for a debt service schedule that has principal, interest, and total (principal + interest) itemized annually!

    +++++++++++

    Think about what is happening here in more general terms.

    Finance for dummies includes knowing the interest cost & payment plan for any purchase that includes financing, and that includes bond referendums.

    Whether you are ultimately for or against the referendum, you should know interest cost and payment plan before voting.

    It’s really sad and telling that an institution dedicated to education (the school district) and the vote yes PAC, which purports to be for the children, fails to adequately inform voters, many whom have children, on this basic concept.

    The only conclusion one can reach is they want to make the cost seem as low as possible to pass the referendum.

    Yet if a salesman did exactly that and sold their kid an auto loan without disclosing the interest in dollars, and the payment plan, they would scream bloody murder.

    Thus the district and the vote yes PAC is behaving worse than a sleazy salesman.

    Weird but true and common.

  4. I’ve been wondering whatever happened to Mark, feel like it’s been awhile since I have seen his comments!

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