A late night reader tells me there are problems with the text of Larry Snow’s letter below, so I have copied the first page of the original and posted it. If you click on it, you should get type big enough to read.

Huntley School Board member Larry Snow is at it again.

He entered the public consciousness in District 158 by mailing really long letters to lots of people in District 158 about the false referendum assumptions made by the current board majority, its predecessors and political action committee B.E.S.T.

Now, he has sent out another letter–only five pages this time.

Below is its first page.

But there is a mistake.

One of Snow’s headlines below says there was a $15.9 million budget surplus this past June 30th.

When I called him about the letter, Snow told me he had just been informed that the budget surplus is really a million dollars higher.

Great budgeting.

Just like last year when the totals fluctuated by huge amounts on a day-to-day basis.

So, instead of a deficit of $375,000 for the end of June 30, 2007, AFTER the tax increases (as pointed out in the letter below), there was almost $17 million in the bank on that date.

Beware of people with good filing systems. They just might bring back your incorrect financial projections and confront you with them like this.

That’s more than a $17 Million miss. I won’t indent the letter because it messes up the table, but here is its first page:

First, I want to thank you for your support and for supporting the election of Mrs. Seedorf to our school board. Here’s an update on some of what’s been going on. There will be more later.

First, a Perspective:

$67.8 Million in operating expenses, 8,205 students and over 1,000 employees.

I expect we should be able to celebrate some individual successes. In this large a population, we should have some exceptionally bright and hard working students. Our new facilities and low class sizes should be attractive to talented teachers.

$15.9 Million in the Black. Hmmm.

The recent numbers show a $15.9 Million surplus on June 30^th. Board members told you how you can trust them when they said that even after approving a large tax increase the District would still have a Deficit of $ 375,000 on June 30^th 2007.

How can this be? They were so certain they were right. They were so certain you should trust their judgment that they knew better. Board member Kim Skaja was quoted in the Daily Herald “Budget cuts, future enrollment and financial projections aren’t in question Skaja said.”

The enrollment projections that were presented to the Village of Huntley in the summer of 2004 had 2,000 more students compared to the 8,205 students actually now enrolled. When I was positive about how much additional property taxes would be coming in as a result of more homes being built in Del Webb, they told you to trust them and their doom and gloom projections. They told you how you needed to trust them that our children’s and grandchildren’s educational futures would be ruined without a tax increase.

The budget shows these ending operating fund balances.

Fiscal Year	2006 – 2007	2005 – 2006	2004 – 2005	2003 – 2004
Fund Balances	$ 15.9 Million	$ 10.6 Million	$ 5.7 Million	<$ 635,536>

The 2008 budget will add to June 30^th’s surplus ending fund balance. The 2008 budget shows a surplus for this one year of $ 3.2 Million. (adjusting for buses and copier purchases)

Had certain board members and individuals used better judgment and listened, we could have avoided a tax increase and

Ø All of the spending that was done for the past several years could have happened.

Ø District 158 would have a positive healthy cash balance.

Ø $ thousands more might be in your checking account.

The referendum tax increase in 2004–2005 generated only about $ 2.2 Million more of revenue. It raised property taxes, which the State then used in their calculation of state aid. This resulted is a loss of state aid compared to what it would have been with no tax increase.

The “1 year” tax increase from the 2004 referendum is on your tax bill EVERY YEAR. It is a tax increase that stays as a tax increase and compounds as the CPI gets added onto it each year!