Huntley Village Board Declines to Raise Transition Fees High Enough to Pay for Education Before Taxes Arrive

A lot of fuss was caused by ex-Huntley School District 158 school board member Jim Carlin’s attempt to basically censure Larry Snow for a comment put under a Northwest Herald story.

The comment?

“A few free lunches, a few free dinners, a thank-you envelope in the Christmas basket sent to the home and a few well-placed political contributions and you have the recipe for overcrowding.”

Carlin’s failure to get his topic on the board’s agenda may well have been part of the reason for his resignation. That and his colleagues’ rejection of his proposal to pay fpr a $2,000-a day consultant he recommended.

So, Daily Herald reporter Jameel Naqvi was surprised that there were no harsh words when the school board met with the village board.

Snow continued his relentless push to get developers to pay for the cost of educating new homeowners’ children before they pay their fist tax bill.

“Huntley officials demurred, saying they did not want to tie transition fees to the per-student cost unless other towns in the district also did the same.,” the article said.

Snow adversary Kim Skaja praised the board:

“You have been a leader in collecting transition and impact fees. You have been a leader in keeping growth at a pace we can handle.”

Interesting statement considering Huntley made national news for being the 3rd fastest growing city in America a couple of years ago.

The growth rate was 71$ from 2000-2002. That’s an increase of 9,797 people.

No problem absorbing 71% growth, right?


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