D300 Tax Hikers Are Back

Not in the Carpentersville School District this time.

Farther down the Fox River Valley in St. Charles.

And they are apparently being paid by the taxpayers to run touch-feely meetings to prepare taxpayers for a big bond issue.

The (Elgin) Daily Courier News’ Janelle Walker calls the outfit “a facilitating team.”

But readers of McHenry County Blog know that Unicom/ARC out of St. Louis is a tax hiker’s consultant. Here are the details of St. Charles District 303’s tax hike preparations, as set forth in the Courier News.

And here is what one of ARC/Unicom’s Missouri clients—a school superintendent—wrote as a testimony:

“School leaders who hope to move their district’s forward must understand that we can’t make progress without the informed consent, active participation, and sound advice of those who pay the bills! UNICOM•ARC understands this fact of life in public education better than any group I know. They can steer a district through a public engagement process, secure accurate survey data, and guide election efforts to achieve even the most ambitious district goals.”

Look far enough on the web site and you can even find prior work for the St. Charles School District:

“Client: St. Charles (IL) Community Unit School District 303

“Challenge: Determine support level for a bond issue to build a new elementary and middle school, improve and expand a high school and make repairs and renovations to other District buildings, and to test possible messages in favor and opposition of a bond proposal.

“Solution: In collaboration with the District, UNICOM•ARC drafted a comprehensive telephone survey to gather information about District residents’ perception of these issues, and a sample was developed with quotas that ensured all areas of the District would be represented in appropriate proportions.

“It was determined that the District lacked majority support for a bond issue with 48.8% of survey participants answering they would favor this proposal. The results of the bond election substantiated this research, with 49.0% favoring the proposal.“

Take a look at the list of school districts these tax hikers have helped hike taxes here.

One of them is Belvidere.

I am sure it is no coincidence that the school superintendent in St. Charles came from Belvidere.

There’s no mention of Carpentersville District 300 on the Unicom/Arc web site now…like you can see here.


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