A communication from State Senator Karen McConnaughay:
Thank you to everyone who came out for our education funding forum last Thursday in Algonquin. It’s important that we, as parents and property-tax payers stay vigilant on this important issue. I promise to continue to keep you updated as it develops this spring.
As the spring session continues the biggest issue continues to be negotiations on the Illinois budget. Last week a series of budget-related hearings took place as debate begins on how to fix the $6.3 billion budget shortfall for the next fiscal year. These important hearings will continue this spring as we work to approve a budget for Illinois that puts us back on track.
Your input continues to be vital to the work I do. Please contact me or my office with questions or concerns you may have, and make sure your voice is heard in Springfield! You can also visit my legislative website at senatormcconnaughay.com.
Karen McConnaughay
State Senator for the 33rd DistrictMcConnaughay, Jacoby Discuss Education Funding Reform
Appropriations Hearings ContinueLast week a series of appropriations committee hearings were held in Champaign, Springfield and Edwardsville. These often lengthy hearings centered around current and proposed fiscal adjustments that intend to put Illinois on a more firm fiscal footing.
Read more about ongoing budget negotiations here…
Land of Lincoln’s Taxation Blues
According to online financial tool WalletHub, Illinois is a bad state to live in for taxpayers. Following last week’s study, the group issued a scathing report of Illinois resident’s tax burdens.
Thanks to legislative pension benefit hikes to underfunded pensions and legislative retiree healthcare hikes for which there was not enough associated revenue generation, “education” funding has been “promised” to retirees in the form of pensions and retiree healthcare.
There’s the biggest problem in education funding.
Not many legislators want to call out their peers though, as those hikes have been occurring for decades, escalating after the pension sentence was added to the Illinois State Constitution in 1970.
Start by protecting taxpayers from school boards who borrow their district into impoverishment.
Accrued, unpaid interest should be included in calculating debt amount subject to statutory borrowing caps.
Woodstock CUSD200 has borrowed so much money that they are well above the 13.8% statutory borrowing cap.
Homeowners owe at least 6.5% of home value to D200 debt (the cap is meant to hold school debt no higher than 4.6% of total home value).
D200 ALONE taxes homeowners over 2.7% of total home value. (The total property tax rate in Woodstock is now above 4%).
Frequent bond issues (refinancing debt) are trending to disguise deferred/unpaid-accrued interest…to get back under cap and borrow more?
Don’t help us by throwing more money into the black hole of this school district budget, help us by investigating the finer details of this school district’s budget.
If statutory debt caps are meant to protect taxpayers from excess borrowing, clarify language so that all owed monies–including interest which has been deferred but is as much a debt obligation as principal debt—are included when calculating maximum school borrowing limits.