Now with administrative offices in Algonquin, Unit School District 300 is holding a meeting Wednesday night to set taxes for next year.
It’ll be at 7 PM at D300 Central Office, 2550 Harnish Drive in Algonquin.
Here are the details that will be considered:
The property tax calendar.
What School District 300 is asking of taxpayers.
Property tax request.
What an average homeowner will pay in taxes next year.
Tax Increment Financing District in District 300.
School tax rate comparisons for taxes paid in 2015.
Public education is out of control.
The above costs are only property tx related.
Not included are state revenues to the school district, such as General State Aid and Transportation, and the state contribution to the TRS pension fund, and indirect costs such as the Illinois State Board of Education; and Federal revenues to the school district, and indirect Federal costs such as the US Department of Education, and indirect regional costs such as the Regional Office of Education.
Property taxes are high so business owners and developers want TIF taxpayer funds to subsidize business development.
District 300 is one of the largest school districts in the state.
District 300 videotapes board meetings and archives them on the website.
District 155 does not.
Yesterday I noticed the following on the McHenry County website:
“McHenry County will host its Open House to receive public comment on the draft CEDS plan. The Open House will be Tuesday, December 15th from 5-7 pm at the McHenry County Administration Building, 667 Ware Road, Woodstock, IL. ”
I wonder how many people from the public showed up?
I have read the “draft CEDS” plan and there is absolutely NOTHING in there that could even be interpreted as an attempt to slow down the growing property tax and fee burdens in the County.
If business and community leaders do not step forward and put pressure on school districts (and the State Legislature) to reduce our property tax / fee burden, Pam Cumpata can continue to post all the op-eds she wants in the NWH but the exodus of those who can afford to leave will continue unabated.
The back-fill will consist of people will smaller incomes and bank accounts due to plummeting real estate vaules.
Replacing property taxes with other forms of taxation (removal of the pension income exemption, the Madigan income tax increase, switching to graduated income tax, etc.) is NOT the answer.
Increasing the amount of state collected tax dollars to fund the schools is not the answer either.
We MUST remove collective bargaining rights for all public sector employees (especially teachers – just look at what is happening in Chicago) AND revise the State Constitution to remove the Public sector pension guarantees OR we privatize all education and public services.
In case you have not noticed, the education community is using YOUR children as a bargaining tool!!
Also, take note of the number of TIF districts in East Dundee.
Carpentersville has fewer districts but they did get WalMart to move from East Dundee to Carpentersville.
Interesting.
Note the IMRF pension cost of about $3 million.
The TRS cost is much higher, but it is distributed between the school district and state, and does not appear as a line itwm on property tax bills.
There is very poor transparency of TRS pension costs allocated to each school district.
A good piece of state legislation would be to require a an annual report allocating by district the state contribution to the TRS pension fund.
And reporting by each school district of the dollar amount annually contributed to TRS.
Then the true cost to educate a child per school district could more accurately be determined.
The TRS pension costs are big public education costs and they are not being adequately accounted for when per pupil spending is calculated and are not being adequately disclosed/itemized in school district financials.
To save property taxpayers:
1. Property tax RATE cap.
(Indiana caps property taxes at 1% of home value).
2. Every single property in the State should be included into a tif district.
(As Lakewood tif proves, meeting statutory requirements is simply a matter of hiring a consultant who will produce the desired finding in return for monetary payment).
But new “Self-Defense” tif districts should resolve to return incremental property tax dollars to homeowners pro rata.
Let property owners risk their own money for their own private gain, if they choose to develop.
The onerous property tax/income tax conundrum will not be solved in the lifetime of anybody reading this.
Thus, the great exodus from McHenry County and Illinois will continue unabated.
There is no other choice if residents are to protect themselves from being nickeled and dimed into bankruptcy.
People who know and understand this have already departed or are making plans to do so.
This the reality for the residents in Illinois.
All those TIF districts plus 18% salary increases equals property tax hikes.
Sear tif obtained a 15 year extension from Springfield because once again they threatened to close and ‘take jobs’.
It is naïve and disingenuous to portray tifs and enterprise zones and business tax abatements as other than property tax burdens increasingly heaped upon homeowners.
But politicians are never held to specificity extolling the ‘benefits to community’ that tif will bring.
Property tax RATE caps are the only way to protect homeowners (families…CHILDREN) from property taxes which destroy home values and thus destroy communities.
TEACHERS!
You want to retain a shred of credibility and respect in the community?
(Remember, DOCTORS used to be respected and highly paid too. Times change).
Speak with one voice:
“ANY SPRINGFIELD LEGISLATORs VOTING “YES” ON A 12 YEAR TIF EXTENSION GETS A BIG “NO” VOTE FOM ILLINOIS TEACHERS”
Allen: Why does your Town (East Dundee) have so many TIFs?
Sears could go out of business someday, they have been in bad financial shape for a long time.
CV, 4 of the 6 trustees are addicted to corporate welfare.
The employer and employee contributions to the TRS pension fund are buried in the Educational fund.
These contributions should be broken out for taxpayer transparency, just as IMRF is a line item above (IMRF = Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund).
The employer contribution to TRS is .58 percent (a little over 1/2 of 1%).
The employee contribution to TRS is 9.4%, broken down as follows:
7.5% Annuity
1.0% Survivor Benefits
0.5% 3% COLA
0.4% Early Retirement Option (ERO)
ERO contributions are refunded to the employee idf the ERO option is not exercised at retirement .
In the majority of school districts in Illinois, the employer (school district) picks up all or some of the employee contribution to the TRS pension fund.
Any employer pick-up of employee contributions to the TRS pension fund should also be clearly disclosed in school district financials, both the percentage and dollar amount.
We have a long way to go before taxpayers understand the total cost to educate a child and how the money is being spent.
A tax rate cap might help limit overall spending but would likely result in unfair student outcomes.
Compare school district spending limits to what Rauner discovered when attempting to reign in state spending.
A lot of spending is mandated.
In school districts that is in the form of Federal and state law, including collective bargaining law, bond debt service, pension contributions, to a lesser extent administrator contracts, etc.
To reign in school district spending in a way fair to students would require reigning in some of the changes to state law, collective bargaining, pension law, etc. that to a great extent control the school district monopoly.
This is a very complex problem with a myriad of special interests and agendas that has been a long time in the making.
Perhaps some of the most effective peoole who could help with change are busy in the PTA/PTO and volubteering in the schools and extracurricular activities.
A lot of people in the system do not like the system but there is no organized and effective way for them to speak out.
The monopoly must be busted.
Possible future unfair student outcomes are trumped by probable current family economic devastation.
Cap the supply of prey’s bloody flesh available, and let the jackals fight amongst themselves for what remains.
It’s the predator population which needs to be winnowed down.
Change the law, teachers should not be able to strike – period.
Change the parents brains, teachers are not your friends, they are your employees.
You don’t owe them everything you have even if they are in charge of your children.
Both sides are not equal in ability to negotiate contracts as long as teachers hold the Ace = the ability to strike.
It’s time for taxpayers to go on strike and vote the Illinois vultures out of office.
The make enough money to easily move out of state, the average resident doesn’t.
There is an online classroom learning tool in use by D200, called CANVAS LMS.
It will enable students to keep up with lesson plans and learn uninterrupted for months of teachers’ strikes if needed.
Check it out.
There are state attendance laws to contend with to implement have CANVAS LMS replaceteachers during a strike.
Plus a lot of coordination would be necessary to transition from a teacher led classroom to an online classroom.
Plus Cancas is likely not available for all claases including English as a Second Language, IEP accomodations, etc
Plus what about the younger grades such as preschool, kindergarten, first grade, etc.
Plus what about online access for all students.
Probably years away from such an option if there was political will, which there is not.
If student outcomes are not placed at the top of the list there will not be political will to change.
student outcomes are also bad when homes are in foreclosure and family is forced into poverty
CANVAS actually IS available in other languages! lessons can be easily converted between languages.
and there are iep accomodations.
we received a demo at last school board meeting.
Parents are given easy access to Canvas, so the PARENTS can easily coordinate classes and lessons for children during a strike.
I am just pointing out that teachers strike Threats do NOT have to have such ‘scary’ power over everyone…let em strike we can get along without them.
State laws which would throw children to the wolves and insist on placing IMPEDIMENTS to having children continue learning uninterrupted during a teacher’s strike?
THAT sounds like a newsworthy story.
Illinois Policy Institute
Growing Out of Control: Property Taxes Put Increasing Burden on Illinois Taxpayers
by Erik Randolph, Ted Dabrowski, John Klingner
December 2015
http://www.illinoispolicy.org/reports/growing-out-of-control-property-taxes-put-increasing-burden-on-illinois-taxpayers
There are a lot of details that would have to be ironed out to break a strike with CANVASS, if it is even possible.
I guess CANVASS could provide their thoughts on such a tactic.
Presumably they would want a successful implementation if such an endeavor were undertaken.
In Zimbabwe, teachers are frequently absent from class.
Why?
Teachers aren’t paid enough ( or paychecks are not issued due to currency crisis) to afford public transportation to get to their teaching jobs.
Or, teachers who moonlight as prostitutes to feed their own children have been beaten up by their clients who are mostly government ministers.
So then, the best students in class lead the class to keep up with lessons.
Parents also participate in keeping their own children up to speed.
Their incredulity at my description of American education attitude of entitlement made me ashamed.