Anti-tax groups warned
‘False statements’: Officials threaten legal action in Winthrop Harbor vote

By Ralph Zahorik

STAFF WRITER
WINTHROP HARBOR — School officials are threatening legal action against the Republican Assembly of Lake County, anti-tax groups, an automated telephone call operation and a number of out-of-town residents campaigning against a proposed school district tax hike.

In a letter mailed this week, Keri-Lyn Krafthefer, an attorney for the Winthrop Harbor Grade School District asks the organizations and individuals to “immediately cease making and publishing false statements” and “stop their defamatory actions and retract their false statements.”

Winthrop Harbor voters go to the polls Tuesday in an emergency referendum on a proposed tax increase. They are being told lies by the anti-tax campaigners, school officials say.

At issue is whether the proposed hike could increase the district property tax rate by 39 cents or 82.4 cents per $100 assessed valuation.

School officials and the Lake County clerk’s office say the correct figure is 39 cents.

The proposal asks voters to approve raising the maximum educational fund tax rate from $2.17 to $2.56 per $100 assessed valuation, a 39-cent increase.

James Peschke, an electrical engineer and founder of the Harvard, Ill.-based anti-tax Citizens for Reasonable and Fair Taxes organization, has noted that, currently, the school district taxes at the rate of just $1.736 per $100, not at the maximum of $2.17.

Therefore, he argues, in speeches and in literature, that the actual increase — from $1.736 to $2.56 — is 82.4 cents.

School officials have said the state tax cap stops them from taxing higher than $1.736 and that, if voters approve the new tax, the tax cap prevents a raise beyond 39 cents.

Lake County tax extension officials agree. In a Sept. 29 letter to “residents of the Winthrop Harbor School District, Wayne Wasylko, director of the County Clerk’s Tax Extension and Redemption Department, wrote: “Should this referendum pass, the voted increase of .39 percent will be added to the effective rate of 1.736 percent producing a new effective rate of 2.126 percent.

“The only scenario for the district to reach the new voted rate of 2.56 percent … would be to levy much more in the education fund and a commensurate reduction in levies for other funds, such as Transportation or Operations and Building. If this is not done, then the .434 percent shortfall will remain.”

At a forum Tuesday, CRAFT’s statements were called “categorically wrong … and false,” by James Leech, school board president. “You guys are using scare tactics,” he said. “If we could levy $2.17 we wouldn’t be here today.”

The board issued a statement Thursday demanding that Peschke, Ellis and others “cease making and publishing false statements regarding the … referendum.”

“If the defamatory actions do not stop, the school district will exercise every legal remedy against the individuals and organizations, as well as taking actions with the Illinois attorney general, the Lake County State’s Attorney and the Illinois State Board of Elections,” the statement said.

“It’s unfortunate that the school district has to resort to possible legal action to stop these individuals from lying to the voters,” said schools Superintendent James Tembusch. “The individuals and organizations’ … focus should be on the improvement of education, not on the dissemination of false information.”

Named by the School Board as possible targets of lawsuits are Peschke and his wife, Cathy Peschke, both of Harvard; Citizens for Reasonable and Fair Taxes, a group founded by the Peschkes; the Republican Federation of Lake County, a conservative organization, and its president, Raymond True of Libertyville; Jason Ellis of Zion, who has a Web site called Votenotax.org and is sending out anti-tax automated phone calls to Winthrop Harbor voters; Chris Jenner of CRAFT and others.

Peschke and Ellis couldn’t be reached for comment Thursday night.

“I’m doing this as an individual,” True said. “The word Republican and the Republican Federation of Lake County is nowhere in any of our handouts. There is nothing in any of our materials with any Republican symbol. I purposely stayed away from that.”

True said he’s sending out another anti-tax flier this week to 3,000 households in Winthrop Harbor.

10/07/05

The Winthrop Harbor School District 1 (the District) is threatening various groups and individuals with legal action over communications to potential voters in the upcoming “emergency” referendum on Oct. 11th. They are claiming that some who are opposing the referendum are making intentionally false statements.

Specifically, CRAFT, one of opponents of the tax increase, claims that the District could possibly raise the tax by 82.4 cents – not the 39 cents asked for in the language of the Referendum. The District claims that this is intentionally false, and is threatening to use “every legal remedy” to stop opponents from making this claim.

CRAFTs understanding of the laws pertaining to property tax collection in Illinois, as well as their understanding of the First Amendment of the Constitution protecting Free Speech causes them to offer the following clarifications.

1. The ambiguity of the Illinois Property Tax Collection System has allowed taxing districts (school districts in particular) to utilize various loopholes to collect much higher taxes than Taxpayers believed they were approving. This has been demonstrated in numerous Newspaper articles. Numerous members of the Illinois General Assembly are aware of this as well.

2. While voters are more aware of these loopholes, legislation closing them has not been passed, and it remains possible for districts to take advantage of them.

3. District 1 has asserted that they do not intend to increase taxes greater than the 39 cents that they are asking for. CRAFT asserts that once approved, the Residents of District 1 are at the mercy of the District’s decisions, and that the taxpayers of district may still see their taxes rise above the 39 cents “asked for” in the Referendum Language.

4. CRAFT is well with in its First Amendment to inform the taxpayers of this fact.

5. CRAFT specifically states that they are not accusing (nor did they intend to accuse) the District and/or its representatives of intentional misrepresentation. They are merely pointing out that the operation of Illinois tax laws, combined with the possible future actions of District Management, may result in more taxes being collected than voters may have been led to believe by the Referendum Language.