Education Matters US

Apologies to misled Dist. 203 taxpayers

I apologize to my fellow taxpayers of District 203. I was a member of the Education for the 21st Century Committee in 2001, which concluded that District 203 needed to raise taxes to maintain the quality of education in the district and to reduce the cumulative deficit to a manageable level by the end of the current school year.

Based on our committee’s conclusion, the board of education subsequently recommended and voters approved the referendum that increased taxes by 53 cents per $100 assessed valuation.

It is now apparent, by the district’s own admission, that the taxpayers of the district have paid at least $24 million more than what the district told us they would collect as a result of the tax increase approved in the 2002 referendum. While some of the blame for this lies in the Byzantine complexities of the tax cap law, this situation still seems like a breach of faith between the district and the taxpayers.

Why am I apologizing? Because I feel that this committee, of which I was a member, was partially responsible for allowing this breach to occur. Our committee should have ensured that appropriate mechanisms were in place to limit the tax increase to what the district told the taxpayers. We did not do that.

So I apologize for this serious mistake on the part of our committee. To those of you who will serve on future finance committees for District 203, please do not make the same mistake that we did.

Roger Willis
Naperville