LTE: District 46 made the right call on taxes
The following Letter to the Editor was published in Fridays Daily Herald. I thought I would point out some of the inaccuracies in this letter.
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District 46 made the right call on taxes As a District 46 parent and taxpayer, I express my thanks and support for our board’s decision to reject the proposed tax abatement. Certain elements in our district used tactics including automated dialers to try and generate pressure on our board to refund millions while we have yet to restore many basic educational programs. |
All required subjects are taught. Reading, writing and arithmetic were never cut. These are the basics.
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District 46 spends $3,600 per student on instruction (the state average is $5,216). We would have to increase spending by 45 percent to simply meet the state average! |
According to the data on the ISBE Report Card (2003-2004) over $21 million dollars went into the education fund. Dividing that by the number of students (3981) you end up with $5275 per student. Since the education fund is supposed to be used for educating the children, where was the additional $1675 per student spent if it wasn’t on the childrens’ education? The amount of money from the education fund that did not go to educate the children was $6,668,175. Why was nearly one-third of the education fund money not spent on the instruction of the children?
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Remember that when approving a referendum; voters approve a rate increase and not an aggregate dollar amount. Our district then used premium bonds as a legal tool to raise the maximum amount of money allowed based on the voter-approved rate increases. |
Now Mr. Hill wants to confuse everyone. In 1999, voters did not approve a rate increase, they approved a set dollar amount for bonds to build Frederick and Prairieview or buy new land. See the question from the Lake County Clerk’s website:
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Grayslake Community Consolidated School District Number 46 Shall the Board of Education of Grayslake Community Consolidated School District Number 46, Lake County, Illinois, acquire land for school purposes, build and equip two school buildings, and issue bonds of said School District to the amount of $23,195,000 for said purposes? |
As you can see, Mr. Hill’s argument above about the tax rate is factually untrue.
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The Daily Herald reports this legal practice was very common, as 66 area school districts utilized the very same practice. |
Mr. Hill failed to mention that when the Daily Herald pointed this out as common practice, they were pointing out the fact that this practice costs the taxpayers much more than they anticipated and allowed district to exceed their debt limit. The Daily Herald also pointed out this practice has been restricted or banned in several other states. In the most recent article, the Daily Herald said the money should have been given back to the taxpayers.
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This is similar to people using “loopholes” |
