1) Taxes on my measly $170,000 townhouse are already nearly $4,000 a year. This increase would cause that to be closer to $4,400. Utterly ridiculous, especially considering I am single, live alone and have no children. Yes, I know it's tax deductible, but to have a nearly 10% increase in my taxes on a 3% cost of living increase is a burden I do not feel that I should have to bear. For the larger units in my subdivision that are more in the mid $250s, we're talking close to *6,000* a year.
2) Why do we have *3* schools for primary age kids? They could easily consolidate the K-5 into one school and save money.
3) They just built two brand new, beautiful schools. Although I haven't toured them personally, I hear they are state of the art. Why did we put so much of our tax money into
these new schools when they already had a shortfall?
Yes, in order to attract people to the area and to have higher property values, the school district must be good, but this area will never become the next great place to live by 2012 if the taxes are so out of control, no one can afford to live here.
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In a tough position
Posted Wednesday, April 04, 2007
Supporters of a proposed tax-rate increase in Big Hollow School District 38 are pretty blunt when they describe the schools’ financial woes.
If voters don’t approve the 75-cent tax-rate increase, they say, the district’s multimillion-dollar deficit will continue spiraling out of control, an apparent free fall that eventually could lead to a state takeover.
“We have to put that out there because it is a real possibility,” said Boyce Carsella, a member of the Citizens Referendum Committee for Big Hollow Schools, the community group campaigning for the tax plan. “There’s no one (on the board or the committee) who wants to raise taxes. But this is the sad reality of it.”
Big Hollow includes portions of Fox Lake, Ingleside, Lakemoor, Volo and Round Lake. Roughly 1,450 students attend classes its three schools: a primary school for kindergartners through second graders; an elementary school for third- through fifth-graders and a middle school for sixth- through eighth-graders.
The proposal on April 17 ballots would boost the district’s limiting rate by 75 cents per $100 of equalized assessed valuation. It’s designed to help fund the operation of the schools and slow the growth of a budget deficit that’s projected to reach $31 million by 2012.
It won’t eliminate the district’s financial problems, however. The long-term solution must be decided by legislators who have the power to change how schools are funded, Carsella said.
If the proposal passes, the owner of a house valued at $100,000 will pay an extra $250 in taxes to the district in 2008, the ballot question explains. That figure would increase each of the next three years.
For the owner of a $300,000 house, the impact would be three times as great.
The ballot figures are estimates and don't include the senior or homestead exemptions or any other break that would lower a tax bill.
If voters reject the proposal, however, program cuts are possible, according to reports on the citizen group’s Web site at www.preservebighollow.org.
Options include eliminating afternoon kindergarten classes, shortening the school day, reducing bus routes and increasing class sizes.
Additionally, the deficit will continue growing unabated, which eventually could lead to a state takeover of the district, similar to what happened a few years ago in neighboring Round Lake Area Unit School District 116, Carsella said.
“Is it that dire today? No,” he said. “(But) it happened in the district right next to us.”
The question is the second tax plan to appear before District 38 voters in recent months. Residents overwhelmingly rejected a request for a $1.35 tax-rate increase in November.
Before deciding to put another referendum on the ballot, the school board explored many money-saving options but opted to simply consolidate bus routes and cut the number of routes from 22 to 12.
Bus service was singled out, Superintendent Ronald Pazanin said, because officials didn’t want to negatively affect educational programs.
The proposed $1.35 rate increase would have eventually helped erase the district’s deficit, Carsella said. Even though it won’t raise as much money as the first plan, officials proposed a lower amount this time because of the strong opposition in November.
“You can see the ‘rock-and-the-hard place’ position the schools are in,” Carsella said. “It’s a tough decision.”
Although no local groups have formed to oppose the tax plan, it’s found a foe in Libertyville business owner and political activist Jack L. Martin. Martin campaigned against the 2006 tax proposal and said he plans to contest the current one, too.
He declined recent interview requests, however.
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