Author: jan shaw

NO Means No – Hinsdale High School District 86 (part 2)

Using Fear and Children

The November 6, 2018 defeat of the D86 $166,000,000.00 referendum came as a complete shock to the Board and its referendum supporters.  How could the voters do this?  Who do they think they are?  What was the Board going to do?  The Board and its supporters had to regroup and figure out a new approach.  This second referendum defeat in 18 months required a new and clever strategy to force a third bloated referendum on the voters.   Continue reading “NO Means No – Hinsdale High School District 86 (part 2)” →

NO MEANS NO – Hinsdale High School District 86 – Referendum 3.0

 

You have no doubt heard the extreme and inflamed rhetoric coming from the D86 Board and their referendum supporters since November 2018 General Election.  So for the sake of truth and honesty, let’s recap what our tax and spend D86 Board has accomplished in the last two years.  On April 4, 2017 the D86 voters clearly and convincingly voted NO on the Board’s proposed $79,000,000.00 bond referendum.  And they did not listen.  So on November 6, 2018, D86 voters repeated themselves in a second rejection by voting NO on the Board’s proposed $166,000,000.00 bond referendum.  And still they did not listen.  So now your D86 School Board continues in its pattern of defiance of the voters’ will and is proposing yet another unacceptable bond referendum for the April 2, 2019 Municipal Elections; this time for $130,000,000.00. Continue reading “NO MEANS NO – Hinsdale High School District 86 – Referendum 3.0” →

Lisle school referendum to reduce taxes

Congratulations to the taxpayers in Lisle, school district 202.  You will be among the first to have a question on your ballot to lower your property taxes. The question that will appear on your April 2, 2019 Consolidated election ballot will be:

 

Shall the amount extended for educational purposes by the Lisle Community Unit School District 202 be reduced from $19,062,127.15 to $17,155,915.00  for the 2018 levy year, but in no event lower than the amount required to maintain an adequacy target of 110%?

Continue reading “Lisle school referendum to reduce taxes” →

Proposal to save taxpayers $6.2M

[Open letter to] CUSD 200 Board members,

Congratulations, Wheaton-Warrenville District 200 voted to build a new Jefferson preschool without raising taxes.

D200 said it could fund the project from operating revenue.  So tell me, why is the district still planning to use 20-year “lease certificates,” which will cost the taxpayers $6.2M more than necessary?   These tax dollars should be paying for educating students and maintaining our buildings rather than funneling them to consultants and out of state lenders. Continue reading “Proposal to save taxpayers $6.2M” →

School Bond Debt Drives Property Taxes

School districts need to keep borrowing so that they can spend today and tax tomorrow.  They think as long as they are not raising taxes much, we won’t notice.  But, we are paying attention.  When we approved the last referendums (Hubble, high schools…) those were to be paid off in 20 years – like a mortgage.  Instead, the school board has refinanced bonds to lower current payments and push the all-paid date out.  Then they borrow more – new, non-referendum bonds.  It is now more like a home equity line of credit that will never be paid off, so taxes will never go down.  Currently about 9% of our property tax bill pays for past school district borrowing.  If we STOP future bond issues our taxes will go down! Continue reading “School Bond Debt Drives Property Taxes” →