Bob Shelstrom
@bobshelstrom
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There are a few things here that were “strategically” left out of this story.
First, the cost of interest and repayment of this bond sale will be added to your real estate tax bills in addition to the normal tax levy. Although most of this work has been already performed and paid for with existing surpluses in the budget, the reason for this move is simply to increase the taxation burden on the public to the greatest amount allowed by law.
Secondly, the district has overcharged taxpayers by over $3 million for the construction debacle bond fund of a few years ago through “loss and cost” provisions of the tax code. This allows school districts to overtax for bond repayments to compensate for taxes that were levied but not paid due to taxpayer default or other causes. In district 230, where tax delinquency is low, this “loss and cost” levy has generated surpluses that must be used to pay off with bonds or be abated to the taxpayers. District 230 has refused to use this money to defray this bond principle cost to the public, and instead has decided to keep both the bond tax overcharge and increase the public’s tax obligations through this life safety bond sale.
District 230 enrollment is dropping like a stone while real estate tax revenues keep rising by 2-5% per year under the PTELL laws. Current Board policy is to charge the public as much as they can as long as they can to protect the school bureaucracy at the expense of the community.
Remember this next April when school board elections will be held.
Posted to D230 votes to borrow $7.1 million for repairs - Orland Park
I’ll have to admit that this was one of the cleverest campaigns I’ve seen in SW Cook County.
First, the District closed down station No. 2, right across from Peace Villge retirement community, even though they could have maintained ambulance service there 24/7. If they had done the right thing and just discontinued seldom used fire suppression activities there they likely wouldn’t have gotten the margin of victory from Peace Village.
Next, the Board and union likely created the “phantom menace” of consolidation with Orland. It’s likely that this “straw man” was set up to scare Palos voters into raising their taxes. The tax rates are higher than Palos in Orland even after the referendum, and Palos people have no interest in beng dominated by Orland.
There wass no way this was ever going to happen. Voter approval from both Orland and Palos would be needed for consolidation, and the rank and file voters from BOTH communities were against it.
Finally, the three mayors endorsing raisng taxes played a key role in this. I’m sure they turned more than the 36 votes that amde the difference in the camopaign. Look for them to get dollars and campaign support in the next election for this.
I hope they enjoy their “thirty pieces of silver” for selling out the taxpayers.
Posted to Homer Glen residents say nay to deer culling, Palos referendum squeaks by - Palos Park
A few corrections and comments here on the Palos referendum. REVENUE hasn’t been on a “downward spiral” in Palos, in fact over the last two years real estate tax revenues increased by 9% and 12% repsectively. They had adequate revenues, they just didn’t have adequate management and prioritization of the funds.
Analysis of the election results showed that the retirement communities, which pay below average taxes but take the lion’s share of the services, put the refendum over the top.
The Oak Hills an Peace Memorial precincts gave hundreds more “yes” votes than “No” votes, and the refendum passed by only 72.
Now the average homeowner in Palos Park will have an extra $400 per year taken from their families for this, and it will increase by CPI very year.
Thanks, seniors!
Posted to Homer Glen residents say nay to deer culling, Palos referendum squeaks by - Palos Park
He really doesn’t have mucha of a choice in the matter. The state considers the state legisalture and school boards as “incompatible offices” and he could be forced to give up both if he doesn’t give up one. The logic behind this is that a possible copnflict of interest exists between what is in the best interest of the state and the best interest of the district. Case in point; shiftiing pension costs for TRS to schools instead of the state.
Posted to State senate candidate Hastings could step down from D230 board in January - Orland Park
One other4 thought regarding “consolidations” with Orland. there’s NO WAY that Orland would’ve taken this up without someone on The Palos Board giving them the idea to move forward on this, perhaps as a “phantom menace” to scare people into voting for the tax increase.
There is NO suppoort in either community for doing this, so why is this even being discussed?
Simple. It’s the politics of money.
Orlands rate is .897 vs .55 in Palos, and even with the referendum passing the Palos rate would only be .803.
Voters in Palos are so adamantly against this that this “phantom menace” may scare several hundred into voting for the tax increase under the fear that the taxes will be higher and the consolidation will happen if they reject the tax increases. Don’t worry. This will NEVER happen. The gauntlet that this move would need to go thorugh is so difficult that nothing short of an act of God can make it happen.
The Board was also very clever in this “voting for the kitchen” contest. The kitchen really isn’t in need of a $25,000 makeover (I’ve been there), but we could have made it really nice for few thousand new dollars through lcoal donations., The Fireman just spent over $3,000 of their own money for a top new commercial stove a couple years ago, and it’s really state of the art.
The REAL reason for making such a big deal about this was… surprise!…tax money and politics.
What his promotion did was getperhaps thousands of potential voters “conditioned” to voting for money for the fire district many times. Many were “conditioned by voting, perhaps on a daily basis, “for the firefighters getting more money”.
As anyone who’s taken psychology can tell you, this creates a strong learning so that when the voter goes into the voting booth, they’ll instinctively vote “yes” for the referendum.
REALLY clever politics and psychology. Now if they can only use this political “cleverness” to responsibly budget and negotiate contracts…….LOL
Posted to Firehouse could get shut down if Palos referendum fails - Palos Park
If the District is serious in its cost cutting measures and financial plan, It should post that plan on it’s webite for public viewing. Right now, there has been no commnity “vetting” of the plan for accuracy and prudency.
There is a reasonable plan to maintain essential services that the Board has refused to implement.
The Palos Fire District is actually an ambulance service that sometimes suppresses fires, rather than the other way around. About 2/3rds of the calls are for ambulance calls, and most of those area East of 104th Ave where station #2 is located. While about 1/3 of the calls are for “fire service”, few of them are actually to extinguish fires. Only about one fire per month actually occurs according to the Department, and most of those don’t require hose fire suppression.
The Western end of the district’s primary need is for ambulance services due to the needs of the Peace Village senior community and other commuity members in the sparsely populated area west of 104th ave.
What makes sense is to keep the station #2 permanently staffed with a two person ambulance crew, and Station #1 having a three person fire crew with a fourth member (captain) and a second ambulance crew.
Since our staff is “cross trained” as both paramedics and firefighters, they can do both services in emergency situations.
This would keep critical ambulance response times low, and meet the needs of the community.
It also makes sense to have firefighters “on call” during certain periods in case there’s a short term need for services that cannot be met by the on staff crews.
This would allow the district to right size from about 29 Full Time equivalents to about 24. Since according to the district budget the cost for each Palos fire fighter, including benefits, is about $120 to $130K per year, this would save about $500K to $600 per year to our operating funds while providing the safety our community requires.
Rather than creating a premanent tax increase for the short term needs of equipment replacement and re-establishing the cash reserves following the disastrous 10.5% to 28% raise handed out by the Boar in 2008 when this crisis was created, the district should have a separate bond sale referendum for the new equipment and any capital improvement needs. This sort of funding would end the tax burden once the “need” was funded rather than giving a permanent “windfall” for the district to once again squander with the current tax rate referendum.
We should have immediately taken this action when the Board unnecessarily and unsustainably raised salaries to the highest level amongst similar districts by their poor negotiation on behalf of the community in 2008.
Let’s reject this refendum and do it right to protect our families and communities.
Posted to Firehouse could get shut down if Palos referendum fails - Palos Park
It should be noted that Disrict 230 STILL hasn’t upgraded it’s sprinklerr systemes to meet the current codes. They’re still only meeting the requirements of the 1996 BOCA Code, an organization that’s been defunct for about a decade!
Excluding electricity, this cooling will wind up costing about $60,000 per graduation event amortized over 10 years!
I have children in the district, and I find it appalling that this was made a priority for Mr Nogal, chairman fo the Building and Finance Committee that propsoed this and a COMMISSIONER ON THE PALOS FIRE DEPARTMENT!
While researching the Palos Fire Department issues, we’ve found how uncooperaative District 118 and 230 have been regarding fire safety.
District 118 refused to extend the sprinkler systems to the entire school to protect the children so that they could have the most gym space per student in the state. They refused to upgrade feed water pressure by “looping” to allow appropriate flow to for fire protectin at Palos South.
District 230 refuses to protect our children with up to date sprinkler systems so that they install fake grass on football fields, rennovate teacher offcies and admsintrator space, and air condition gyms for three events per year that may never occur!
Why do we care if the elementary schools haev their graduations in district 230 schools anyway?
So the end result here is that we’re spending about $1,9 milion taxpayer dollars to support events that may not even return to 230 gyms, while we’re putting the students and staff at risk byr not providing code compliant sprinkler systems.
Remember this when you go to the polls to pick new borad members next year!
Posted to D230 to spend $1.9 million for air conditioning in gyms - Orland Park
How about paying down some the massive state debt your party has run up first, Quinn!
So what happened to the massive tax increase from last year? It’s clear that no matter how much money Quinn and Madigan steal from us, they’ll always spend more than they have!
Posted to Quinn says sales tax windfall could pay for schools - Lemont
Just curious…..does the “makeover” include labor AND materials, or just materials? If we’re going to have to kick in extra dollars for this project from more worthy purposes, it would be nice to know.
Posted to Last day for voting for Palos fire station kitchen makeover - Palos Park
So they’re spending about a quarter million dollars (exclusive of land) for a 960 square foot facility. That’s about $260 per square foot. A little used stand like this could be built in the private sector for about $150/sq ft.
Gee, I wonder who’s going to be lining their pockets on this project?
More of the same old, same old. Spending $1.3 million for full replacement of gym air handling units that could just as easily be fully refurbished for $150K, Spending over a million dollars for tearing up and replacing Stagg’s parking lot when only minor resurfacing was advisable for a few hundred thousand,the list goes on and on about waste in the 230 capital program.
The telling thing is that President Grabowski and Building Committee Rick Nogal steadfastly refuse to appoint qualified Professional Architects and Engineers to the Building committee because they could challenge the inefficient and wasteful way they operate in 230.
And we keep on re-electing them time after time…..
Posted to One year later, D230 board green lights Andrew concession stand - Tinley Park