Press

TUA’s work in helping Kane County taxpayers oppose property-tax-increase referenda was featured in the Northwest Herald.
Kane County voters will be asked to support a property tax increase of 0.1 percent on the March 18 primary ballot to fund services for people with developmental disabilities.
If the measure passes and the Kane County Board approves the full levy, it would increase the tax burden by about $100 a year for the owner of a $300,000 home. It would raise an estimated $13 million to be administered by a disabilities board – also known as a 377 board – for housing, transportation, jobs and job training among other services for people with disabilities.
Show You Care Kane spearheaded the petition drive a year ago after Kane County officials would not put the question on the ballot.
The Association for Individual Development, which serves more than 5,000 clients with developmental disabilities, took the lead in getting the measure on the ballot.
But 11 agencies that serve people with developmental disabilities support the effort and would share in the funding, AID board vice chairman Patrick Flaherty said.
“We are optimistic that this will pass,” Flaherty said. “We know we are on the right side of this issue, so we are optimistic about the goodwill and good hearts of the people who share our community here in Kane County.”
North Aurora resident Rae Ann McNeilly is a member of a group called Kane County Taxpayers Fight Back, which opposes the referendum.
“Primarily from the standpoint that this is money being taken by taxpayers and given to a nonprofit company,” McNeilly said. “This should be private fundraising to generate this additional revenue. This should not be a taxpayer burden, especially on property owners.”
McNeilly disputed that people who are developmentally disabled need additional support through another tax.
“You are growing government in Kane County,” McNeilly said.
McNeilly said AID itself received $16.4 million in 2013 from the state and does not need more money.
“There are people hurting all over Kane County. Is … every one of those needs supposed to be paid through property taxes?” McNeilly said. “This [referendum] serves a very small percentage of the Kane County residents. And yet, we are willing to put people out of their homes if they can’t afford this tax increase to serve this small slice of the community.”
McNeilly said support for people with developmental disabilities should be from private fundraising, not local property taxes.
“There are way too many people put on the responsibility of the state. That is not the role of government,” McNeilly said. “And it should not be by force. This is laziness on the part of these organizations to go to the taxing authority to get their money mandated.”
McNeilly also charged that if the referendum is approved, the three-member panel appointed by the County Board chairman to administer the funds would be paid, and then add to the state’s pension debt.
Flaherty disputed McNeilly’s statements, saying all 11 nonprofits that support the referendum will still have to do fundraising to meet a growing need.
Among the local service providers are DayOne Network in Geneva, Easter Seals DuPage and Fox Valley Region in Elgin, Fox Valley Special Recreation Association in Aurora, Valley Sheltered Workshop in Batavia, and Marklund in Blackberry Township.
“The disabilities board is created to administer the funds, not to tax or raise more funds,” Flaherty said. “The County Board is the only one that can levy the tax … and not more than what is approved. It can be less, but not more.”
Also, by state law, the developmental disabilities board members serve as unpaid volunteers, though they can be reimbursed for expenses, Flaherty said. Flaherty disputed that nonprofits should not receive taxes, as Illinois routinely contracts with nonprofits to provide services.
Flaherty also disputed that the developmental disabilities population in Kane County is small.
“There are thousands, up and down the valley,” Flaherty said. “The constituency is the 10,000 people who need services … with a continuing influx yearly of people. There are 16,000 in special ed programs, and 4,000 are going to need help when they graduate.”
When developmentally disabled adults reach age 22, local schools no longer provide services for them, he said. About 1,100 Kane County residents are on a state waiting list for housing, he said.
While fundraising and donations are important to support current programs, Flaherty said donations do not provide a stable source of funding.
“The need is constant and always growing, so donations are never enough, even in the best of times,” Flaherty said. “Donations don’t allow for year-to-year budgeting and year-to-year planning, both of which are enormously important when you are trying to take care of people.”
As to AID receiving $16.4 million from state and federal funding in 2013, Flaherty said the money covers a broad spectrum of the agency’s services to people with mental illness, substance abuse and developmental disabilities, but is not enough to cover all the needs.
Flaherty said the federal and state allocations are not getting bigger while the numbers of people needing services grows every year. In the long term, supporting the referendum and creating a local, stable source of funding ultimately will cost taxpayers less, Flaherty said.
Some families don’t accept the responsibility for a family member with developmental disabilities, or because of age, illness or death are unable to continue those responsibilities, he said.
“In every one of those instances, the children become the expense of the state at higher cost – three times the cost – than at the local level,” Flaherty said.
As to increasing the property taxes, Flaherty said the amount is about $1 or $2 a week, depending on a house’s value.
“It is a modest cost to provide important work for services being received,” Flaherty said. “If not at the local level now, it will be paid for three times if provided by the state.”
Flaherty suggested those who want to save money should find a different way.
“The few vocal opponents [of the referendum] who exist would better serve the community by working to cut true waste in government rather than turning their backs on people whose only contribution to their circumstance was being born,” he said.
McNeilly said it did not matter that the amount of money being sought is small.
“They’re going to take a little more, a little more, a little more,” McNeilly said. “It will grow unto itself.”
Know more
The actual referendum question on the March 18 ballot:
Shall Kane County levy an annual tax not to exceed 0.1 percent upon the equalized assessed value of all taxable property in the county for the purposes of providing facilities or services for the benefit of its residents who are intellectually disabled or under a developmental disability and who are not eligible to participate in any program provided under Article 14 of the School Code,105 ILCS 5/14-1.01 et seq., including contracting for those facilities or services with any privately or publicly operated entity that provides those facilities or services either in or out of the county?

TUA President Jim Tobin was quoted in a Chicago Tribune article about the South Berwyn tax hike.
Voters living south of Cermak Road in Berwyn will decide March 18 whether to increase their taxes to renovate and expand District 100 schools.
Two questions are asking for a $1.40 tax rate increase, up to $4.30 from $2.90, which would raise almost $6.2 million, and to approve selling $51.5 million in bonds for improvements. That would raise taxes another 93 cents.
The two increases would cost $491 annually for the owner of a $100,000 home, $817 for a $150,000 home and $1,145 for a $200,000 building. Figures are for bonds lasting 20 years, the limit under the Illinois school code. If the Illinois General Assembly changes the limits under a bill the Senate is considering, the 93-cent tax rate increase would change to 73 cents if the limit becomes 25 years or 59 cents if it becomes 30 years.
Stan Fields, District 100 superintendent, said the added tax revenue would help the South Berwyn schools deal with 516 more students in the last six years – with no new space added – and less state funding. Bonds will add 19 classrooms; improve electrical, mechanical and plumbing systems; and provide a multipurpose room in each school where students can eat, rather than be in the gymnasium where they are limited to seven minutes for lunch.
Facebook groups such as Building a Better Berwyn are supporting both measures.
But others, such as Anthony Harris, a District 100 board member from 2007 to 2011, and Jim Tobin, founder of Taxpayers United of America, say the increases will overtax home and business owners.
District 100 is a high-minority, high-poverty district of six elementary schools and two middle schools that brings greater needs, not less, according to Fields: “We have necessary resources for two of three students,” he said. Some 85 percent of students are minorities and 74 percent come from low-income families.
Per-pupil spending is 20 percent lower than in some of the neighboring schools districts and state funding was cut 7 percent, according to the district. South Berwyn has the 26th lowest school tax rate of 27 Cook County communities with similar demographics and property values, officials said, and a tax increase has not been sought in more than 20 years.
Five of the six elementary schools – all but Emerson – are beyond capacity, with Pershing at 112 percent. Total enrollment last year was 4,107, compared to 3,388 in 2003. The projected enrollment in 10 years is 4,491.
None of the schools has central air conditioning and all get heat from boilers that are old and hard to find parts for, Fields said. The bond money will allow the district to “effectively rebuild the infrastructure – mechanical, electrical and plumbing. The life of these improvements should be 45 to 50 years.”
Harris said he was a member of the board’s Buildings and Grounds committee, which was informed of required repairs and necessary maintenance, “but nothing on the order of magnitude that is being proposed. Unquestionably repairs must be made, but the cost of $51.5 million at this time is prohibitive.”
By adding classrooms that may not be needed in 10 years, the district will be burdened with debt for 20 to 30 years depending on the life of the bond, he said. “The upgrade of six of the buildings is popular with parents; however, it is likely to be more costly compared to consolidation of schools and the construction of new buildings with greater capacity.”
“The request for the $51.5 million bond alone is a staggering sum to ask of a small community and will be a burden for at least two decades. The additional request to increase the limiting rate by 1.4 percent will overtax home and small business owners and has no date of expiration,” he said.
The owner of a $200,000 home would pay what amounts to an additional mortgage payment every year, he said.