Great posts!:) I will try to keep this short — however, there is steam coming out of my ears about all the misrepresentations with this bill.

CJ sez: “No kidding. Who in Peoria would think to call Barbara Flynn Currie to express their opposition to this bill?

Well, I did talk for 10-15 minutes with Rep. Currie via telephone prior to the vote (have cell phone log to prove that) and it is an insult to every taxpayer to have a Rep. speak on the House (or Senate) floor and say “I know of no opposition” ….. that you tell the Majority Leader of your State House Legislature that you are vehemently and adamently against the passage of this bill, of having the time limit extended and which taxpayers do not know about for the most part and then a comment that she knows of no opposition.

I have had conversations with Rep. Schock about this issue prior to its passage and subsequent to passage. I have FOIA’d documents and purchased the actual recordings from the committee hearings as well as the Senate and House debates as the transcripts were not done for these very long legislatives days until recently — so that I could listen to what transpired — disturbing — it was and still is shocking to listen to Sen. Shadid and Rep. Schock represent that the city council supports this bill. I have personally spoken with several city council members, no recollection of any vote. I spoke with City Clerk Mary Haynes and guess what — you are correct — there was no discussion of SB2477 in any public meeting of the Peoria City Council and no resolution of support discussed in public, voted on in public nor sent to the IL Legislature in support of this bill. Rep. Schock and his office have not been able to provide any written documentation to support Rep. Schock’s claim — I even received information from Mayor Ardis’ office upon my request regarding the last several years breakfasts that city / state officials have and again no mention on the agenda of the PBC and funding schools and city council support of said.

I spoke in person with Rep. Schock last Thursday evening regarding the status of SB 2477 and if he would vote for it again if it came up in veto session —- I appreciated Rep. Schock’s honesty in that he said he would vote for SB2477 again in an attempt to override the Govenor’s veto, nevertheless I am disappointed that Rep. Schock would continue to support a bill that is essentially “taxation without representation”.

Other legislators expressed concern and their reasons for not supporting this bill because it was taxation without representation during the legislative debates — including

Senate transcript — http://www.ilga.gov/senate/tra.....400081.pdf

pg. 48 – Sen. Lauzen — … If this bill would not encourage other taxing districts to reactivate and refuel their public building commissions, then I woul say let’s all climb on board and all be Yeses. The fear that I have about the legislation – maybe it’s unfounded, but I am convinced of it – is that this is going to encourage others to follow this approach.

pg. 49 — Sen. Lauzen Recites his personal experience as a PBC commissioner in Kane County – his opinion of abuse of building schools with PBC funding.

PBC pays for the maintenance costs of the building — I am not sure of all the implications of this aspect — CJ perhaps you can comment on that in the short term and then in the long term when the PBC no longer has the bonding phase and turns the building back over to the school district.

The fact that legislators do not adequately understand this bill — that they have been led to believe that the Peoria PBC has a pot of $60 million just sitting there waiting to be spent when in reality it is that the PBC has bonding power to further tax the taxpayer to death.

CJ: How can the taxpayers get a separation (line item identification) of our property tax bill so that the PBC portion on the tax bill and any other hidden suprises are clearly identified by project?

And so that no one would think that I am personally against Rep. Schock. I have great respect and gratitude for the many requests for information and documents and assistance that Rep. Schock and his staff have fulfilled for me during his first term of office. The improvement in response compared to what I had received from Rep. Slone is one thousand fold. Nevertheless, I am concerned when such an important piece of legislation is not presented to the taxpayers prior to being proposed as legislation. Yes, yes, there were a couple of articles in the newspaper — nevertheless, $60 million plus of taxpayer money should be adequately discussed with the public. I am also disappointed at the misrepresentations which have occurred and no retrenchment of Rep. Schock still being willing to vote yea and Sen. Shadid also on this piece of legislation.

Candidates — Rep. Schock, Bill Spears, Dave Koehler and Ernie Russell should all be interviewed and asked what their vote would be if they were able to vote on this bill.

More to write, perhaps later — and anyone who wants to obtain this documentation can do so themselves either on line for what is available or by the traditional snail mail requests.

The voters will support a sound proposal that has some real research and logic behind it, and is presented sincerely. All that has been sorely lacking here, and that’s a tragedy for the school kids and Peoria.