There’s one more observation I’d like to make about District 150’s tax levy, and that involves the second-largest expenditure behind Education: the Public Building Commission (PBC).
Since 1993, the school board has been unable to tap the PBC for bonds due to a state law prohibiting it (we’re paying for pre-1993 bonds on our tax bills today). Sen. Shadid and Rep. Schock would like to see that change and passed legislation that would allow the school board to again get funding for construction through the PBC, but it was vetoed by Gov. Blagojevich. It was an amendatory veto that allowed funding to come from the PBC, but would require a public referendum to do so. Now Shadid wants to work on overriding that veto.
The school board has consistently promised that receiving these funds through the PBC would not raise taxes; i.e. the tax rate would remain the same. (Of course, we all know a tax rate that stays the same when it’s supposed to go down is a tax increase by any definition but the school board’s, but that’s their claim.) They even took action to cap its tax rate for the payment of leases with the Public Building Commission, and this was the basis of Shadid’s support for overriding the governor’s veto.
There are two problems (for taxpayers) with this little scheme.
First, the school district capped the tax rate at .60%. And, as you can see from Part 1 of this post, the current rate is .5578%. So, even by their own definition it will be a tax increase — an increase of .0422%. And, of course, since this supposed “cap” is only set by the school board and not state law, it could easily be repealed at any time.
Second, since the PBC’s part of the levy is not listed separately on your tax bill, how would you ever know if the rate changed, anyway? Only if you took the time to go down to the county clerk’s office and get a copy of the tax computation worksheet, which is unlikely for 99.99% of Peorians. I asked how one can go about listing the PBC’s part of the levy separately like they currently do for District 150 pensions. According to the county clerk’s office, it would have to be required by state law. I don’t expect our local lawmakers would want to see that, do you?
If Shadid, Schock, et. al., are successful in overriding the governor’s veto, make no mistake about it — they will have just voted to circumvent safeguards for voters (the referendum process) and allow District 150 to raise your taxes without your consent.
CJ:
WOW — PBC is even more tax dollars down the drain. So why is Sen. Shadid pushing for this override veto session vote when our taxes will go up no matter what?
How have the supporters of the bill justified it? The arguments against it are pretty persuasive, and I haven’t heard anything on the other side.
Supporters of the bill claim that the buildings are in dire need of replacement, the school district desperately needs the money, and the city has a history of denying any referendum for higher taxes, no matter how necessary.
Jim Thornton of the PBC cites the building project that spawned the PBC in the first place: replacing the County Courthouse. It was falling apart, apparently. I haven’t researched this myself, although I have no reason to disbelieve him, but he claims that a piece of the facade fell off the old courthouse, killing two guys who were working on it — that’s how bad it was. Yet a referendum to replace the courthouse failed multiple times (three or four — can’t remember). Hence the PBC was formed and — voila! — no need to get a referendum anymore.
Shadid cites the city’s attempts to get a new county jail. He told the Illinois Senate, while speaking in favor of SB2477: “I can only tell you that when I tried to build a county jail, we had three referendums that failed and we finally had to go to the Public Building Commission in 1985 to get a jail built that was to replace the jail that was 125 years old.”
So, the logic goes, since they couldn’t persuade the voters in 1955 or 1985 to pay for worthy projects and had to go around them via the PBC, it’s a sure bet they won’t be able to persuade the voters in 2006 for supposedly needed school building replacement, thus they need the PBC to fund it without voter approval.
The problem I have with this, as I’ve said before, is that the school board has not made their case that new school buildings are necessary in the first place — witness the supposedly inferior Blaine-Sumner Middle School that the district rehabbed for district offices immediately after “closing” it. Also consider Superintendent Hinton’s recent admission (as reported by the Journal Star) that “the district only did a preliminary review of whether [Glen Oak School] could cost-effectively be renovated.”
I disagree with the PBC being used to go around the voters in general, but even if you agree with their logic — that sometimes you have to go around the voters because a building must be replaced for safety or other compelling reasons — it doesn’t apply in District 150’s case. They have not even come close to proving they must have new schools.
Where would-could the museum fit into all of this?
I don’t believe the museum can get funding through the PBC. Only public bodies can get funding — and I believe the museum collaboration is a private group, is it not?
On the other hand, the Peoria Public Library would be able to get PBC funding if they wanted it for their expansion project. But notice they’re going the route of a public referendum instead. That’s the right way to do it.
So the logic in support of the Bill is that if the project is really important the government should not have to put it before the taxpayers (because they are stupid/belligerent/can’t be trusted with something so important).
I see.
SA — Yes, that’s the basic argument. It’s funny that they have such a low view of the very voters who put them in office. Nice to know what they think of us, eh?
It seems that what often happens is, when a person of somewhat normal intelligence and humility gets put into a position of authority, especially as part of an organization (corporation, government, school or park district, etc.), the person’s brain neurons start misfiring, so that the logical part of the brain becomes effectively detached or unoperative. Arrogance often sets in.
Maybe this seems funny to some, but I have seen it happen over and over again. We should all admire a person who once elevated doesn’t forget where they came from, what their parents and others taught them, and otherwise retains all their marbles.
SA: Amen to that! Now, just where are we going to find and persuade such fine citizens to run for office? (City council, park district (trustees and the president) and school board all slots to be filled next year in the spring)…..