ANOTHER GREAT SUCCESS BY OPEN THE BOOKS…VISIT THE SITE
http://www.openthebooks.com/
Since May, our teams and allies have investigated the second largest college in Illinois- College of DuPage (COD). We’ve found a “Junior College Gone Wild.” Click here for details.
We’ve had a lot of success during the past seven months:
- Stopped a corrupted $20 million state construction grant
- Froze student tuition for the first time in fourteen years
- Exposed $100 million in hidden “Imprest” spending- mostly to insiders- since 2009. Much of the spending was on no-bid contracts.
- Froze property taxes.
- But, it hasn’t been an easy ride.
After we exposed tens of thousands of dollars spent by President, Senior Management, and Trustees on dining, drinking, partying and accepting gifts at student and taxpayer expense, COD Trustee Dianne McGuire compared us and our allies to … Nazi Tyranny. Watch 20 minute diatribe here. When your opponents invoke Nazi’s in a spending debate… You’re Winning.
Watch the Winning Argument to Freeze Property Taxes
Adam Andrzejewski, Founder, OpenTheBooks.com
December 19, 2014
WE SPEARHEADED THE PROPERTY TAX FREEZE AT COLLEGE OF DUPAGE.
(It’s the 2nd largest college in Illinois)
The College of DuPage Board of Trustees passed an essentially flat 2014 tax levy Thursday night for more than $109 million.
“There is no tax increase,” Senior Vice President and Treasurer Tom Glaser told trustees before the levy was unanimously approved.
The total levy comes to $109,148,351, split between $71,905,514 for the education fund, $11,741,177 for operations and maintenance, and $25,501,755 for debt service.
The board also approved abating $8,742,625 of the college’s debt scheduled to be paid down, which is one reason the levy will not increase.
For the District 502 property owner with a home valued at $257,252 — and a decrease of 2.5 percent in equalized assessed valuation — the net decrease in their tax bill will be $4.61.
After the vote, Glaser spoke about the college’s reasoning behind the flat levy, noting the pressure the board had received during the last few months from government watchdog groups.
“There are economic and political realities,” he said. “You saw the dynamics in the room tonight.”
Indeed, critics of the board and the current administration, along with Board Vice Chair Kathy Hamilton, continued to slam the board and the administration for what they consider wasteful spending and a lack of financial transparency.
Before the levy came up for discussion, Adam Andrzejewski, founder of taxpayer group Open the Books, called for freezing the tax levy, and pointed out he had figures showing 10,000 DuPage County property owners who were behind in paying their property taxes.
“It’s 10,000 families,” he said.
Hamilton said that the college had a surplus of $150 million, calling it an “obscene amount,” and echoed Andrzejewski’s call for a tax freeze.
But Glaser pointed to the actual levy on the agenda and said that, while the Illinois tax cap made it possible to levy an additional $1.3 million, the college decided that, at least for this year, to forgo any tax hike.
“Are you saying that there is no increase at all,” Hamilton asked Glaser.
“That is correct,” he said.
Hamilton took issue with the way the levy was legally adopted, saying, “I find this language to be unclear.”
Another sore point between the college and its critics is the imprest accounting method used that doesn’t list any outlay under $15,000 on its monthly financial report.
Andrzejewski has criticized the board repeatedly for the lack of transparency involved in the system and has several times pointed out that items such as meals for the board at the college’s exclusive Waterleaf Restaurant were hidden from public scrutiny by the system.
“Every month I will reject (the financial report),” Hamilton said, calling for a proposal to be put on next month’s agenda to do away with the system.
But other board members pointed out that all outlays were now itemized on the college’s website. (Glaser said later that they had been posted sometime during the last month.)
Whatever Hamilton’s feelings about how the levy was posted on the agenda, she was happy about it being flat for the first time in recent years, and indicated that the pressure brought on the board by her and other groups had a definite effect.
“This is huge,” she said.
But others in the room had harsh words for Trustee Dianne McGuire, who had spoken out against tactics by the board’s critics that she felt crossed the line from legitimate criticism into bullying.
At the Nov. 20 board meeting, McGuire had described the watchdog groups as being “right-wing ideologues” and cited a poem by German theologian Martin Niemoller that described the unwillingness of many Germans to speak out as Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party rose to power.
“Those that invoke Nazis in a spending debate have no place in government and especially in a position of trust in a public education institution,” said Matthew Tyrmand, deputy director of the New York-based American Transparency, in a passionate public comment statement.
Tyrmand, a Polish Jew whose family members were murdered in the Holocaust, called for McGuire’s resignation.
After the meeting, McGuire said the board’s critics misunderstood the context of her remarks.
“I was merely explaining my own hesitancy in speaking out,” she said. “I wasn’t characterizing them as Nazis in any way, shape or form.”
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