Board member Robert Toalson confirmed Wednesday that the board will consider a 2-cent tax increase, which would raise about $700,000 for the district. But he said he would wait until the meeting to discuss details.
Discuss.
UPDATE: More in today's NG:
But board member Robert Toalson noted that, in its 60-year history, the board has never before asked voters to increase taxes.
He said the board had considered putting taxes to a vote in other years, but deferred to school and park districts that were seeking tax increases.
The board's president, Ruth Wene, said the district has profited in the past from long-range planning, including the acquisition and transformation of the Middle Fork Preserve, where the meeting was held.
Board members noted that for the owner of a $100,000, home, the tax increase impact would be $6.67, or "a couple of Starbucks coffees" in Herrick's words.
(Disclosure: I serve on the Board of Directors of the Forest Preserve Distrct's Foundation.)
At this point, I say the more the merrier. These taxing districts are so out of touch with reality that the more they ask the less they shall receive. How many people, when presented with 3 (or 4, 5, or 6?) tax increase questions, are just going to say NO to all of them? I think it will be a lot. I don't get to just raise my income because costs have gone up. I have to cut back somewhere. I think it's time that all these taxing districts did the same (and I'm a Democrat!).
I am wondering if this is a strategy to capitalize on the expected Obama landslide?
Theory - students and liberals will come out in big numbers to support Obama and our tax increases?
When the rest of us run short on money, we CUT BACK.
What part of that don't these taxing bodies understand?
I don't care what kind of a sob story, or threats of cuts in services that they lay out, I'm voting NO.
I'm a liberal and an Obama supporter, but don't count on my vote to raise the Forest Preserve, the Park District, the schools, the townships or any other taxes. My house value is going down and my real estate taxes are going up. The Bush economy has hit me in the gut along with everyone else making less than $250,000 a year. I'm not going to put $4 a gallon gas in my tank and then go vote for a tax increase for anybody, no matter how worthy the cause. Make do.
great to hear, Ezra - I hope you attitude is a common one.
Bush and the GOP Congress has had eight years to modify or eliminate the AMT, work on solutions to the medicare/SS funding problems and downsize the Federal footprint on my back. They have done nothing or the made these issues worse while spending like 'drunken sailors' so the national debt apporaches the GNP in size. Yes, they have managed to given tax breaks or 'bail out packages' to those major corporate interests who funded their campaigns. Yet, most of the taxpayers and probably posters on this site are middle class taxpayers or small business owner/operators like me have seen no tax relief from the Federal government. Yet we witness every taxing body in this state go after the maximum tax increases every chance they get.
No, I am not a liberal or an Obama supporter or on Medicare. I am just an older Republican. However, after living through the last eight years under the current millionaires running the Federal government, I am sorry to say a Democrat in the White House and a Democrat controlled Congress could not possibly do any worse for me. That does not mean I will vote Democratic but this administration and the Republicans in Congress who have supported all the efforts of this administration have made it very difficult for me to tell what the GOP stands for.
$700,000 for a forest preserve? Seems like to me that the trees grew ok for several centuries without any welfare or assistance.
I am sorry to say a Democrat in the White House and a Democrat controlled Congress could not possibly do any worse for me.
You might be surprised.
$700,000 for a forest preserve? Seems like to me that the trees grew ok for several centuries without any welfare or assistance.
They also grew that way without people and their invasive plant species.
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At some point we have to trust the government. - redstatewannabe on 2008-06-12 at 1:14pm
Board members noted that for the owner of a $100,000, home, the tax increase impact would be $6.67, or "a couple of Starbucks coffees" in Herrick's words.
Hasn't the board noticed that Starbucks just announced they're closing 600 stores because people aren't buying $4 coffees anymore?
Also, hardly anyone owns a $100k home anymore. Well, they may own one, but their assessments will be higher than that. The average median home price is up 99% in the last 10 years. The average salary is down a bit over that same period. But you want more taxes? I'll vote no.
I went to the website, looking for an annual budget - couldn't find one.
Current forest preserve tax rate is .0779. A .02 increase is just over a 25% increase.
Yeah, its just a couple cups of coffee. That must be in the how-to-get-people-to-vote-for-a-referendum manual.
I'm voting for the Forest Preserve referendum. I live in Champaign, and that way, when I have to get in my car and drive to Mahomet or Penfeld at today's gas prices I'll feel like I'm really getting something for my real estate tax increase on my house in Champaign.
The fact that Illinois, by far, has the most local taxing districts of any other state in the Union is one of the big reasons we should have a Constitutional Convention to review how the Constitution has created this problem. All of these districts is one of the major reasons that property tax payers continue to get abused year after year. Housing prices are going to drop ~10%, but you can bet cash money your tax bill is still going up. Many of these districts were created decades ago and have ceased to serve a useful function. Others could just as easily be done by municipalities.
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j
Part-Time Pundit
redstate,
You can find the Forrest Preserves' budget by going to the Champaign County Clerk's Official Website, select "Taxes", then select 2007 "Budgets". Scroll down the the Champaign County Forrest Preserve and select from the "Budget" column.
thanks John.
"We want to acquire land along our rivers and streams," he said, for wildlife habitat, prairie, forest and wetlands
...
The second goal is to fund becoming the county entity to maintain a projected bicycle and equestrian trail between Urbana and Kickapoo State Park near Danville. That would include 17 miles in Champaign County, out of the total 24 miles.
OK, so the top two priorities for this new money are to buy land and to get involved in a trail from Urbana to Kickapoo. As we enter the worst economy since the Great Depression, thanks to GWB, both of these things sound a bit...extravagant.
Also, I wonder about the land they want to buy along the rivers and streams. You think voluntary transactions, or some eminent domain taking of property?
Just Say NO.
(Even though you'd like to add some specific descriptors.)
Eminent domain for a forest preserve? You've got to be kidding.
The Lake of the Woods golf course has been and will continue to be a real money maker for the District. This year there was a 350K expenditure for a much needed upgrading of the course. Even with that they started with positive balance and they end with a positive balance.
"You think voluntary transactions, or some eminent domain taking of property?"
Voluntary transactions, RSW. Almost all non-agriculturally productive river-bottoms and wetlands, as with the Cook Property purchased earlier this year through a combination of grants and community donations.
IMO, and again I'm involved with the Foundation so keep that in mind, the FPD is acquiring land the right way - through voluntary transactions funded by grants and donations - and doing the right thing with it - preserving it as both habitat and for recreational purposes for the citizens of the County. They're not hindering development, and they're not asking for more money for empire-building, they're not asking for a massive increase but rather a little bit more for operating funds and capital improvements so they can maintain the land they already have, and that we private citizens are helping them to acquire.
That said, I understand that this is a very difficult environment to ask for funding to land conservation. But let's not paint the FPD with the same brush as Urbana Park District or Unit 4 or CUMTD, please.
And I understand that many people won't support a property tax increase, no matter what the issue or the situation. I hope many people, though, will look at the FPD and the services it provides, realize that there's really not a private sector alternate for recreational land preservation in Champaign County, recognize that the District is doing quite a lot with relatively small budget, and that many citizens of Champaign County are asking them to do more by voluntarily supporting through donations their efforts to preserve more riparian and wetland areas, and be willing to support a modest tax increase proposal.