#1 -- City Council meeting tonight.
There are a number of interesting items on the City Council agenda (.pdf). The PRU Crew is wondering why, with the city budget in deficit and promises of fiscal conservativism from the 7th ward's Alderman Frank Wsooooolman , the city has scheduled a closed session to discuss land acquisition?
#2 -- Unrest among ORD-REST participants.
A number of comments we've received indicate there are those who feel shut out of participating in the ORD-REST efforts to fight the O'Hare expansion and new runway. We've received reports that while everyone seeking to participate has been given a chance to speak freely in public, they have been privately told their participation isn't needed. We hope that if the City decides to form a city sponsored and taxpayer funded task force, everyone understands that shutting anyone out of the process is undemocratic. But we get the idea that the democratic process isn't how things work in Howardwood.
#3 -- Congratulations to Joe Egan and his petition circulators.
We've received word that Mr. Egan and his volunteers have submitted petitions to the City Cluck, Betty Henneman, that contained more than 2800 signatures allowing a referendum question about a new police station to be placed on the April ballot. They accomplished this participation in the democratic process despite some under-handed efforts from the forces of Frimarkness.
Should be an interesting City Council meeting this evening.
January 19, 2009
Freewheeling!
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15 comments:
If we filed enough signatures to put the police station referendum on the ballot, can the city council go into closed sessions to still go ahead and purchase the Napelton lot next to public works?
Is it legal?
Yes.
If they do that tonight it is absolutely outrageous!
The tax burden the city is carrying is ridiculous. We lost two dealerships last year which generated a good portion of tax revenue. We are over budget and have less money coming in. What are they thinking!
The D64 referendum has put some homeowners into property taxes that have skyrocketed to 19-24K per year. That is almost 2,000.00 per month that they have to spend on property tax!
All while we watch our roads and potholes get worse, our basements flood and WE ARE USED TO IT!
Anon@1:42 --
How much tax revenue did those two dealerships generate?
PRU,
I think the answer to that question depends on whom you ask and what answer will most benifit an agenda.
A truely factual answer I'm afraid, we will NEVER get.
Anon@1:55 --
Are you saying the city budget isn't factual?
Our point is that we continue to hear people repeat the idea that the city's tax collections have been significantly impacted by the closing of Noe and Napleton. We hold a different opinion. We believe that while the sales tax collections are a nice contribution to the city's revenue stream, those collections hardly make a dent.
We shared that opinion in a previous post on 2/8/08.
The largest income revenue for PR is property tax. I have to believe taht second, probally pretty far behind, is commercial sales taxes, something this city is lacking. I'd like to see some money spent on new police radar guns. If they spent a few hours in the morning rush and a few in the afternoon rush, I am sure we could generate some serious income in the short-term. Long-term, well I guess our streets would be safer.
Anon@2:25 --
You didn't read our 2/8/08 post, did you?
Here's some spoon feeding for you --
"The first article also quoted Frimark as saying, "43% of our sales tax comes from automotive: car dealers and gas stations" What the Mayor didn't tell you is that the roughly $5.9 million dollars in total sales tax revenues collected accounts for only 11% of the City's total revenue income of almost $53 million.
Property taxes ($15 million) account for about 30% of all revenue collected. All other revenue is split among 5 other sources of income. The City earns more from the sale of water ($6.5 million), and almost as much from the utility taxes it collects ($5 million) as it does in sales taxes.
Further, that 43% includes ALL automotive categories not just gas stations and car dealerships, but also car rentals and repair shops.
One of the City's greatest revenue streams comes from a category of income called "other"; about $12 million. The revenue sources for "other" include income from various fees, such as ambulance, gasoline, food and beverage taxes, etc.
It seems to us that the $200,000 in sales taxes generated by Napleton may be a 6% contribution to the City's total sales tax revenues, but it is less than .5% of the City's total income."
Now, learn to feed yourself.
IF that # is true (thank you for spelling it out...), those #'s would SIGNIFICANTLY change for 2008's revenue of taxes from auto dealerships. They are folding like crazy.
p.s. New Prospects ROCKS--thank you for getting so many police petition signatures!
PRU:
Thanks for the spoon feeding, even though I agree that we should be feeding ourselves. Unfortunately, finding this information easily and in readily-understandable form on the City's website is a cross between Forrest Gump's box of chocolates analogy ("You never know what you're gonna get") and snipe hunting.
Good luck tonight at the mtg.
We can only hope that the elected officials that are suppose to represent the people...will do the right thing.
Vote no on the PP package as outlined. We need to revise it, and take it apart to remove the fat.
So far one million looks like to dollar figure for this task force.
While it is true that the sales tax isn't as large a component as we may want to believe or be told, it is still critical incrementally, to the financial health of the community. The closing of car dealerships or any other retail business not only causes the loss of sales tax, it ultimately causes a reduction in property tax when the property owner files with the County for a reduced assessed valuation.
Having healthy retail keeps values up and sales and property taxes higher. For every commercial dollar we lose, it is added to our residential tax burden.
Having said that, our residential taxes compared to folks in DuPage, Will or Lake county, based on home values, is a bargin.
I'm neither a "higher up" in the ORD-REST org or city council person so I'm expressing an opinion as a casual bystander at a few meetings. I think there may have been an attempt by ORD-REST organizers to distance themselves from one or two "loose cannons" if you will. I don't believe there is any attempt to hand pick volunteers. Just my opinion as a casual bystander.
Thank you Joe Egan and everyone who helped him and everyone who signed.
I was at that meeting last night. That ORDREST woman talked for almost 30 minutes! It was painful. She is trying to create a corporation for her and her friends with taxpayer $$. The only entertaining part was watching Frimark WATCH HER.
No no no. We don't need another task force. There are other ways to accomplish the fight against the airport. This is not it.
Also--from the meeting. The deafening silence greeted one citizen who asked about the similar referendums for the ballot. The silence was from the CITY COUNCIL as they refused to respond to her question. It was a simple one. the verbiage in THEIR referendum was confusing and she didnt know what the difference was between the two.
WTG Joe Egan and his volunteers. That is a LOT of signatures and a LARGE percentage of the voters!!!
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