October 28, 2009

Our Briefs Runneth Over!



#1 -- Come on, feel the noise! -- PROAC

For any PRU readers looking for some free entertainment this evening, you may want to check out what's going on at the meeting of the Park Ridge O'Hare Airport Commission. The meeting begins at 7:00 pm in the Mayor's Conference room on the 2nd floor at City Hall.


#2 -- Better late than never! -- Park District Videos

Once again, attention Park Board Wannabes! The Park Ridge Recreation and Park District has finally managed to post the most recently available videos of their meetings. The next scheduled special meeting for the Park Board will be on Thursday, November 5th in the Board Room of the Maine Park Leisure Center -- the meeting begins at 7:30 pm.


#3 -- B.O.H.I.C.A! -- Property Taxes

A report in yesterday's Chicago Tribune warns of 'Double-digit property tax increases in city, Cook County suburbs' The article also provides a link to a map (.pdf) showing the median increases in property taxes for municipalities -- Park Ridge's median increase over last year is only 6.2%! Doesn't everyone feel just great about that?

The median property tax for Park Ridge is $7,176 -- and the PRU Crew is very pleased not to be living in Winnetka!


#4 -- Down on their luck! -- Knights of Columbus Fish Fry

Last Friday, the Knights of Columbus hosted a Fish Fry at St. Paul of the Cross. All proceeds raised will go to the St. Paul of the Cross Sunday Suppers, a joint venture of the members of the PRMA (Park Ridge Ministerial Association).

As some of you may recall, the PRMA was also the chief sponsor for the effort to open a PADS Homeless shelter in Park Ridge. When the PADS organization took their shelter idea back and went home to Palatine, the PRMA responded to the christian call by beginning the Sunday Suppers program at St. Paul of the Cross.

For the Knights of Columbus Fish Fry, in support of the PRMA/St. Paul of the Cross Sunday Suppers, all of the churches involved in the PRMA, as well as Adrienne Timm and the rest of the "Social Concerns Ministry" at St. Paul of the Cross, were invited to attend.

But clearly the Knights of Columbus were down on their luck, since not a single invited member showed up to support the Knight's efforts.


#5 -- Speaking of pretending to care! -- Faux Cardboard Duvet


Our PRU.Tech found the following item online. The Crew feels this is in really really bad taste, which is of course why we love it!


The above item comes courtesy of dutchbydesign.com and is being marketed as "The Home Duvet lets you sleep under a cardboard box so a homeless person doesn't have to!" and "30% of the gross profits go to Centrepoint, the UK charity for homeless young people aged 16-25."

Everyone got that? You can pretend to care about the homeless and pretend to experience sleeping under a cardboard box! That's even more convenient than giving up your time one whole night a week or showing up to eat Knights of Columbus Fish on Fry-day!

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Pru you are brutal. I am laughing but that is brutal.

ParkRidgeUnderground said...

Thanks. We do our best.

Anonymous said...

How the h#ll can property taxes be going up in this economy?

I read the article and I still don't understand it.

We need a break. Or we will break!

Anonymous said...

150pm-because less taxes are being paid due to foreclosures, etc.

Anonymous said...

2:26, it's not that simple. I took away from the article many things are adding to the higher tax bills. Tax caps are getting phased out is one of them.

Anonymous said...

Does anyone know if there are plans to videotape the PROAC
meeting tonight? I saw that the first meeting was taped however it doesn't appear that the second one was.

Anonymous said...

Anon @ 2:26PM:

If there is a foreclosure, the bank that takes possession of the house will continue to pay the taxes so that they don't lose the property in a tax sale. So foreclosures aren't the reason that the rest of us have to pay more.

My understanding is that the total amount of money that the government wants to collect from property owners increases each year. When they divide it up among the property owners, each person is told how much to pay. This is completely independent of the collection of the money. That is, if some people can't afford to pay, it doesn't raise the taxes of everyone else. In those cases, the tax bill is sold at a tax auction so that the government still gets their money.

Hoover said...

3:19 PM:

"Tax caps" aren't getting phased out, its the caps on the increase in ASSESSED VALUE that are what's being phased out.

The problem is that taxes keep going up because the politicians and bureaucrats keep spending our money for things that they wouldn't spend their own money on.

Anonymous said...

I still don't understand it.

Anonymous said...

We got our tax bill today and all I can say is ^#%&@*$$$$!

ParkRidgeUnderground said...

Anon@3:28 --

We hear you. We wanted to raise the subject and make an attempt to prepare people for the arrival of these bills and the just barely pre-holidy due date -- much less time to recover.