From 1987-2009 Schaumburg's budget grew 260% faster than population growth + inflation. It is set to grow 20% more from 2009-11.

In 2008-09 the Village of Schaumburg expended $153.8M. A recently passed budget pegs spending for 2010-11 at $184.5M dollars, an increase in spending of $30.7M, almost 20%, in just two years. With out of control government spending is it any wonder that Mayor Larson and the Village Board had to resort to historic measures and levy a property tax for the first time in Schaumburg’s 52 year history? It shouldn’t be.

Schaumburg’s Mayor Larson said last November that, “We’re going to run out of money September of next year unless we do something about it. And the only revenue source that we can look at that would meet that kind of requirement is a property tax.” Source ABC 7 News

Mayor Larson is correct that the Village was going to run out of money, but the reason for this certainly isn’t lack of or shrinking revenues elsewhere. The vote to hike property taxes was the 18th major tax hike since Mayor Larson was first elected in 1987, and includes tax hikes on sales, restaurants, hotels, telecommunications, amusement, cable, and two (2) Tax Increment Financing districts.

The Village of Schaumburg will begin collecting $23.5M in new property taxes in November or December of this year. Local residents are expected to see an 8% increase in their property tax bills due to the Schaumburg tax hike alone and the total increase could easily top 10-12% with other taxing bodies increasing their property tax levy as well.

While Larson and the Village Board, led by Senior Trustee George Dunham, like to say that the reduced retail sales caused by the slumping economy is the reason the Village was on the brink of bankruptcy, I think the problem goes much deeper than that. Since Mayor Al Larson was elected in 1987, Village expenditures have exploded from $24.9 million to over $200 million (including Convention Center) for the 2008/09 fiscal year.

The last three years is a perfect example of the continuation of out of control spending.

Total Expenditures and Other Uses by Year (Excluding Convention Center). Source Pg. 4 FY 2010-2011 Annual Budget Proposal Village of Schaumburg.

$153.8M 2008-09 Actual
$169.7M 2009-10 Projected +$16.1M from previous year = 10.4% increase.
$184.5M 2010-11 Budgeted  +$14.6M from previous year = 8.6% increase.
+$30.7M  2-yr increase = 19.9% increase.

The Village of Schaumburg’s government needs to cap spending increase at the rate of the population growth plus inflation. I have proposed this as one of my major spending reforms in my campaign for Mayor of Schaumburg.  

If the Village would have followed this simple budgeting rule, the Village expenditures would have been limited to growing an estimated 2% per year, which would have resulted in a $160M budget for 2010-11 year.

Coincidentally, the difference between the Village’s bloated $184.5M budget for 2010-11 and a budget whose growth is limited to population growth + inflation of $160M is more than the entire new property tax revenue haul of $23.5M, by an additional $1M dollars. Instead of dangerous property tax hikes that hurt Schaumburg’s citizens and businesses and hamper overall economic development, the Village should be following prudent budgeting rules and then the Village could be talking about tax cuts instead of tax hikes.

The extreme spending by the Village of Schaumburg has got to stop if we are ever going to reverse the course of 18 tax hikes in only 23 years. It is time to enact statutory budget growth limits to cap spending increase to match population growth plus inflation. Anything short of that is irresponsible.

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