On Tuesday, March 24th, 2009, the public will get an opportunity to voice their opinion on a $120 million dollar property tax hike proposed by the Village of Schaumburg. This tax increase not only affects Schaumburg Taxpayers but all the property taxpayers in School District 211, School District District 54, Harper College District 512, Schaumburg Township, Cook County, and more.

The Village of Schaumburg proposes to spend $120 million dollars inside a new Tax Increment Financing (TIF) district for a Transportation Oriented Redevelopment around a nonexistent & unfunded STAR rail line. The STAR rail line has no concrete plan for completion, yet this has not deterred Schaumburg Mayor Al Larson and the Village board from pursuing the largest property tax increase in the history of the Village of Schaumburg. 

While the expenditures will only be spent on a small area (bordered north of the I-90 tollway, south of Algonquin Road, east of Meacham Road, and west of Rolling Meadows) the taxes will come from a much wider audience. This TIF district will have an effect of raising taxes on all property owners in Elk Grove Village, Hanover Park, Hoffman Estates, Palatine, Streamwood, and to a smaller scale all of Cook County.

Their will be no public referendum, or vote, on the creation of a new tax increment finance district and increase in property taxes. Instead, citizens will only have one opportunity to voice their opinion on the subject at a public hearing to be held at 7:30 p.m. on March 24, 2009 at Schaumburg Village Hall. If your concerned about  an increase in property taxes, at the absolute worst possible economic time, you have only this one opportunity to stop it from happening.

Sadly, this tax hike proposal has received little mention in the press and there has been no mention at all of the $120 million tax increase size. Only a Freedom of Information Act Request by the Schaumburg Freedom Coalition revealed this information.

If history repeats itself, this $120 million tax obligation might get much, much larger over the next 23 years. Schaumburg’s only other TIF district, the Old SchaumburgCenter (OSC) TIF District, started out in 1989 with an original plan for a 23-year budget of $7,270,000. However, through 5 Amendments to the original plan the OSC TIF 23-year budget has exploded to $49,543,226 as of October 1st, 2008. All paid for by local property taxpayers.

Total estimated project costs from the Original Plan were $7,270,000, increased by the First Amendment to $26,869,058 in 2004, increased by the Second Amendment to $29,055,058 in 2005, increased by the Third Amendment to $31,272,827 in 2006, to $37,668,490 by the Fourth Amendment, and proposed to be increased to $49,543,226 by this Amendment.  Source: FOIA Olde Schaumburg Center TIF District Expansion Plan

This represents a 681% planned expenditure increase over the original budget in raw dollars, or a 392% increase factoring inflation.

If the new STAR Line TIF district experiences the same type of growth, local taxpayers could see $813,795,000 in new property taxes collected over the 23-year life of the TIF district. 

Unfortunately, it is very unclear on what the Village of Schaumburg plans to spend this huge property tax haul on. The only budget that Village of Schaumburg has released does not include a single specific line item of what the Village will spend the money on.

We do know what the Village of Schaumburghas used TIF district money on in the past: to give massive subsides to private developers in financing the bulldozing of condemned property, building private-use parking lots, financing special repairs on private properties, financing the legal expenses of eminent domain proceedings for private redevelopment, and forcibly purchasing private property. All done with taxpayer dollars.

While the details are very few, it looks as if the same type of questionable expenditures of tax dollars for private profit is being planned again. The Village of Schaumburg looks as if they are willing to spend millions in taxpayer dollars to maximize profits for re-developers. 

A very un-detailed expenditure table prepared by the Village of Schaumburg is below.

Schaumburg Township $120 Million Property Tax Increase

Source: Schaumburg TOD/STAR Line Redevelopment Plan and Project 

You won’t find these documents available to citizens on the Village of Schaumburg’s website, but you will find them at the SFC’s Schaumburg Transparency Project page. 

Previously, the Schaumburg Freedom Coalition has detailed at least 6 reasons why this project must be opposed to protect taxpayers and prevent the wasteful spending of hundreds of millions of taxpayers dollars. Also, we posted a primer on what TIF districts are and what they mean for your tax obligations.

Please come out at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, March 24, 2009 at Schaumburg Village Hall to ask questions and voice your concern over this important decision and ask the Village to suspend this project indefinitely.

Email this to your friends & family, contact the Village Board, tell your local elected officials that you oppose this massive tax increase, time is running out.

Mayor Al Larson               alarson@ci.schaumburg.il.us
Trustee Marge Connelly    mconnelly@ci.schaumburg.il.us
Trustee Hank Curcio        hcurcio@ci.schaumburg.il.us
Trustee Tom Dailly          tdailly@ci.schaumburg.il.us
Trustee George Dunham  gdunham@ci.schaumburg.il.us
Trustee Mark Madej         mmadej@ci.schaumburg.il.us
Trustee Jack Sullivan       jsullivan@ci.schaumburg.il.us

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