Village Officials Mislead on Taxes & Spending, Again
September 2nd, 2009 | by Brian Costin Published in Blog, Features, Taxes
In a press release, prior to Mayor Larson’s Annual Aviation Celebration, the Village of Schaumburg touted the dubious economic benefits of the Schaumburg Airport and claimed “The current operations of the airport are solely covered by revenues generated by the airport and no general fund revenues are used for airport purposes.”
But that’s not true, not by a long shot.
A Schaumburg Freedom Coalition investigation has revealed that the Village transferred nearly $1.8 million from the General Fund to the Airport Fund from 2006 – 2008, according to Schaumburg’s Comprehensive Annual Financial Reports.
$616,517 in 2006, $598,823 in 2007, and $584,167 in 2008.
Schaumburg’s press release also forgot to mention that the Schaumburg Airport has a special property tax exemption that ends up costing area taxpayers an additional $800,000 to $1 million per year.
Meanwhile, Mayor Larson has received at least 16 donations totaling $4,880 from the Northwest Flyers, who are headquartered at the Schaumburg Airport, since 1999.
Unfortunately, this isn’t the first time the citizens of Schaumburg have been mislead about taxes & spending. Schaumburg’s leaders have had a very busy year in making false & misleading claims.
In January, a Schaumburg Freedom Coalition investigation found that Mayor Larson mislead Village citizens in the Winter Cracker Barrel newsletter when he wrote “The (2009) spending plan called for no new taxes being imposed or tax rate increases.” The Schaumburg Freedom Coalition found Schaumburg raised 369 taxes & fees from 2008 to 2009.
Finally, in April, the Village unanimously passed a measure to hike property taxes by a record $120 million dollars over 23 years. In the process, 5 of the 6 Village trustees broke pledges to not increase property taxes. The Schaumburg Freedom Coalition has found evidence of Schaumburg collecting over $21 million in property taxes for the Olde Schaumburg Center TIF district from 1989-2003, and they are still actively collecting property taxes. Despite these facts, Mayor Larson, other Village officials, and the Village’s website continues to falsely claim that the Village doesn’t assess a property tax.
These 3 examples of Schaumburg Village Officials misleading the people of Schaumburg about taxes reminds me of an old joke: Q: How can you tell if a politician is lying? A: Their lips are moving.
Sadly, this is often too true in Schaumburg with Mayor Larson & the Village Trustees. It begs the question, why do Schaumburg’s politicians mislead about basic tax and spending facts and expect to get away with it? I think that politicians want to be elected to office, even if that means deliberately misleading the voters. Telling the truth about political issues can lead to a loss of votes by the public. The only way to put a stop to this is for the people of Schaumburg to hold our elected officials accountable to a higher standard of behavior than what has been demonstrated of our current leadership.
While it would be nice if the Village Board and Mayor Larson would clarify Schaumburg’s record on taxes, we shouldn’t hold our collective breath waiting for reform from the inside. In the 2011 municipal elections, Mayor Larson and 3 Village Trustees are up for re-election. Schaumburg would be well served by electing individuals with more personal integrity and the ability to tell the truth about taxes.
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