Dear Friends,

I have told many of you that we are making a difference and I firmly believe this.  I started this cause by campaigning door to door for the CountyBoard, listening to the pleas of overburdened taxpayers for relief. One year ago, I invited the CountyAssessor, Gordan Bush, representatives from school districts 90 and 203, the city of O’Fallon, and the township to explain to us their part in the issue of rising taxes in O’Fallon.  I represented the County. After the tremendous response from the first meeting, I formed the organization OurTaxMoney.org. With the help of this group of talented volunteers, our research has proved that there are solutions that can provide relief to overburdened taxpayers. 

This report will give you an update of our progress.  From this you will see that we are looking for any and all possibilities to obtain relief.  Accusations have been made that we are picking on certain governments, in particular the schools.  From the following report of our efforts, you will see that this is completely false.  Our efforts are focused on getting results and we have confronted everyone able to help us.

Lobbying for Relief:  We are very fortunate to have the lobbying experience of Joe Behnken.  Joe and I recently traveled to Springfield to meet with the Senate and the house to investigate the possibility of legislative relief.  We were encouraged to find that some legislation might be possible and that political support from both parties could be sufficient to deliver this to house and the senate for a vote and passage.

1.      We are helping to develop a special “carve-out formula ” to the school’s state general aid formula that will help account for the negative effect of the escalating EAV’s due to the township multiplier.  We are preparing financial statements to enable the state to judge how costly our proposals would be and determine how much relief would be provided to the schools.  This is actually the job of our schools but apparently they are too busy asking us for more money instead of fighting for our fair share of funds from the state.

2.     We are investigating what process is required to change the property assessment duties from a County assessor to a Township Assessor so that citizens can have more assurance of fair and consistent assessments.

CountyAssessor: I maintain that the job review of the current CountyAssessor will be performed by the voters in 2010.  Pick the qualified candidate and save your money to help him or her get elected.

Board of  Review: Until we can obtain fair and reasonable assessments from the CountyAssessor, I encourage every tax payer to protest their assessed value by at least the increased amount due to the township multiplier. If you have been recently re-assessed or you just purchased your home, any increase in your EAV due to the multiplier is too much.  You can use the worksheet provided on our website to help you successfully make your case.Click Here  Note the results of all the protests in ShilohValley and O’Fallon Township published in the Progress three weeks ago.  Most interesting are those properties that went UP! Yes,UP!

New Township Multiplier:  The amount of this year’s multiplier is still unknown.  The “tentative” multiplier has for months been projected at 6.5% for O’Fallon Township.  In the last 5 years it has not changed much at all from the tentative amount. However, it is very possible that with all the attention being placed on this unjust increase in the EAV, we may see a township multiplier that is LOWER than what is projected.  Yes, LOWER.

We are also researching how the multiplier is determined and confirming that this process is completely objective and calculated using accurate sales data. 

Consolidation of school Districts:   This idea should be revisited.  Once all the new buildings are completed, our schools will be paying to maintain many open classrooms.  Could this have been avoided if our districts were consolidated?  We know that the abundant tax base that CentralSchool District would definitely benefit District 90. If it was not so abundant, then Central would not have been in favor of losing tax revenue from the TIF proposed at Regency.  Consolidation has worked for other communities like Edwardsville. Why not ours?

Will the Top 4 taxers “give back” the windfall of the multiplier? These are the responses we have received from the taxing bodies.Top 4 Tax Increases

1.      SWIC: Even though they delayed their vote on the tax increase, since more people than ever showed up to request they not do it, they did it anyway.  I appealed to the Chairman of the board to delay the purchase of the neighboring land for expansion until the property they had for sale was actually sold.  Then they would be able to use these proceeds to purchase the new property without any increase in our taxes.    He did not show me the courtesy of a response. The board voted in favor of the tax increase and now, you guessed it, they are soon to close on the sale of the property that had not yet sold.  Patience is apparently not necessary if you are using “other people’s money”.   We will soon be examining the financials of SWIC and make our findings available on the website. Remember, SWIC’s enrollment grew by 3% but their taxes increased 61% in the last five years!  O’Fallon’s representative on the board has not defended us as he should.  He is up for election in April 09.

2.     St. Clair County:I have requested that the County give back $10 million in cash out of their $220 million plus in reserves.  No one at the county has yet been able to prove to me that any of this is legally restricted and no restrictions are indicated in the audited statements.  This does not include any abatement of taxes, the amount that is less than the legal maximum we can tax.  I will make this motion to give back the money at the next County board meeting.  I would appreciate your support in asking each county board member to provide the relief taxpayers need now by voting in favor of this.  May 27^th 5^th Floor of County Court House 7:30pm sharp.

3.     O’Fallon GradeSchool District 90:  School board President, John Cohrs, has made it very clear to me that they will not be reducing their levy by the amount of the proposed multiplier at their next school board meeting this Thursday at the district office at 7pm.  They will be spending much of their $9million in cash reserves on the new junior high and increasing their budget by $1million each year on new programs to “broaden the horizons” of junior high students. The amount we have requested is, you’ve got it, $1million.  It is not because they cannot reduce their increase in taxes.  They simply refuse to do it. Remember this as well.  All the claims made by the O’Fallon schools, that our group was demanding that current programs be cut, were absolutely false.  We simply asked them to NOT INCREASE their spending on new programs in order that our taxes did not increase once again. Instead they will again take the windfall of the multiplier and increase spending.  The reality is that we cannot afford more expansion of programs if we, the taxpayers, cannot afford to pay the bill.  Four positions on the school board will be open in April 09. Start by showing up at the school board meeting Thursday and making your personal appeal for tax relief. 7pm at the Administration building.

4.     O’Fallon HighSchool District #203:  Board Chairman Greg Cundiff, despite the many very compassionate and eloquent appeals by citizens at the school board meeting this last Thursday evening, made it very clear that the board will not be giving back the 6% as requested.  Greg’s position is as follows:  “We are not the problem. The system is the problem.”  With $13 million in cash reserves, it is not a matter of district 203 being able to reduce their increase in taxes.  The fact is that they refuse to lower our taxes because by law they can maximize their levy and they are going to continue to do so as long as the elected school board members do not object.  Four school board seats are open in April 09.  Do you have the courage to defend the taxpayers and serve our students?  Start by attending the school board meetings each month.

5.     City of O’Fallon:  Despite the itinerating city CFO Dean Rich’s attempts to convince every church and civic group in town that the schools have nothing to do with increased taxes, and that all of the problem is with the Assessor, the city is still attempting to reduce their levy to assure a zero dollar increase in taxes on the upcoming tax bill.  Mayor Graham has assured me that he is committed to this.  I have only spoken with one alderman who believes the problem of excessive property taxes is partially due to schools maximizing their rate and taking the windfall of the multiplier.  Most of the others have been seen following closely behind Dean Rich nodding their heads saying Amen.  A close and good relationship between the city and the schools is prudent but to cover one’s eyes to wrong doing is irresponsible.  Solely blaming the county and the assessor is not an acceptable response to this problem. As leaders in our community we need each of them to take a clear public position on this issue.  I suggest you call your and ask them what their position is?Click here for contact information

 So as you can see, we are not picking on any one group in particular.  We are doing everything we can to lower property taxes.  If we had not started this movement of holding our locally elected officials accountable, would the schools be holding special meetings in town to explain why they are going to raise your taxes?  Would you know as much as you know now about how your tax bill is figured and who decides how much you are taxed if we had not started this campaign for lower taxes?  We are making a difference and this is all because you have become involved in the local democratic process.

Thank you for taking part in democracy.

Kyle McCarter

Founder- OTM

St. Clair County Board Member - District 15

Ps. I have highlighted the action items in yellow.