Kendall County Property Tax Revolt Focuses on Education
A steady stream of residents talked taxes and politics Friday afternoon in Yorkville's Town Square Park.
Photos
Robert Bell of Montgomery pinned a “fiscally responsible awareness” ribbon to his shirt for the Kendall County Property Tax Revolt on Friday afternoon.
It was fashioned from a dollar bill. A one dollar bill.
“It seems to be time for the local governments to be a little more austere, because a lot of us who pay taxes have had to be more austere,” Bell said.
The “revolt” didn’t involve chants or signs Friday afternoon, but rather a steady stream of people gathering in Yorkville’s Town Square Park. The crowd seemed to peak around 75 people at any particular time.
Organizers Mark Johnson and Judie and Don Burks passed out information on appealing tax assessments, shared some casual conversation and gathered e-mail addresses for a mailing list. Some participants left determined to attend more local government meetings; others left determined to examine local officials and become involved with their elections.
“We’re here for one reason: They’ve taken enough of our money,” said Anthony Millim of Yorkville. “… We’re the voiceless; we need to become voices.”
Don Burks said he and his wife decided to become involved with the grassroots effort after watching Yorkville leaders sign on for one expensive project after another: upgrades to Route 47, replacing the River Road bridge, funding the Kennedy Road bike path if volunteers aren’t successful in raising the city’s bill, and possibly purchasing the REC Center building.
“They are either out of touch with reality, or they think they have an endless supply of money,” Burks said.
He saw one lady at the event Friday afternoon who said she hoped her presence alone sent a message to local leaders. Burks applauded her attitude.
“We don’t want you to price people out of the community,” Burks said of his local governmental leaders.
County Board member Dan Koukol of Oswego said several people he talked with throughout the afternoon indicated they couldn’t sell their homes because of the high property taxes.
“All taxing bodies need to tighten their belts and look at the important things that make that taxing body work,” said Koukol, who emphasized the county board’s relatively healthy fund balance at a recent county board meeting.
Meanwhile, County Board candidate Judy Gilmour of Yorkville complimented event organizers for helping people understand how to appeal their assessments. She also hoped residents understood the levy process – which starts months before tax bills are calculated – and often involves a public hearing.
“The public should go to those meetings,” Gilmour said, “and let their voices be heard.”
Linda
10:17 am on Saturday, June 2, 2012
Could not make it to the tax revolt on Friday. Could you give some info on how to be placed on there email list?
Jillian Duchnowski
10:22 am on Saturday, June 2, 2012
Linda, If you shoot me an e-mail to jillian.duchnowski@patch.com, I'll forward it to Mark Johnson.
Mark A Johnson
1:58 pm on Saturday, June 2, 2012
Thanks Jillian! I have submitted a new, updated BLOG that includes an email address for those wishing to join our group to help or just to be kept informed. The email is:
kendallcounty@gmail.com for anyone else wanting to join.
Richard R
4:23 pm on Saturday, June 2, 2012
So how big was the crowd for this. Or was it just like a garage sale, where people stopped by steadily but did not stay long.
Mark A Johnson
8:57 pm on Saturday, June 2, 2012
@Richard,
We hoped for 50-100 but printed 300 handouts. They were gone by 6:30 pm. People came and went all day but my estimate would be at one time we had about 100 in the group. Usually between 20-50 most of the day. Much bigger than we thought. And I thought my taxes went up! Heard too many horror stories of them going up $1000 + over last year.
Greg O'Neil
11:31 pm on Sunday, June 3, 2012
Mark,
You deserve a lot of credit for organizing this event. I enjoyed it and met a lot of nice people, most of whom had similar concerns. I will attend future events and look forward to seeing the ranks continue to grow. I hope we will consider an event in the Oswego area sometime, we have a nightmare with tax and spend bureaucrats running the show and we need to identify and retire these people ASAP. Thanks again Mark!!!
Mark A Johnson
7:40 am on Monday, June 4, 2012
@Greg, Thanks but that isn't why we are doing this...for credit. We want fairness and we want the elected officials to listen. As you well know, one or two of us trying to get their attention is nearly impossible to do but when we come together, we will be a force they will have to listen to. As for holding an event in Oswego - you bet we will! I am trying to develop the email list to be able to send the correct info to each area of the county. I am working on the list and I promise to send an email out soon. Since putting my email into Patch I have received a ton of new taxpayers who couldn't make the rally but want to help or be informed. Have faith that we are struggling a little with start-up but we will have it rolling very soon! We want to start a web page too but will probably create that when we have our first get-together.
Stephen Youhanaie
4:33 pm on Monday, June 4, 2012
Dan Kokoul at a tax reform event? He's not part of the solution; he's part of the problem. He needs to return the money that he took from the county, when he (admittedly) had no proper authority to take it. Even if Mrs. Vickery wouldn't take the money back (his offer), he should give it back. Almost $5000.
Anthony Millim
5:59 pm on Monday, June 4, 2012
It's time to send a message, to the elected officials. That the people elected them to be our voice, and do our will. Instead they follow their own agenda's and cater to their special interest friends. To continue to ignore the people is at their political peril. It's time to single out the non responsive electorate and vote them out.
C
7:42 am on Sunday, June 10, 2012
Something tax aware citizens should put in their back pocket, considering Yorkville is talking about home rule, the ability to borrow limitlessly with taxpayers as the backstop. See the Tribune story for 6-9-12
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/watchdog/ct-met-debt-bridgeview-main-20120609,0,3094089.story
Mark A Johnson
9:15 am on Sunday, June 10, 2012
@C - I agree with you. If you search home rule Illinois on the Internet you will find many Illinois communities had referendums to become home rule or not. All turned it down. When a community reaches 25,000 they automatically become home rule based on Illinois' Constitution. Here is a Patch article worthy of reading: http://hinsdale.patch.com/articles/home-rule-referendum-fails-after-86-percent-vote-no. Here is an excerpt from it that shows the potential impact home rule has on property taxes without the people voting as is required in non-home rule cities: "Among the possible actions discussed at the informational meetings was a sales-tax increase that could be attained without a referendum. The village had earlier discussed, but then dropped, the idea of a capital improvements tax that would have raised the village's portion of residents' property tax bills by 22 percent without a referendum. Early on, staff also discussed a $10,000 demolition tax as a possible home-rule revenue raiser." Note that the elected officials could have raised the taxes without the input of taxpayers. Therein lies the real problem with home rule.