Sandra your correct. In addition the superinendent gets a free car and the students have to pay for the books. Carl Lambrecht 847 432 8255

Amen...

Well Sandra, you could use the Illinois Senior Freeze Exemption that locks your property taxes in at the rate of the first year of the exemption. Then, so long as you remember to file your exemption each year, they will never go up. Or you could use the Senior Citizen Exemption which is not as generous as the freeze but has a looser eligibility requirement.

Senior freeze only applies to those folks who already are in dire straights and probably do not live anywhere near to the north shore.

Jim

Actually Jim, here are the requirements for the Illinois Senior Freeze Exemption:

- Be born prior to or in the year 1946,
- Have a total gross household income of no more than $55,000 for 2010,
- Own the property, or have a legal, equitable or leasehold interest in the property on January 1, 2010 and January 1, 2011,
- Be liable for the payment of 2010 and 2011 property taxes, and
- Use the property as a principal place of residence on January 1, 2010 and January 1, 2011.

From these two sources:
http://www.cookcountyassessor.com/exemptions.aspx
http://www.lakecountyil.gov/Assessor/BoardofReview/Documents/2012bFreezeFormInstructions.pdf

I would think living on $50,000 still qualifies as a decent standard of living, hardly the "dire straits" you speak of. Nor do I see anything on there that would preclude the North Shore, whether in Cook or Lake counties, from being eligible to receive the Senior Freeze.

Bucephalus, What happens when your EAV goes down, which just happened on the North Shore?  The Senior Freeze Exemption allows qualified senior citizens to apply for a freeze of the equalized assessed value (EAV) of their properties for the year preceding the year in which they first apply and qualify for this exemption. For example, a senior citizen who qualifies and applies for this exemption in taxable year 2011 will have the EAV of the property frozen at the 2010 EAV. Those who qualify and receive this exemption should be aware that this does not automatically freeze the amount of their tax bill. Only the EAV remains at the fixed amount. The amount of dollars that the taxing districts asks for (levy) may change and thus alter a tax bill.

DCB, as the link says, the Senior Freeze Exemption must be applied for each year. If your EAV goes down, there is no reason to apply for the exemption that year. The point of the exemption is to limit the single biggest component of your property taxes (the starting point). If the EAV goes down, your share of the levy will also decrease, thus no need for the freeze.

The EAV tracks the inverse of the tax rate for the most part and is used to try and spread the payments around so everyone is paying their fair share.

If the EAV goes down, your taxes will not necessarily go down. The levy determines the actual tax, if it goes up, so do your taxes. If it goes down, so do your taxes.

If the EAV goes down, or stays the same, true Lenny, your taxes may not change. But more than likely, they will change and for the better. Your share of the tax burden is decreased by lowering the EAV. A property on which the EAV which shrinks will have a lower tax bill than and otherwise identical property whose EAV stayed the same.

Remember, a tax bill is formulated by taking the aggregate of all the taxing agencies and multiplying that by the EAV. An EAV of $20,000 multiplied by 8.521, for example, will have a higher tax bill than an EAV of $19,000. If a levy goes up and your EAV goes down, the devil is in the math, but you would still pay less than if your EAV didn't go down.

I saw that too Carl. I'd love to know who audits where the superintendent drives that vehicle, if anyone.

If your EAV goes down your exemtion is smaller or in many cases it's gone. On top of that the tax rate more than likely will go up (never see them go down!). A lower EAV rarely overcomes a higher tax rate and the loss of your exemption. That's what happened to many taxpayers. Taxes for many have increased 40% in just two years.

Those are your state taxes

Go look at your property taxes, they are paying for pensions also.

Sorry Jose, but I am going to make two comments that are not really relevant to your comments. One, it hardly takes any guts to point fingers, which is why everyone does it. Two, when you write all in capital letters, you seem hysterical.

The top 1% of income earners make $380,000 a year.
http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/17/measuring-the-top-1-by-wealth-not-income/

I'm curious which principals in District 15 have an income over $380,000. But I suppose it is easier to say things than to research them before spouting off.

In other words "They get paid way too much for what they do" We pay for it!!!! Might as well be the 1 %

So after asking you to back up your claim with any shred of evidence you now say it doesn't matter.

Well Burt, let me supply you with some materials.
http://www.iasb.com/pdf/Principalsalary.pdf

The highest paid principal in Illinois earned $205,730. That would be $174,270 less than the top 1%. The average principal earned $85,805 or $294,195 less. You may be well enough off to wave away $294,195 but most people aren't. The average principal would have to earn 4.4 times their salary to make it into the top 1%.

I understand the tax bills very well. I even have held townhalls to discuss them and teach people that is it the Taxing Bodies that causes their property taxes to go up, not the Assessor. The Assessor just spreads the pain around evenly or at least is supposed to if they are doing their job properly.

Bucephalus, please do better research. Almost every superintendent and assistant superintendent's pay is north of $200K on the North Shore and many of other chicago suburbs.

DCB, you should try reading what I typed before commenting, it prevents you from sounding like an idiot.

1: I referred to principals. I said nothing about superintendents and the link I provided said nothing about superintendents.

2: You attack my research by just claiming something. Where is your research? You should really do better research, by say doing any, before attacking me.

3: Even if a superintendent's pay is above $200k, that still does not put it above $380,000, which is the cutoff for the top 1%. Therefore my critique of Burt's absurd statement still stands.

4: Here's the salary data for superintdents in Illinois. Note that the average salary is $120,168. The highest salary comes in at $262,264. Yes that is above $200,000, but again, that is nowhere the $380,000 that Burt claims they make.
http://www.iasb.com/pdf/Suptsalary.pdf

5: Even if you decide to factor in other forms of compensation, let's say all "total creditable earnings," then not even the highest paid superintendent makes $380,000. That superintendent comes in at $358,750. Again, not $380,000 and not in the top 1%.
http://www.familytaxpayers.org/salary.php

6: There are other school districts in Illinois besides the North Shore. Just because some, or most, of the superintendents there make over $200k does not mean all superintendents make that. That's why I cited this thing called a mean (also known as an average).

I would vote for you, Burt, if you ran. Your comments are the most intelligent here!

Yet sadly, most people here keep tolerating the antics of some of the current D46 board members. A few have been voted out, but it is far from solving the problem. Start showing up to meetings. Start voting. Start holding these people accountable. Ever since the old Lakeland Newspapers were sold, no one covers village or school board meetings in this county. It's pathetic.

Robert,

Please start reading more reliable sources of information. The "Obamacare sales tax on home sales" only affects you if you make more than $200k/year ($250k if married) AND you sell your house for a profit of more than $250k ($500k if married). So, if you're in that situation, you're not going to get a whole lot of sympathy from me.

Clark,
Have you run for the school board?

Nice Gary. A comment asking me if I've run for school board when we know darn well you haven't either. Sorry, but the fact I have a family to support and have to work multiple jobs doesn't absolve the current or past boards of their general ignorance, ineptitude or corruption.

amen!

And if people keep putting up with it and voting for who the system tells us to, nothing will change. Collectively, we live in a country full of stupid people.

You are so right. Go to school board meetings. Most School board members are just a bunch of bobble heads for the school's administration.

Learn how to adopt your school district and start bringing fiscal sanity to them at http://ForOurChildrensFuture.com.

Really D'skidoc, how much money, please tell us?  Should we give schools a blank check, which is pretty much what's going on now?   I would like to know what evidence you have that property taxes must be so burdensome before you can have high student achievement.  

Harvard was opened as a private school to combat the public school system of the US which has never been that good

Burt, do you just say the first thing that jumps into your head?

Harvard was founded in 1636.
http://www.harvard.edu/harvard-glance

The first public school in America was founded a year earlier in 1635, in Boston as well.
http://www.cityofboston.gov/freedomtrail/firstpublic.asp

Are you honestly suggesting that after one year of the first school for young kids, Harvard was founded because those young kids (most of whom ended up going to Harvard) were utterly poor material?

By the way, 1636 was 139 years before the Declaration of Independence, so even if Harvard was founded on the basis of your insane idea, it couldn't have been to combat the public school system of the United States because the United States didn't exist.

No offense, but if you can't run a school district effectively on $3,000-$5,000 a HOME locally, then the district has some serious problems. Perhaps if the superintendent would take a pay cut from her cushy $200,000 a year job, or find other ways to cut expenses, that money could be funneled into things like teachers' salaries. And furthermore, I love the teachers, but if the amount of money given to a district was the direct result of how much money they get, then Lake County schools should be the best in the country ALL the time, since the property taxes here are highest in the country.

D'skidoc, let's look at your statements:

"Good schools cost money." -
1. How much is enough?
2. What should the consequences be if they fail once they are given that amount?

"our predecessors were willing to commit to pay for the education " - Boards raises taxes every year, so it's not our predecessors doing this.

""Charter Schools" is just another way of adding profit to someone's bottom line at the expense of quality education for all. And making the best schools unaffordable for those who can't sweeten the pot and have to settle for what a voucher might buy in a competitive market is just taking the public education system one step closer to privitization."

You have several pieces in here to respond to:
1. Charter schools are for the most part spend less per child than the public schools so they are not the profit machine you state.
2. Second they actually save the entire system money.
3. Lastly, not only do they improve the educational outcomes for the children who obtain the voucher, it improves the educational outcomes for those still in public schools, i.e. it provides a better quality education for all.

"Support your public schools; Support your property values. And provide the best education for the next generation, not just those who can afford a more expensive option."

I don't know anyone who doesn't support schools. Take a look around you and see the devastation of this economy. In Grayslake D46, 50% of the homes on the market last year were in distress, i.e. foreclosure, short sale, etc. Our property values are crashing and the high taxes are not helping anyone. You talk about those that cannot afford a "more expensive option", well the property taxes are the more expensive option and they are driving businesses and families out of the area and Lake County.

If you didn't know, Lake County has the highest property taxes in the midwest and depending on the year, from 14-17th highest in the entire country. We don't have the 14-17th highest ranked schools on average either.

Lastly, it is very disingenuous on your part to tell people to may more taxes, which it sounds like you can afford, when they are struggling and can no longer afford to even live here. Where is your compassion?

Lennie, where is your information for saying that charter schools are better than public schools?

The first review of the Chicago charter schools did not come out well for them. Some did better than the Chicago average, most did not.
http://www.suntimes.com/news/education/9145306-418/story.html

Only 1/3 of St. Louis charter schools outperformed the public schools.
http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/education/article_257a26a9-a103-5183-97cc-067ec0fde828.html

The state of Michigan found the same thing.
http://www.suntimes.com/news/education/9145306-418/story.html

Georgia also saw charter schools don't outperform public schools across the state.
http://blogs.ajc.com/get-schooled-blog/2012/02/16/new-review-of-georgia-charter-school-performance-finds-they-dont-outperform-traditional-public-schools/

Minnesota also has 20 years of stats supporting that claim.
http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2012/06/16/education/charter-schools/

A national study found very mixed results for charter schools with no clear results to back up claims that charter schools are simply better than public schools.
http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/inside-school-research/2012/01/study_finds_grad_college-going.html

There is a limit upon the number of characters per post, so I am going to have to leave it there, unless people would like more states that have found charter schools don't outperform public schools.

First since you keep telling everyone to read what you wrote before responding you should do the same. You claimed I said, "saying that charter schools are better than public schools" when I said

"1. Charter schools are for the most part spend less per child than the public schools so they are not the profit machine you state.
2. Second they actually save the entire system money.
3. Lastly, not only do they improve the educational outcomes for the children who obtain the voucher, it improves the educational outcomes for those still in public schools, i.e. it provides a better quality education for all."

Top 25 Public Schools in Michigan (including Charter): http://cmucso.org/modules.php?name=Documents&op=viewlive&sp_id=707

After Katrina, how charter schools helped recast New Orleans education
New Orleans has become a laboratory for education reform since hurricane Katrina. Charter schools, which are free to experiment, make up the majority of the city’s schools.

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Education/2010/0829/After-Katrina-how-charter-schools-helped-recast-New-Orleans-education

Milwaukee:

"A sample of students in Milwaukee's private voucher schools made gains in reading in 2010-'11 that were significantly higher than those of a matched sample of peers in Milwaukee Public Schools, but math achievement remained the same last school year, according to the results of a multiyear study tracking students in both sectors." -- http://www.jsonline.com/news/education/voucher-students-improve-on-reading-study-finds-ef4ahcf-140522733.html

"... standardized math test scores rose significantly more rapidly for students who used vouchers to attend private schools than for their counterparts in public schools." -- http://www.nber.org/digest/nov97/w5964.html

University of Arkansas study finds Milwaukee voucher students go to college at higher rate -- http://drwilda.wordpress.com/2012/03/05/university-of-arkansas-study-finds-milwaukee-voucher-students-go-to-college-at-higher-rate/

Multiple reports: http://www.choiceineducation.org/SchoolChoiceBetterEducation.php

The battery of empirical studies, conducted by the School Choice Demonstration Project, examined a broad array of questions. One study found that the Milwaukee program saves major taxpayer money, confirming what we knew from previous studies: private schools are more efficient than the bloated government bureaucracy. Another found that private schools in the voucher program are more racially diverse, also confirming a large body of earlier research unanimously showing that vouchers provide a more racially integrated school environment. Yet another study found that vouchers have not affected home prices. -- http://pjmedia.com/blog/dont-believe-the-spin-milwaukee-voucher-program-a-success/

"Table [A] shows that the addition of one voucher-accepting school anywhere in Milwaukee will improve student achievement on the Language Arts portion of either the WKCE or the Terra Nova by .055 NCE points. The addition of a voucherreceiving private school would increase a student’s standardized Math score by .047 NCE and Reading score by .058 NCE." -- http://www.uaedreform.org/SCDP/Milwaukee_Eval/Report_11.pdf

My apologies, I accidentally posted the same SunTimes link for the Michigan schools. Here is the link to the Michigan study that I was referring to.

http://www.mlive.com/education/index.ssf/2012/03/in_michigan_charters_results_n.html

First of all, I don't know what you are claiming if you are saying that saving "save the entire system money" and providing "a better quality education for all" do not in fact equate to being "better than public schools." If I misinterpreted you, I am sorry, but then what are you saying? You claim they save money and a provide better education compared to public schools. I interpreted that as being better than public schools. How is that interpretation wrong? What does a charter school have to do, in your definition, to be "better than public schools."

Now, Lennie, we both cited Michigan to support our claims. The link I gave showed that charter schools in Michigan did no better than public schools. They weren't worse, but they weren't better either. Charter schools in Michigan fell along the same averages that the public schools did.

Your link doesn't change that point. For starters the chart is misleading. It compares the top 25 Districts or top charter schools. A public school district that has one amazing high school and one average high school will not be in the top 25 whereas those academies on the list only need to be exceptional themselves. It is a lot easier to have one exceptional school than an entire exceptional school district.

Even then, 16 of the top 25 are public school districts while three of the charters are self-managed by the public school districts they are supposedly superior than.

Next, your New Orleans story doesn't dispute what I said. I claimed, as all the links I provided said, that charter schools are a mixed bag. Some are better, others are not. On the whole the charter system doesn't "provide a better quality education for all," it provides a roughly equal education for all.

Indeed that's what your New Orleans story showed. Before Katrina, scores were rising. After Katrina, scores rose faster. Before Katrina, the overwhelming number of schools were "academically" unacceptable. After Katrina, that decreased by was still 42%.

Furthermore, the article actually says two very specific things, firstly, that "it’s difficult to pinpoint the cause of such gains." That was from one of the people at Tulane who helped prepare the report on New Orleans schools. Additionally, they received substantially more money. "An influx of federal funds, as well as private donations, has enabled schools to offer extended days or school years, invest in technology, and boost teacher salaries." That's an interesting point to raise when claiming that charters will result in lower spending.

But again, the story here doesn't dispute the claim that some charters are better than the average public school and some charters are not better than the average public school. It does, however, specifically warn against trying to pin those gains in New Orleans on any one factor.

Turning to Milwaukee, there is again a disconnect between what you seem to believe the articles say and what they actually do say. The first article's byline even says "Public, private school progress about same overall." You even quoted one section that said "math achievement remained the same."

More to the point, it doesn't contradict anything I said because none of those articles deal with charter schools. They are all about private schools, which are entirely separate entities from charter schools. Charters are public schools in that they accept all who apply with a lottery to determine if there is an excess of applications. Private schools take whoever they want. A voucher lets you afford the tuition of a private school, it doesn't force that private school to accept a specific student.

Furthermore, the supposed Arkansas study includes this quote: "the students in the voucher program performed at higher levels in the upper grades in reading and science but at lower levels in math at all grade levels examined and in reading and science in fourth grade."

That website also links to several other articles and studies which do not support the idea that charters are a magically ticket to academic success. For example, here's a quote from the website you linked: "Overall the test scores of students who use vouchers are largely indistinguishable from students who stay behind in public schools."

Strawman alert

You seriously think there's no corruption in Lake County? Wowwwwwwww. Talk about one-sighted vision. See my post below, because most of things things you speak of are a bunch of union members who are in bed with the politicians locally and keep raising your taxes to give more funding to these things....they then find creative ways to funnel this cash to these people, which I won't sit and explain here.

The trouble is, that corruption DOES exist here, and it's getting worse.

You should get out more. I've traveled to many other parts of the country that have good schools, clean water, and reliable emergency services. They also have better maintained roads and bridges. Guess what? There taxes are lower. Here in IL we have 4 problems that are out of control. 1)Waste 2)Corruption 3)Too many taxing bodies (most in the country), 4)Higher labor costs do to union control.

Chances are you are making a lot more than the average Lake County resident, number one. And secondly, I know a slew of military veterans who served for decades, yet are insulted with retirement pensions of about $1,000-$1,200 a month. So there are a large group of 50-64 year-olds who have to also still work a second job after they retire, usually at some place that gives them a terrible wage because other places that pay well refuse to hire them because they are now old. The problem is way, way more widespread than those who have a ton of money in places like Libertyville or Green Oaks or Vernon Hills, among other places, are willing to admit. And that's because it doesn't affect them directly. At least not yet....

So if someone is living in, say, a $125,000 property near Grayslake, as one person I know is, and getting $1,100 a month in military retirement and has to pay a $4,000 property tax this year...what does that mean? Well, it means unless they have an extra job those property taxes are taking a THIRD of their income in one swoop. No offense, but that is ridiculous. $4,000 to even someone who owns their property is a lot of money in this economy for many people. And if it doesn't affect you directly, the tendency from board members and politicians who are better of is a "we don't care" attitude.

If someone's only income is $1,100 a month they most likely can't afford the house reguardless of property tax amount. Clark - I don't understand your point: you complain that military pensions are too low but public service pensions are too large??

That's one of my many points about the pensions cmeller. The military people usually served far longer and in way more dangerous circumstances than any public official. Yet they are insulted with terrible pensions while being double-insulted by funding all these people's huge rising pensions with their property taxes.

Try spending a day with some of these veterans that are retired yet not old enough to cllect social security one day, for just one day, and see the difficulties many of them face. There are TONS of them in Lake County.

Wow Clark, where are these famlies with 7 or 8 kids. Certainly not on the North Shore. Every family I know has at most "3". In fact, it getting to the point that this country's total fertility rate is at replcement level. That's too bad for the pensions and social security these kids will have to fund for us old geezers.

Apparently Deadcatbounce is in denial and has never visited the greater Round Lake area, or walked into the health care clinic on Clarendon Drive and seen what I am referring to.

Ah yes, one person who believes he has seen every family in Round Lake can now make vast pronouncements about the birth rate in the entire state. After all, Round Lake is exactly the same as Highland Park which is the same as Macomb which is the same as Marion.

What other grand observations should we take from Round Lake?

I don't think Bucephalus bothers to think before posting. Your Round Lake/Highland Park comparison makes zero sense whatsoever, and we are all now dumber for having read your post. Seriously, go walk into the Lake County clinic at the location I gave you sometime, walk around, and tell me what you see. Until you do, you have zero frame of reference toward my comment whatsoever.

So keep defending the people who continue to burden the system Deadcatbounce. You have zero clue what you stand for, and it shows.

This overwhelming number of taxing bodies is what Bruno Behrend of For the Good Of Illinois calls a "legalized money laundering scheme."

Winning such appeals is sometimes very costly for people to do.

There are some the you only pay if they win. An example is http://TaxObjection.com

It's not that hard to do it yourself and not have to split he savings with a specialist.

There are some the you only pay if they win. An example is http://TaxObjection.com

Hey Karen, if you want to promote your business go ahead and buy an ad.

The artificial pension increases brought on by the salary spiking is responsible for over $1.2 Billion per year and rising dramatically.