Will School Board Members Act Responsibly?

Mike Farrell wrote a thoughtful and balanced article about the meeting orchestrated by the city to promote the expansion of the Morris TIF.

Farrell explains that the Morris TIF can be extended for an additional twelve years, but only by an act of the state legislature. Moreover, the state legislature will not do so unless the local school boards agree.

The Morris TIF siphons approximately $3,500,000 from local school districts and other taxing bodies every year, and diverts that money to the City of Morris. The schools don't go without, however. The deficit is simply made up in the form of higher taxes for everyone in the school districts - including those who do not live within the city limits of Morris.

Some points for consideration:

• At the meeting organized by the City of Morris on September 22, the mayor told the audience that he is engaged in negotiations with the school districts for the extension of TIF. Do the school boards know what their superintendents are up to?

• The city's TIF attorneys are not impartial experts on TIF. They are advocates who are paid extraordinary fees to advance the city's interests. They are hired guns.

• The school board members have the power to end TIF in 2009. Not only can they end the annual drain on school finances, they are also in a position to recoup over $9 million the city has accumulated for building a new municipal services building. If this money is not properly used by the end of the TIF, it must be returned to the taxing districts.

• School boards should not be concerned about city finances. They were elected to look out for the schools.
  

School boards need to be proactive. They need to hire an experienced TIF attorney. They need to do this now. 

School board members must be held accountable if they fail in their duties to the children and the taxpayers.

City of Morris looks to schoolchildren to pay for Community Landfill cleanup

The City of Morris has scheduled a public meeting for September 22, 2008 to consider an amendment to the Morris TIF District Redevelopment Plan.

The City is seeking to add five parcels to the TIF District, including the Community Landfill property. We can expect that the city will then use some or all of the $9,000,000+ that it has accumulated from TIF to pay for the cleanup of the Community Landfill.

Perhaps anticipating the public's disapproval, the Notice contains additional political commentary unnecessary to the purpose of the notice, making the patently false claim that "TIF DOES NOT raise property taxes"

The city's commentary goes on to explain that..."TIF is used merely to reallocate" increased property tax revenues..."

Indeed TIF reallocates tax revenues - taking the money from schools and other taxing bodies, and giving that money to the city. The tax revenue that would have otherwise gone to the schools must be made up - in the form of over $3,000,000 annually in higher property taxes for everyone.