Thursday, February 16, 2006
Part 1 - District 300 Vendors Major Contributors to Tax Hike Committees; Pay to Play?
McHenry County Blog has already thoroughly showed that developers have provided big bucks to School District 300 tax hike campaigns and made a good start toward proving that major vendors do, too.
Now, District 300 has provided documentation that major contributors to District 300 tax hike committees over the years have been made by major vendors, providers of service and those who construct new schools.
McHenry County Blog asked District 300 for payments it made for the last five and a half years to a list of campaign contributors, most of whom looked as if they might have provided supply goods and services.
Guess what?
A lot of them got paid a lot of money.
A January 30th article, using documentation from the vendors’ own web sites, demonstrated numerous large tax hike committee contributors were doing business with District 300. So, let’s start with those for whom documentation of a business relationship was not obtained until today:
Now, District 300 has provided documentation that major contributors to District 300 tax hike committees over the years have been made by major vendors, providers of service and those who construct new schools.
McHenry County Blog asked District 300 for payments it made for the last five and a half years to a list of campaign contributors, most of whom looked as if they might have provided supply goods and services.
Guess what?
A lot of them got paid a lot of money.
A January 30th article, using documentation from the vendors’ own web sites, demonstrated numerous large tax hike committee contributors were doing business with District 300. So, let’s start with those for whom documentation of a business relationship was not obtained until today:
Tomorrow read how much the companies who promoted their work for District 300 were paid over the five and a half year period.
Carey Electric, McHenry 2/28/02 - $1,000. The firm was paid $1.4 million in 2002, $218,000 in 2003 and between $3,000 and $4,000 in 2004 and 2006.
Cruise Boiler & Repair, Elmhurst 3/26/02 - $500. Cruise was paid $113,862 and $113,855 in 2001 and 2002, respectively. From 2003 through 2005, it received from $101,000 down to $$78,500.
First American Bank, Elk Grove Village 12/26/03 - $845. District 300 writes it has 19 bank accounts with the bank.
Freund International, Huntley 3/25/02 - $250. Payments to Freund ranged from a low of $13,800 in 2001 to a high of over $65,000 in 2005.
Hawks Auto Parts, Elgin 3/01/02 - $200. Annual payments to Hawks ranged from $39,000 to over $72,000 over the six years for which data was provided.
J&E Duff Inc. Mason Contractors, West Chicago 3/04/02 - $1,000. District 300 sent J&E Duff checks for $1.15 million in 2002 and over $125,000 in 2003.
PMA Financial Network, Aurora 3/20/02 - $250. Nothing was paid to PMA until 2004 ($9,900) and 2005 ($14,050).
Techstar America Corp, Grayslake 2/07/02 - $850. During the years 2001 and 2002, payments approximated $32,000 and $34,000. $5,500 more was paid in 2003, then, nothing.
Comments:
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"Money makes the world go around...," as the Cabaret song goes.
The School Industry/System/Kingdom doesn't like to be called (whisper)a "business". Maybe one day, our hibernating, unquestioning, overly reverent, over-burdened Taxpayers will finally come to grips with the fact that developers, local businesses, politicians, teachers, money lenders, etc. - also consider their OWN bottom line "special interests" when writing contribution checks, donating time, and pressing for questionable pro tax increase referendums.
That's the day when we - the EMPLOYERS of school staff will truly be advocates "for the kids". We'll demand that the "Tenure first!" "Recipe for Bankruptcy" Education World joins the rest of us who live in today's financial reality.
Perhaps the question to put to every educator should be as follows:
Use your #2 pencil to circle only one of these answers:
Question/Statement/Fact: There is only so much money to go around.
I can put it:
A. In the classroom to truly help the kids
or
B. Into YOUR pension fund, YOUR yearly "mandatory" raises, YOUR health care premiums.
During a recent referendum campaign, we were chastised and told it was "only" a dollar a day. (That's a LOT of money to many people.)
When,it - GASP! - became double or triple that amount, the dollar a day promoters were OUTRAGED! And scared. It had become "personal" to them too.
So - answer A. or answer B. ?
I bet it just got "personal" there too.
NOTE: I'm not anti-teacher/anti-education/anti-child - I'm pro common sense, pro reasonable compensation provided by the public, and pro great teachers. Great teachers would NEVER EVER "protect their own" at the expense of our children's futures. (People who shouldn't be teachers shouldn't have teaching jobs for life.) Tenure isn't "for the kids".
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The School Industry/System/Kingdom doesn't like to be called (whisper)a "business". Maybe one day, our hibernating, unquestioning, overly reverent, over-burdened Taxpayers will finally come to grips with the fact that developers, local businesses, politicians, teachers, money lenders, etc. - also consider their OWN bottom line "special interests" when writing contribution checks, donating time, and pressing for questionable pro tax increase referendums.
That's the day when we - the EMPLOYERS of school staff will truly be advocates "for the kids". We'll demand that the "Tenure first!" "Recipe for Bankruptcy" Education World joins the rest of us who live in today's financial reality.
Perhaps the question to put to every educator should be as follows:
Use your #2 pencil to circle only one of these answers:
Question/Statement/Fact: There is only so much money to go around.
I can put it:
A. In the classroom to truly help the kids
or
B. Into YOUR pension fund, YOUR yearly "mandatory" raises, YOUR health care premiums.
During a recent referendum campaign, we were chastised and told it was "only" a dollar a day. (That's a LOT of money to many people.)
When,it - GASP! - became double or triple that amount, the dollar a day promoters were OUTRAGED! And scared. It had become "personal" to them too.
So - answer A. or answer B. ?
I bet it just got "personal" there too.
NOTE: I'm not anti-teacher/anti-education/anti-child - I'm pro common sense, pro reasonable compensation provided by the public, and pro great teachers. Great teachers would NEVER EVER "protect their own" at the expense of our children's futures. (People who shouldn't be teachers shouldn't have teaching jobs for life.) Tenure isn't "for the kids".
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