McHenry County Blog

Ah…

Openness in campaigning.

How refreshing.

Secrecy must have become a liability in the effort to hike District 300 taxes.
Folks have been wondering who “Campaign Solutions” was. It is listed as having received thousands of dollars from the District 300 tax hike committee, but the only identification was a post office box in Algonquin…unless it is related to the Alexandria, Virginia, consulting firm of the same name hired by DuPage County Board Chairman Robert Schillerstrom.

The campaign disclosure reports of the tax hike committee report Campaign Solutions was paid the following:

· $1,785 on 12/4/5
· $1,350 on 12/16/5
· $1,275 on 12/19/5
· $1,320 on 12/24/5
· $1,020 on 12/30/5

Folks knew there was someone valuable to the tax hikers with an Algonquin post office box, but didn’t know who was worth over $6,000 during the month of December. The entity’s name is not listed on the Secretary of State’s data base as a corporation or a Limited Liability Corporation.

With the open letter from Advance300 (the name of the newest iteration of the District 300 tax hike committee) co-chair Nancy Zettler, we know the money went to Lake in the Hills resident Cheryl Meyer. Zettler says

Ms. Meyer specializes in grassroots campaigns and has over 7 years experience in political and referendum campaigns.

Oh, yes, they have hired a mail house from Seattle called Winning Mark, so expect a blizzard of expensive fancy and colorful mailings.

All this expensive “professional” help will augment what Zettler says are over 700 people who have signed up to help convince people to raise their school taxes, who “either live or work in District 300.” She even admits some are “educators.”

So, who is Cheryl Meyer?

A photograph of Meyer from a video played at Huntley High School promoting one of the referendums endorsed by B.E.S.T. can be found here at Harvard-based tax fighters Jim and Cathy Peschke and their CRAFT (Citizens for Reasonable and Fair Taxes) group. CRAFT's also has a blog.

The Northwest Herald reported 11/17/4

Referendum campaign leader Cheryl Meyer urged school board members not to rest after voters approved a tax increase Nov. 2 for the district to open new schools and hire teachers.

On 5/17/5 the Daily Herald identified Meyer as

chairwoman of Building Exceptional Schools Together.

That’s the group which pushed through the 55-cent tax hike in Huntley, using, as citizen and future school board member Larry Snow revealed, false information about how much the referendum would cost homeowners.

And, I found a couple of Chicago Tribune articles with her name attached as reporter.

Probably of more than passing significance, is the fact that Meyer’s Huntley school tax hike committee financed its campaign with donations from developers and school vendors…just like the District 300 tax hike committees have done since 2000.

Read the companion article on Zettler's open letter here.