Steve Reick
Steve Reick
“HB 5529 … allows school districts to transfer money via intra-fund transfers between the Educational Fund, the Operations and Maintenance Fund and the Transportation Fund," excerpts associated with Dwyer’s original suit state. "Originally adopted in the 1960s, the Intra-fund Transfer Section originally provided for a one-time intra-fund transfer for unforeseen, non-recurring expenses."
The original agreement was extended five more times between 2003 and the end of 2015, and HB 5529 sought another three-year extension this year.
A Madison County blog post written by retired state Rep. Cal Skinner last month alleged what these extensions were really about getting around the school code's taxing requirements and the Property Tax Extension Limitation Law (PTELL), which is meant to limit hikes in property tax extensions for non-home rule taxing districts.
In other words, homeowners paid the price each time the agreement was extended.
During the preceding 16 years, the direct tax impact on District 36's Transportation Fund represented a positive revenue total of $3.6 million, while actual costs totaled only $337,000 on a year-over-year basis. Consequently, that largess should have created a condition where further levies would be moot, with a subordinate impact being that taxpayers in the district could have experienced a 20 percent reduction in further tax bills, Dwyer's suit claimed.
Instead, however, by leveraging a subordinate clause in the agreement, $3 million of the Transportation Fund was transferred to the district's Operations and Maintenance Fund and in 2015 the district asked for a property levy to cover its transportation costs.
HB 5529 recently passed in the Illinois House by a wide margin, with Franks ending up being only one of four dissenting votes.
Frank's vote drove Reick to execute a comprehensive review of the lawmaker's record, and the results ultimately suggested certain voting incongruities.
“I thought it would be instructive to see if Franks has been a consistent 'No' vote on this obvious attempt to keep our real estate taxes from ever coming down," Reick said in his blog. "And what do you think I found? As far back as votes are registered on the legislature’s website, Franks has voted for the extension. He voted for it in 2003, 2005, 2007 and 2010. In 2013, he not only voted for it, he co-sponsored the bill!"
The irony was not lost on Reick.
"I find it ironic that this is the same guy who couldn’t wait to post a press release about a bill he sponsored, which he claims will stop PTELL increases," Reick wrote on his blog post. "He actually had the gall to say: '(T)he system is broken. It means government doesn’t have to be efficient. When our citizens have less, our government gets more. And that’s not fair.'"
Reick believes what's even less fair is Franks' previous voting record.
"What’s not fair is to have a representative who votes five times for an extension of a bill that allows taxing districts to rob Peter to pay Paul, allowing them to stockpile hordes of cash, allows it to be used for unintended purposes and then sponsors a 'freeze' bill intended to both hide his past votes and to keep that system in place," Reick said "That’s hypocrisy, pure and simple."
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