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Why is there stalled Village growth?
Here are 5 major reasons:
Due to the location of Tinley Park, businesses would LOVE to start a business here. However, the over-regulation, costs and headache with bureaucracy is the last thing a company owner wants to deal with. Businesses look to operate in business friendly, fiscally conservative communities. We can't leech onto the idea of businesses rescuing the community, and no smart business operation wants to be leeched onto.
If this community wants to grow its tax base, it has to first get its own house in order and operate efficiently and economically. Instead of taxpayers being FORCED to fund incentives for developers and businesses, there can be naturally occurring FREE MARKET development in the community if the local government allows the FREE MARKET to flourish. Changes need to occur in order to for this to happen.
We have some ideas (and please note that these are simplistic ideas about extremely complex matters, many not thoroughly researched, but they are provided as topics of discussion or to further research. It would be nice if in-house feasibility/viability studies of popular ideas could be provided to the citizens)...
- High commercial property taxes. The recklessly high commercial property tax rates in the area have caused commercial real estate and rent to be unaffordable or simply an unwise investment for businesses. Compare tax rates here.
- The unstable economic outlook in the Village, Cook County and Illinois. The debt crisis in the state with talks of increased taxes and regulations have left businesses waiting to make a move on a business startup, relocation, or just moving out of state.
- Tinley Park is bloated with regulations. The Village's "regulated vision" (such as the Legacy Plan) has not only limited types of developments and businesses for the community, but strict regulations have even scared away fully compliant developments and businesses. No business owner wants to operate under local government dictatorship.
- Village regulations require additional costs. It's one thing to zone, it's another to have a long list of special requirements that cost businesses more money before even opening their doors for business.
- Current zoning is limiting development. Outdated (or incompetent) zoning has limited the types of businesses that can utilize vacant land and properties around the community. The Village must reevaluate the zoning along main street (OPA) and heavy traffic areas, and consider light industrial, mixed use and special use of available property and buildings.
Due to the location of Tinley Park, businesses would LOVE to start a business here. However, the over-regulation, costs and headache with bureaucracy is the last thing a company owner wants to deal with. Businesses look to operate in business friendly, fiscally conservative communities. We can't leech onto the idea of businesses rescuing the community, and no smart business operation wants to be leeched onto.
If this community wants to grow its tax base, it has to first get its own house in order and operate efficiently and economically. Instead of taxpayers being FORCED to fund incentives for developers and businesses, there can be naturally occurring FREE MARKET development in the community if the local government allows the FREE MARKET to flourish. Changes need to occur in order to for this to happen.
We have some ideas (and please note that these are simplistic ideas about extremely complex matters, many not thoroughly researched, but they are provided as topics of discussion or to further research. It would be nice if in-house feasibility/viability studies of popular ideas could be provided to the citizens)...
Imagine if...
- Tinley Park's residential property taxes were capped at 1%, and rental and business property taxes were capped at 2% (similar to the property tax caps enshrined into the Indiana State Constitution).
- Tinley Park's sales tax rate matched the lowest rate of a neighboring community in Will County.
- Tinley Park became the region's most desirable community for residents and businesses due to local government fiscal responsibility.
- Demand to be within the fiscally-sound community caused property values to skyrocket.
- Vacant land gets quickly bought and developed.
- Tinley Park children attend the nearest Tinley Park School.
- Village Property taxes fund the Village and Tinley Park Schools, NOT surrounding townships.
- School administration is downsized and saved administrative costs provide additional school funding.
- Laws and regulations are focused on typical problems/concerns within the Village, nothing more.
- Zoning requirements are clarified, adjusted or nullified.
- Low cost building permits and licensing is utilized to entice Village development. It is better to reduce development costs (or allow developers to invest in the façade and quality build of property), than to fund Village graft with high permit, building and regulatory fees.
- Technology is harnessed to more efficiently and economically reach residents. This includes newsletters, board agendas, etc.
- Residents are informed of all School and Village developments through electronic communications.
- Village and School reports of financial data is provided in spreadsheet (excel) format for easier analysis by taxpayers. (We have had to convert all PDF file public records data into an excel file, and then edit the excel document to properly align columns before even doing salary and cost analysis that you see on this website... very tedious and unnecessary work that no taxpayer should have to do.)
- Excess revenue to the Village is refunded to the citizens through property tax rebates, as is done in Orland Park and Crestwood.
- Public servants adhere to ethics rules which remain on file at time of hire, and annual ethics rules are reviewed and signed by all public servants.
- Multi-year contracts and annual raises are prohibited. Pay based on job performance and merit.
- Salary and pension spiking is prohibited.
- Public servants are allowed the freedom to decide where to invest their benefits, instead of being forced into failing pension and benefit systems.
- The no-bid culture and culture of hiring family (nepotism) and friends is prohibited.
- Citizens are encouraged to collaborate with their Schools and Village due to new transparency and open communication guidelines.
- Public servants are required to individually obtain personal liability insurance and adhere to conduct requirements (which would shift any liability, costs of litigation and recovery of taxpayer funds to the perpetrator if found guilty of illegal or unethical activity).
- Utilize lottery and raffle licensing to raise funds for special municipal, school, and civics organizations/projects. This would be used instead of taxing residents for projects.
- RESIDENTS COULD SIMPLY VOTE TO MAKE THE ABOVE CHANGES.
- Imagine if community involvement, voting and participation rate of the citizens is over 50%.
- Imagine if Tinley Park becomes a model community that other Illinois communities copy, and the "Tinley model" of change improves Illinois.
Can this happen?
As a home rule Village, we have extra freedoms over our finances and jurisdictions. Due to the circumstances facing Illinois residents, we believe it's in the people's best interest to push boundaries, reform outdated/failed systems and approaches, and restructure our local government into a fiscally responsible system ultimately ALLOWING TAXPAYERS MORE FREEDOMS AND LIBERTIES.
The objective of this page (and the ideas below) are to find ways to (1) cap residential property taxes at 1% and rental/business property taxes at 2%, (2) expand the tax base, and (3) improve local government and make local government more accountable. We need ideas for local reforms and we need ideas to reduce the tax and regulatory burdens at the local level. If municipalities have to rely on the State to fix our local problems, we have a long wait for things to improve for the average taxpayer.
As a community we can demand to:
The objective of this page (and the ideas below) are to find ways to (1) cap residential property taxes at 1% and rental/business property taxes at 2%, (2) expand the tax base, and (3) improve local government and make local government more accountable. We need ideas for local reforms and we need ideas to reduce the tax and regulatory burdens at the local level. If municipalities have to rely on the State to fix our local problems, we have a long wait for things to improve for the average taxpayer.
As a community we can demand to:
- Dissolve 4 townships, cutting current property tax bills by at least 10%. The cities of Belleville and Evanston in Illinois recently accomplished this!
- Transition into Will County, immediately cutting business property tax rates by at least 50%. OR a new county altogether? Municipalities have actually voted to secede from Cook County. Here is one article, and another article to read about secession attempts.
- Cap permits and business license costs at a maximum of $1-10 each, which will encourage participation in applying for permits/licenses and also greatly encourage development and privately funded Village improvements. It should never cost a small business $20-60,000 in Village permits/fees to build a small (2-3,000 SF) building on vacant land. Imagine the improvements a business (and even a homeowner) can make to a property if they invested that money into the building/storefront and not the Village coffers? Or imagine a property owner not having to cover high "Village fees", making a small development actually affordable.
- Void all union and/or multi year contracts, or allow these contracts to expire.
- Become a Right-to-work municipality, like the Village of Lincolnshire.
- Fight to eliminate Prevailing Wage in Illinois, which limits the public's ability to receive the best pricing on services. Here's an article out of Kane County and another article out of Michigan discussing the reasons to repeal prevailing wage law.
- Transfer all public servant positions to at-will employment.
- Reset public pay rates based on local private sector rates, and take into consideration costs of public employee benefits and deferred compensation (health ins, pension, vehicle, education reimbursement, etc). Equalize pay rates and costs of benefits to be in line with the non-union, private sector majority.
- Reduce or eliminate clerical and other office positions; merge into fewer positions due to technology advancements.
- Reduce or eliminate certain labor job positions, and outsource work to private companies for a lower cost. The Mayor of Sandy Springs, Ga. (population 100,000) outsources almost everything.
- Prohibit full-time benefits for part-time positions, like the Village board.
- Ensure that all public servants in the IMRF plan are abiding by the IMRF 1,000 annual hours rule (a public servant must work 1,000 hours per year in order to qualify for IMRF benefits). This has been an issue in other communities.
- Nullify oppressive, unnecessary laws and regulations.
- Update zoning for vacant properties and land along Oak Park Ave and heavy traffic areas, allowing for a wider base of potential business use.
- Eliminate vehicle stickers and nuisance Village regulations that nickel and dime compliant taxpayers. Suburban towns peeling off vehicle sticker programs.
- Hire technology and security experts to build and implement an organized, accessible website of Village and School Data that will be easy to update and maintain. This system will allow important data to be accessible to the taxpayers.
- Have well-organized pertinent data posted to the Village's low cost, in-house informational website to alert Taxpayers well in advance of upcoming board meetings, etc. The site should feature classified ad notices and public hearings (typically found in the small print section of newspapers), as well as advanced board agendas.
- Provide a LIVE FEED of all Village and School Board meetings that residents can watch LIVE online and on public access TV. The Village of Arlington Heights provides live feeds of board meetings, as does this school district.
- Provide a single digital calendar that can be utilized by all local government bodies (Village, School Districts/Boards, Townships, Library, Park District) to provide taxpayers a singular source of meeting dates and schedules.
- Provide Village and School reports of financial data in spreadsheet (excel) format for easier analysis; Village departments and Schools all provide annual, standardized reports which contain important data in the same standard format, allowing for easier analysis by taxpayers.
- Merge department offices, utilize shared personnel between departments, downsize office/management/administrative staff.
- Sell unnecessary publicly financed or publicly owned facilities after downsizing offices and staff.
- Sell unnecessary village-owned vehicles. If necessary, retain 1 village vehicle for management to share as needed per necessary facility. An in-house analysis should be done on the benefits of leasing and/or sharing vehicles.
- Transfer public servant retirement accounts to a 401-k or other defined-contribution plan, where permitted.
- Provide health care stipends or defined-contribution health care benefit in lieu of defined-benefit health plans, where permitted.
- Provide raises based on merit and performance only, within a defined limit and limited in use.
- Provide unique bonuses (paid days off, extra pay) when employees discover ways to cut costs or do something in a more efficient manner.
- Eliminate or only partially cover education reimbursement and provide this benefit after 15-20 years of service (or at retirement). This would encourage long-term employment, instead of job-hoppers who consume benefits and then resign or transfer employment... OR offer interest-free loans to assist with student loans/tuition costs.
- Prohibit education reimbursement options for employees near end-of-career. End-of-career education does NOT benefit the community.
- Allow for cost of living increases only when social security COLA increases.
- Encourage and welcome citizen participation in Village and School boards, and have these boards abide by ethics guidelines and accountability standards.
- Update school boundaries/Redistrict into 2 Tinley Park school districts. One for elementary, one for secondary education. PREFERABLY, we have ONE school district. Currently, Tinley Park children attend one of NINE school districts. The goal is to reduce the number of districts, cut administrative costs, and reduce taxes. Article: Illinois school district consolidation provides path to efficiency, lower tax burdens.
- Compensate Administration and School Principals based on their experience. Base any increase in compensation on school spending (within or under budget), school rating and student performance.
- Consider an outside expense manager to oversee Village and School District line item spending increases and monitor yearly expenses. Provide annual reports and audits for taxpayers to view online.
- Consider salary caps at each school, allotting schools a total salary cost limit based on student enrollment. This system could allow schools to allocate salaries accordingly based on a teacher's department, role, performance, expertise, education, etc. Currently teachers are all paid according the same pay schedule, with gym and music teachers making the same as math and science teachers. Article: When gym teachers make more than math teachers.
- Village and School Districts must provide cost-benefit analysis for taxpayers to review before spending money on taxpayer-funded technology purchases, furniture purchases, office/building remodeling, and other non-essential spending.
- Enact anti-Nepotism laws to prevent conflicts of interest and special interests within government. The Village of Bradley recently enacted anti-nepotism law.
- Incentivize school board and village board positions, recruit local qualified business owners and residents. Considering the extreme importance and role our Village and School boards have in representing the taxpayers, it is important to have eager and qualified citizens on these boards.
- Prohibit conflicts of interest on Village and School boards (teachers, retired public servants, family etc. banned from boards).
- Require that public servants individually obtain personal liability insurance and adhere to conduct requirements (which would shift any liability, costs of litigation and recovery of taxpayer funds to the public servant if found guilty of illegal or unethical activity).
- Utilize lottery and raffle licensing to raise funds for special municipal, school, or civics organizations/projects. This would be used instead of taxing residents for projects. Elk Grove Village recently had a lottery that funded local civic organizations.
- Keep bankruptcy available as an option to remove the Village and Schools from unsustainable contractual obligations and mounting debts. Bankruptcy would allow for the proper restructuring of each entity.
- Offer FREE employment classes, which are started and sponsored by local businesses and citizen business owners, and operate classes in available public facilities free of charge. Utilize the classes to educate residents about jobs and trades, provide job/training information and accept applications. This type of employment outreach will keep businesses staffed and residents employed.
- Offer FREE employment classes to recruit and assist prospective teachers. Utilize classes to inform citizens on the teaching system and how to become a certified/licensed teacher.
What are your ideas? What can be done to DRASTICALLY lower property taxes at the local level that does not make us reliant on the State of Illinois to do so? What ideas can our Village and School Boards bring to the table?
Ideas are powerful and ALL ideas should be discussed because it just takes ONE idea to make the biggest differences in the lives of the taxpaying citizens. Keep ideas flowing and keep demanding that our government reduce and eliminate oppressive taxes. Let the government know you DEMAND LOWER TAXES and help spread this message by informing your family, friends and neighbors.
We can all complain about the tax burdens and curse the system and politicians that created the mess, OR we can do something about the situation we're in. The system is broken and we can't change what's been done, but we can change today and we can change the future. Learn from failed policies and systems of the past, bring forward new ideas and lets start thinking outside the box. We can change this failed system and make a positive impact for generations to come. |
We cannot do everything at once, but we can do something at once." - Calvin Coolidge
Ideas Matter
The tenth amendment of the United States constitution reserves authority-giving powers to the states. Tinley Park is a home-rule municipality which essentially means if Illinois State statutes don’t say anything about what the locality is trying to accomplish then they are free to do it. Home-rule usually entails a locality imposing higher taxes and bloated laws... However, we believe home-rule can be utilized in positive ways by implementing new ideas and ways of doing business in our Village and Schools.
We believe Illinois (and eventually the entire country) can be turned around from the local level outward. It will take the majority of residents in just ONE local community to get informed and get involved with fixing the problems that the government spent many years creating... either due to lack of citizen knowledge, a non-transparent government, or not enough community involvement. Things are changing... There are more citizens now involved in Tinley Park politics than ever before. Many residents are educating themselves on the activities that have been occurring in the Village AND School Districts for many years. Tinley residents are dismayed and appalled at the things they are finding, and they should be outraged. We are paying some of the highest property taxes in the nation, some of our public schools are poorly rated despite high teacher salaries, some of our schools are among the highest deficit spenders in the State, our Village and Schools face millions in debts, and community development is abysmal in sections of the Village, with properties sitting vacant for years. We are a community of residents that understand the problems facing our community and our State, and we must become a community that offers ideas on reforming and restructuring a broken system. |
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Post Guidelines: Tinley Taxpayers welcome all Tinley Park residents and businesses to contribute data, research and information to assist in the movement to have property taxes reduced through lower Village and School spending. Content posted on this page is expected to adhere to the conduct guidelines. Content that violates these guidelines is not tolerated.
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Home Page
Property Taxes
Village of Tinley Park Data
Stop Taxpayer-funded Developments
Tinley Park Schools Data
The Reserve
Salary Graphs
Legislators
Govt. Transparency
How did we get here?
How can we fix this?
Imagine If
Who we are
TIP LINE
Taxpayer Greivances
Collaborate
Open Forum
Sources
Downloads
FAQ's