About Us
Based on our research, Tinley Park Illinois is a just microcosm of what's gone wrong in Illinois, and every other failing State. We believe the problem is with a populace that votes and trusts that the people in power will do the right thing. We vote the politicians into power, then go to work to make a living and try to live the best lives we can with the little free time we have. Most of us don't have the time to babysit our politicians. Plus, that's what the media is for, right? Most of us don't think too deeply about what our local governments are doing because in many instances we actually know the people in local power and trust that others are looking out for us. We trust that they're doing the right thing and keeping an eye on the bigger political picture.
Wow, were we all wrong. It's as if our local politicians and mainstream media are complicit in the failure of our State.
As a populace, if we're not apathetic, we typically follow politics enough to vote according to party lines or whoever sells us the best lines. We know more about national politics than our local politics. And that's how "it" happened... "It" being the complete failure of our State. We didn't closely follow what our local governments were doing. If we were paying attention we could have seen the bigger picture much sooner and voted better people into office to fix these problems. We trusted our local governments and we trusted the local media to find government errors.
We trusted the wrong people.
What taxpayers in Tinley Park found was shocking, and news like this has not been reported on a large scale that hits home locally. Ever. We found exactly why our State is bankrupt. We found why our property taxes are so high. We found that our Village government and School Districts are doing nothing to fix the problems. Our Village "leaders" don't speak publicly on our behalf. They don't call out the School Districts, Townships, Counties or State "leadership" on any issues. We're dealing with rank and file crony "leadership" at every level of our government.
THE STORY OF TINLEY TAXPAYERS:
Tinley Taxpayers began it's work after a low income housing developer came into town causing controversy over a number of issues. That's a story on it's own, and the Justice Department has taken our town to court. What first struck us at a Village meeting with this developer was a comment made (by the developer) that low income housing was needed "for teachers and police officers in our community". Intrigued, we researched the income of our local teachers and police officers. The data of salaries, benefits, pensions and multi-year public union contracts shocked us, so we kept digging into data, and digging, and digging until we had so much information we needed a website to organize the data. The site keeps growing, and the local government corruption and waste keeps coming, and we needed a social media page to share the news...
Just before we started a social media page we realized that other social media sites, political hopefuls and a major political PAC group were blocking our website, censoring speech on their social media pages, and not wanting to discuss the public information shared on our site. Then, we noticed that certain citizens (including public union employees) were determined to find out who organized our website. We understood that they wanted names, and addresses, and workplaces, and they wanted to know who our friends were and who communicates with us. We were under attack from the start. Alinsky tactics were coming at us from the date our website went online. It's tyranny in our suburban Illinois town. There are plenty of people agreeing with what we say but afraid to speak out and afraid to support our message in public and on social media because of this "alinsky activity". We can give you names of people in the community that have had their names and businesses slandered, been publicly harassed and even have their children stalked, simply because they disagree with Village politicians, or political hopefuls.
When we started our Facebook page we had to do so anonymously, for our own safety. We also post information anonymously on behalf of concerned citizens to protect their identity and it's been a helpful, necessary asset for the community. We're working to keep government honest by exposing corruption and waste.
Since being on Facebook we've had interesting discussions with public employees, including teachers and union workers. Our opinion is that these employees will fight to the end of our country for their contractual salaries, raises, health insurance and pension benefits. They will have no problem asking the Fed to print money to cover what they've earned. You see, according to the teachers we've spoken with through Facebook, they've got a higher education and work harder than the "common folks" who make less in income than them. That's why, according to teachers, they deserve to make more than the average taxpaying household in Tinley Park, even if school ratings are mediocre to poor... because according to these teachers: that's "the parents fault". Teachers say they've paid into their pension and deserve to retire with a pension of 75% of their highest 4 years of salary, and receive that retirement salary (and health benefits, and compounding cost of living raises) for life... because, well, they don't get social security. According to data from the Illinois Policy Group, teachers, on average, only contribute 4-8% of their total pension payout. They break even on what they've paid in within the first 2-4 years or so after retirement. They don't care that us "common folk" don't have the luxury of a guaranteed retirement check (they say that's our fault), yet we're forced to pay 92-96% of theirs.
If the "common folk" taxpayers have a 401k, it lost a lot of its worth in the 2008 crash, some accounts have recovered, some have not. Our homes lost value in the crash and have not fully recovered, and the highest property taxes in the nation keep our property values down. Our wages remain stagnant but our taxes keep going up. We're going without to pay the government more. If we're lucky and social security doesn't go bankrupt, we'll possibly make $1,300 a month at retirement... to pay the average public pensioner $5,300 a month. Baby boomers are among the least prepared for retirement and have little saved for retirement. They are forced to work through their retirement years just so they don't lose their (paid in full) homes due to high property taxes. Where else are they to go with a pittance in Social Security? Our Village is intent on building luxury apartments for millennials at the cost of $2,500 per month, because our Village "leadership" is delusional.
Union laborers say they're more skilled than a non-union laborer, so they deserve better pay... and they'll picket development sites where more affordable non-union labor is hired. Perhaps that's why it's so unaffordable and undesirable to build in Illinois. Perhaps that's another reason why our communities are failing to grow. Never fear, our town leaders have created 5 TIF district slush funds of taxpayer dollars to dole out to crony capitalists to build developments that suit a Village Planner's new-urbanist agenda. Then these taxpayer-funded buildings sit vacant in town because our Village leadership planned according to their utopian vision, and not reality.
Our local government refuses to acknowledge us or respond to our questions about reducing spending and corruption. The local media won't report on anything we've uncovered. Why?
The issues we've found locally mirror the issues we have at the Township, County, State and Federal levels. They say the fish rots from the head down, and it's rotten to the bottom... just look at Tinley Park Illinois. It must include the mainstream media because they're certainly not reporting for the citizens.
If enough citizens wake up to the outrageous spending and political activity at the local level, the level that impacts them the most, then maybe they'd wake up to the rest of the problems. Maybe, just maybe, we can fix things from the bottom up.
We think you might find the information on this website interesting. The States have rotten from the head down, and it's unbelievable what's occurring at the local level.
Our website is: http://tinleytaxpayers.weebly.com/
Our Facebook Page is: https://www.facebook.com/tinleytaxpayers/
Our Group FB Page is: https://www.facebook.com/groups/tinleytaxpayers
Wow, were we all wrong. It's as if our local politicians and mainstream media are complicit in the failure of our State.
As a populace, if we're not apathetic, we typically follow politics enough to vote according to party lines or whoever sells us the best lines. We know more about national politics than our local politics. And that's how "it" happened... "It" being the complete failure of our State. We didn't closely follow what our local governments were doing. If we were paying attention we could have seen the bigger picture much sooner and voted better people into office to fix these problems. We trusted our local governments and we trusted the local media to find government errors.
We trusted the wrong people.
What taxpayers in Tinley Park found was shocking, and news like this has not been reported on a large scale that hits home locally. Ever. We found exactly why our State is bankrupt. We found why our property taxes are so high. We found that our Village government and School Districts are doing nothing to fix the problems. Our Village "leaders" don't speak publicly on our behalf. They don't call out the School Districts, Townships, Counties or State "leadership" on any issues. We're dealing with rank and file crony "leadership" at every level of our government.
THE STORY OF TINLEY TAXPAYERS:
Tinley Taxpayers began it's work after a low income housing developer came into town causing controversy over a number of issues. That's a story on it's own, and the Justice Department has taken our town to court. What first struck us at a Village meeting with this developer was a comment made (by the developer) that low income housing was needed "for teachers and police officers in our community". Intrigued, we researched the income of our local teachers and police officers. The data of salaries, benefits, pensions and multi-year public union contracts shocked us, so we kept digging into data, and digging, and digging until we had so much information we needed a website to organize the data. The site keeps growing, and the local government corruption and waste keeps coming, and we needed a social media page to share the news...
Just before we started a social media page we realized that other social media sites, political hopefuls and a major political PAC group were blocking our website, censoring speech on their social media pages, and not wanting to discuss the public information shared on our site. Then, we noticed that certain citizens (including public union employees) were determined to find out who organized our website. We understood that they wanted names, and addresses, and workplaces, and they wanted to know who our friends were and who communicates with us. We were under attack from the start. Alinsky tactics were coming at us from the date our website went online. It's tyranny in our suburban Illinois town. There are plenty of people agreeing with what we say but afraid to speak out and afraid to support our message in public and on social media because of this "alinsky activity". We can give you names of people in the community that have had their names and businesses slandered, been publicly harassed and even have their children stalked, simply because they disagree with Village politicians, or political hopefuls.
When we started our Facebook page we had to do so anonymously, for our own safety. We also post information anonymously on behalf of concerned citizens to protect their identity and it's been a helpful, necessary asset for the community. We're working to keep government honest by exposing corruption and waste.
Since being on Facebook we've had interesting discussions with public employees, including teachers and union workers. Our opinion is that these employees will fight to the end of our country for their contractual salaries, raises, health insurance and pension benefits. They will have no problem asking the Fed to print money to cover what they've earned. You see, according to the teachers we've spoken with through Facebook, they've got a higher education and work harder than the "common folks" who make less in income than them. That's why, according to teachers, they deserve to make more than the average taxpaying household in Tinley Park, even if school ratings are mediocre to poor... because according to these teachers: that's "the parents fault". Teachers say they've paid into their pension and deserve to retire with a pension of 75% of their highest 4 years of salary, and receive that retirement salary (and health benefits, and compounding cost of living raises) for life... because, well, they don't get social security. According to data from the Illinois Policy Group, teachers, on average, only contribute 4-8% of their total pension payout. They break even on what they've paid in within the first 2-4 years or so after retirement. They don't care that us "common folk" don't have the luxury of a guaranteed retirement check (they say that's our fault), yet we're forced to pay 92-96% of theirs.
If the "common folk" taxpayers have a 401k, it lost a lot of its worth in the 2008 crash, some accounts have recovered, some have not. Our homes lost value in the crash and have not fully recovered, and the highest property taxes in the nation keep our property values down. Our wages remain stagnant but our taxes keep going up. We're going without to pay the government more. If we're lucky and social security doesn't go bankrupt, we'll possibly make $1,300 a month at retirement... to pay the average public pensioner $5,300 a month. Baby boomers are among the least prepared for retirement and have little saved for retirement. They are forced to work through their retirement years just so they don't lose their (paid in full) homes due to high property taxes. Where else are they to go with a pittance in Social Security? Our Village is intent on building luxury apartments for millennials at the cost of $2,500 per month, because our Village "leadership" is delusional.
Union laborers say they're more skilled than a non-union laborer, so they deserve better pay... and they'll picket development sites where more affordable non-union labor is hired. Perhaps that's why it's so unaffordable and undesirable to build in Illinois. Perhaps that's another reason why our communities are failing to grow. Never fear, our town leaders have created 5 TIF district slush funds of taxpayer dollars to dole out to crony capitalists to build developments that suit a Village Planner's new-urbanist agenda. Then these taxpayer-funded buildings sit vacant in town because our Village leadership planned according to their utopian vision, and not reality.
Our local government refuses to acknowledge us or respond to our questions about reducing spending and corruption. The local media won't report on anything we've uncovered. Why?
The issues we've found locally mirror the issues we have at the Township, County, State and Federal levels. They say the fish rots from the head down, and it's rotten to the bottom... just look at Tinley Park Illinois. It must include the mainstream media because they're certainly not reporting for the citizens.
If enough citizens wake up to the outrageous spending and political activity at the local level, the level that impacts them the most, then maybe they'd wake up to the rest of the problems. Maybe, just maybe, we can fix things from the bottom up.
We think you might find the information on this website interesting. The States have rotten from the head down, and it's unbelievable what's occurring at the local level.
Our website is: http://tinleytaxpayers.weebly.com/
Our Facebook Page is: https://www.facebook.com/tinleytaxpayers/
Our Group FB Page is: https://www.facebook.com/groups/tinleytaxpayers
The Movement |
If you are a taxpaying citizen of Tinley Park and agree that property taxes must be lowered through reduced Village and School spending, and you believe that a smaller/limited government is a better government, then you are welcome to join the Tinley Taxpayers Unite movement. We believe in lower taxes, limited government, and fiscally sound government operations. There are no other requirements to become part of the movement.
As a grassroots community organization, our data is built on individual contributions of research based on public records. Our message is spread through the efforts of individuals. We encourage the formation of groups, neighbors aligning with neighbors, and meetings or informal get-togethers to share information and pool efforts. There are no leaders of Tinley Taxpayers Unite (TTU), only a mass of taxpayers united in the common goal to get property taxes reduced and have local government operate more efficiently. The Tinley Taxpayers Unite movement has:
We are grassroots, inclusive, we each contribute according to our talents and interests, we work as individuals and as teams, and WE WILL COME TOGETHER WHEN OUR COLLECTIVE VOICES ARE NEEDED because WE ARE UNITED. The future goal will be to act as an integrated group, so look for further information to come via the website/Facebook page as each source is updated frequently. TTU is utilizing the internet to join like-minded people together and work towards a common goal of reducing taxes and reducing government oppression. Tinley Taxpayers has flyers available for you to download and post in your window, hand out, or proudly display free of charge. There are also files provided for you to upload and print your own tee shirts, yard signs, posters and any other items you would like to have – the images are free but the printing is paid for by you, where you also pick your own print shops. Check out the DOWNLOADS page for links to files and images you can use to show your support for this growing movement. No money has gone into this organization. The only costs involved has been time and commitment to the cause. That's how efficient an organization can be. Contribute by sharing information, sharing data, sharing research, sharing links and other helpful information. This site is a collective effort of like-minded residents, coming together in unity, working together to reduce property taxes, reduce bureaucracy and stop government oppression. Please share this site to help the movement advance. |
The Creators
This website is about Village data and news, and not the site creators and researchers. We are not a political group and we have no political aspirations. Our only agenda is to get taxes reduced and stop oppressive government. Please review the data for what it is, and verify with the sources to see that data is accurate and pulled from public, governmental records. If you happen to find any inaccuracy, please let us know so it can be corrected immediately.
No other community that we are aware of has a website like this, so that is evidence of the passion the people who created this site have for their community.
We value personal privacy and we are simply among the 57,000+/- residents that call Tinley Park home. Anonymity protects the individual(s) and the movement they represent, by defining a sharp dichotomy between the personal and the political - and the nature of anonymity is to deny the possibility of personal gains. We simply want to see the community thrive like we know it can and that takes informed residents to achieve!
Thank you to those who have researched our data and taken the time to read and review the information (and the legitimate sources). We appreciate your time and support - please share this data with your neighbors. We have invested a lot of time and effort in bringing the truth to the hardworking taxpayers of Tinley Park. This site is to explain why our property taxes are so high, and getting higher.
No other community that we are aware of has a website like this, so that is evidence of the passion the people who created this site have for their community.
We value personal privacy and we are simply among the 57,000+/- residents that call Tinley Park home. Anonymity protects the individual(s) and the movement they represent, by defining a sharp dichotomy between the personal and the political - and the nature of anonymity is to deny the possibility of personal gains. We simply want to see the community thrive like we know it can and that takes informed residents to achieve!
Thank you to those who have researched our data and taken the time to read and review the information (and the legitimate sources). We appreciate your time and support - please share this data with your neighbors. We have invested a lot of time and effort in bringing the truth to the hardworking taxpayers of Tinley Park. This site is to explain why our property taxes are so high, and getting higher.
We are hard working, taxpaying citizens who have taken it upon ourselves to gather property tax information and organize it as best as possible to share with the community. The amount of research, organization of content and setup of a website was no easy task, but we did this on our free time, for free and we did this FOR YOU. This site is a work in progress. We have received a lot of great support from the community and also received some feedback about clarifying certain data and sources on our site. Data and sources have been made more clear where you indicated it was needed (we agreed), and we welcome additional feedback and data to enhance the site. The sources of information are provided on the sources page and also as links throughout each page, which are located by the red lettering links in paragraphs, in gray button links, and also noted below graphics and documents. Our goal was to get you our research and provide sources for you ASAP, where you could do homework into any topic you felt was important. Our researchers have included sources to all topics mentioned in this site, which we found to be credible. We're still working on making all data and linked sources as "instant gratification" as we can. However, it's still really important for you to thoroughly read and review the sources of data on your own to not only be informed, but also understand the context of this site. We are not textbook authors, we are private Tinley Park citizens that complied property tax data for our own use and then organized on this site to share because we are worried about property taxes. This site is the result of a LOT of hard work. We will continue to update and enhance this site to assist you in your research, and we look forward to working together to lower our property taxes.
Our only agenda is to get taxes reduced and stop oppressive government. We want to see our Village and Schools become fiscally responsible, lower their spending, and control future costs. We have no political agenda, no political affiliation, and we have no plans to fund raise or create additional bureaucracy or factions in the community. We are not a part of or associated with any other Tinley Park "group", if we were we would be utilizing existing websites and social media. None of the researchers have any personal desire to enter politics. We are grassroots and WE ARE PROVIDING INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE. It's that simple."
This website is to provide Tinley Park Illinois taxpayers with information and data to help them make informed decisions in the community. Our goal is to have neighboring communities follow suit in research, and hopefully a nationwide change can occur. Our local government must become fiscally responsible, and our property taxes must be reduced.
We are troubled by the condition of the economy and how it affects taxpaying residents. Rising property taxes have forced retired residents from their homes, forced families to relocate, forced homes into foreclosure, and kept numerous people and businesses from moving in.
The climate in Tinley Park is NOT friendly to its current residents, and its NOT friendly to those who have considered moving their family or business in. Tinley Park's bureaucracy and its reputation of micro-managing regulatory tactics have not won fans among entrepreneurs. Ask businesses outside of Tinley Park why they would or would not relocate to Tinley Park... see what they say.
Our concern is the well-being of hardworking taxpayers of this community. When property taxes are 50% or more of a principle mortgage payment on the average property in Tinley Park, we have serious problems. The overspending in our village and our schools must be addressed. Furthermore, the problems with Tinley Park's bureaucracy and corruption must be fixed to bring in businesses and revenue.
Contribute by sharing information, sharing data, sharing research, sharing links and other helopful information. This site is a collective effort of like-minded residents, coming together in unity, working together to reduce property taxes, reduce bureaucracy and stop government oppression.
We are troubled by the condition of the economy and how it affects taxpaying residents. Rising property taxes have forced retired residents from their homes, forced families to relocate, forced homes into foreclosure, and kept numerous people and businesses from moving in.
The climate in Tinley Park is NOT friendly to its current residents, and its NOT friendly to those who have considered moving their family or business in. Tinley Park's bureaucracy and its reputation of micro-managing regulatory tactics have not won fans among entrepreneurs. Ask businesses outside of Tinley Park why they would or would not relocate to Tinley Park... see what they say.
Our concern is the well-being of hardworking taxpayers of this community. When property taxes are 50% or more of a principle mortgage payment on the average property in Tinley Park, we have serious problems. The overspending in our village and our schools must be addressed. Furthermore, the problems with Tinley Park's bureaucracy and corruption must be fixed to bring in businesses and revenue.
Contribute by sharing information, sharing data, sharing research, sharing links and other helopful information. This site is a collective effort of like-minded residents, coming together in unity, working together to reduce property taxes, reduce bureaucracy and stop government oppression.
Page Links:
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
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