Arrogance is an ugly thing. But it seems that Grayslake School Board Superintendent Ellen Correll has it in spades. Not only did she and four other board members vote to increase its tax levy on the community, but she also announced that she used federal “stimulus” money to dole out raises and bonuses to teachers and administrators.The school board claims that it needs to raise the tax levy by 8.3 percent because of shortfalls in operating costs. Tax rates are limited on existing properties and is capped by law so due to this the tax hit on older properties would not be as great as 8.3 percent. New properties, however, are not capped.
But in this economy, who can afford property taxes to go up yet again? As school board member Michael Carbone said in his comments, statistics show that in 2009 one in three houses sold in the district were in distress and in 2010 it was 50%.
Shockingly, as Correll and her board are crying poor and demanding more money, the school board turned around and used so-called stimulus money for luxuries and payoffs instead of applying it to the supposedly much needed operation costs...
Warner Todd Huston has more on this ugly story here at Publius' Forum.