Oak Park and River Forest High School
District 200 School Board
MATT Baron JACK Davidson
DOUG Springer
Oak Park Elementary District 97
School Board
HEATHER
Claxton-Douglas
Village of Oak Park Board of Trustees
DENO Andrews SIMONE Boutet DAN Moroney
Like our
school board candidates, our endorsed trustee candidates will help restore
trust in our elected boards. They will support responsible development and hold
the village accountable to its Intergovernmental Agreement commitment, to
retain and maintain the community/high school garage. We do not endorse and are
not voting for any other candidates in the above races and are not casting a
vote in the village president’s race. We are not endorsing candidates in any
other races.
Due to our focused efforts in supporting our school
board candidates, we have not devoted sufficient time to make a determination on the two
District 97 referendum questions. Therefore, we are not endorsing or opposing
them. We strongly encourage voters to understand them and their major tax
implications to cast an informed vote. Go to the school’s website, www.op97.org/d97referenda/ for information on the operations and facilities
referendums. The Oak Park Township Assessor has published information about the property tax effects HERE.
The operations
referendum would permanently increase taxes by $74 for every $1,000 on a property
tax bill. This is in addition to other increases from other taxing bodies. According to the Oak Park Township Assessor’s
office, our taxes will go up about 2% without the referendum and 9% with the
referendum. For example, if the
referendum passes, a $10,000 property tax bill will become $10,900 next year, a
$15,000 property tax bill will be $16,350 next year, and a $20,000 property tax
bill will become a $21,800 property tax bill.
(without the referendum, the
amounts next year would be $10,200, $15,300 and $20,400 - see this link from the township office for
more information: http://www.oakparktownship.org/sites/default/files/District-97-Referendum-17.pdf )
If approved, the facilities referendum would spend $57.5 million over 20 years, effectively
extending the current bond issue that is paying for the middle schools. The
referendum’s passage would negate the return of $260 per a $10,000 property tax
bill to homeowners when the current bond issue expires in 2018. The combined cost
of the two referendums would then be $1,000 per a $10,000 property tax bill,
according to the village assessor. Renters will also be impacted by the passage
of one or both referendums if their landlords pass on the sizeable tax increase(s)
in the form of higher rents.
This voting guide is compiled by OPRF Pragmatic
Solutions, the grassroots group of Oak Park and River Forest citizens who
initiated a successful petition drive in November 2015 to stop the OPRF
District 200 School Board from issuing non-referendum bonds, bypassing voters,
and spending $37.5 million on a 50-meter, Olympic-size pool and demolishing the
12-year old, structurally-sound parking garage, which would have left no
required on-site, off-street parking at the school of 3300 students and 525
staff members. In November 2016, OPRF Pragmatic Pool Solutions helped defeat
the $44.5 million, District 200 pool referendum that would have built a
40-meter swimming pool, demolishing the structurally-sound parking garage and
replacing it with a smaller garage. After the defeat of the D200 pool referendum,
we expanded our focus and changed our name to reflect it, OPRF Pragmatic
Solutions.
OPRF Pragmatic Solutions believes in the tenets of working on behalf of the Greater Good across all of our elected boards and holding these boards accountable and fiscally responsible.
