Whenever I hear a politician say they are going to cut property taxes my first question is how? How are you going to cut taxes? What are you going to cut? What effect will that have on service, on residents, on our quality of life? I don’t know about you but I believe quality of life is about far more than just “core services.” I live in Woodridge because my family and I have found it to be a great place to live, providing a wonderful quality of life.
Let’s start with the facts. The Village of Woodridge is responsible for a very small portion of our property tax bill. My 2012 tax bill (2011 tax levy) was $10,334.06. If we were to cut out every penny that the village receives my tax bill would drop to $9986.56. I’m not saying we shouldn’t look to cut this where we can, in a balanced and sensible manner. We can, we should and we will. The bigger point is that we should look to work with all the other taxing bodies to bring down the total tax bill. The other taxing bodies are where we can really make a difference since that’s where the bulk of our tax dollars go.
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How? Immediately upon taking office I will invite the leaders of all taxing bodies that touch Woodridge residents to a meeting where the sole focus will be to work on reducing the property tax burden paid by all of us. This will not be a meeting where the Village demands things, but rather a coming together to find out how we can work together and make real reductions in the cost of government. By working together to realize real savings; eliminate waste; share resources; look at joint purchasing opportunities; find out what others are doing to cut costs; bringing a true business owner point of view to the issues at hand; bringing new ideas to the table that we haven’t even thought of yet. Yes, I realize we will not get this done in a meeting. But it’s how we’ll start and we’ll move forward from there.
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What is working in District 99 that we might be able to use or adapt to use effectively in the village? What is Center Cass doing to save tax dollars that another district hasn’t tried yet? How can we help our Fire Districts be more efficient? How can the Park District benefit from partnerships with the business community? How can technological advances help us realize efficiencies and how do we implement them in the most effective manner? Lots of questions mean lots of opportunities.
And I won’t stop with just the local taxing bodies. I’ll be looking for opportunities to work with others on a regional level as well. Anything that can advance the goal of reducing what we pay while maintaining our quality of life is going to be discussed.
The opportunities are limitless if we all go into this with the same goal. The village portion of property taxes does not exist in a vacuum. Saying you’re going to cut taxes without detailing how is not leadership. Working in a cooperative way with others is the best way to lower our tax bill – the entire bill. And I believe the mayor is in the best position to take the lead on this.
It also helps to have a good working relationship with the other taxing bodies, something I already have. As a financial advisor I approach things by looking to work together. I don’t see problems, I see opportunities. And I’m ready to get to work finding those opportunities and making Woodridge an even better place to live.
There is a second part to this issue which I will address in my next post.
Video http://youtu.be/ozApx7pD95Y
