Barrington 220 School Board Member Leah Collister-Lazzari is being called out for calling into a school board meeting ostensibly to vote to raise tax levies on local property owners.
“Why is the Barrington BOE @barrington220 allowing Leah Collister-Lazzari to call in and vote when she is absent from tonight's meeting? Is it to pass the ridiculous 6.5% Levy Increase?” D220 Insider asked on Twitter.
The tax levy is expected to be worth over $141 million. The board held a hearing on the property tax levy during its Tuesday, Dec. 20 meeting.
“The corporate and special purpose property taxes extended or abated for 2021 were $133,062,519,” Secretary Barry Altshuler said in a required notice published in the Daily Herald regarding the hearing.
“The proposed corporate and special purpose property taxes to be levied for 2022 are $141,600,000. This represents a 6.4 percent increase over the previous year.”
“The property taxes extended for debt service and public building commission leases for 2021 were $11,200,108.”
“The estimated property taxes to be levied for debt service and public building commission leases for 2022 are $8,915,338.00. This represents a 20.40 percent decrease from the previous year.”
“The total property taxes extended or abated for 2021 were $144,262,627. The estimated total property taxes to be levied for 2022 are $150,515,338.00. This represents a 4.3 percent increase over the previous year.”
According to Illinois Policy, teacher’s unions contribute to high property tax levies.
“In addition to massive debts, another driver of perpetual school district property tax hikes are Illinois’ laws granting unfair negotiating power to government worker unions. Illinois stacks the deck against taxpayers by giving government worker unions enormous power during contract negotiations,” the advocacy group wrote.
“Unlike every neighboring state, Illinois allows nonemergency public employees, including teachers and school district workers, to go on strike. Illinois enshrines a “right to strike” in state law, giving government worker unions a trump card during negotiations that taxpayers simply don’t have.”
“In the context of school districts, these rules give government worker unions the power to extract unrealistic and costly contract provisions from taxpayers.”
The Barrington 220 school district was heavily criticized by parents who objected to the inclusion of "Gender Queer" as a choice for sixth graders' summer reading list.
Given the book's graphic material, including lurid sex scenes involving underage children, parents many parents voiced concern over its inclusion in their children's school recommendations.
“An 11-year-old shouldn't be talking about having a sexual interaction,” parent Malgorzata McGonigal told North Cook News.
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