GA_071819

22 | July 18, 2019 | The glencoe anchor sound off
glencoeanchor.com
A Word From The (Former) Wilmette President
New Trier gives us the old ‘razzle dazzle’
John Jacoby
Contributing Columnist
Over the past
several weeks,
our local taxing
bodies have been mailing
out their periodic
glossy multi-page reports,
intended to keep us residents
abreast of what’s
happening in their various
realms. It’s important for
these governmental units
to communicate with residents,
but sometimes, in
my opinion, the authors
of these reports slip into
the “razzle dazzle” mode
— too much spin, and not
enough objectivity and
transparency. Here’s an
example from New Trier
High School’s recent
“2018 Annual Report.”
Under the self-congratulatory
headline, “Strong
Financial Stewardship
and Planning,” the Report
sets forth selected financial
data. None of this
data, with one exception,
compares NT’s financial
performance to the
performance of other high
school districts. The one
exception is a table that
compares New Trier’s
“Tax Rate” to the Tax
Rates of six “neighboring
districts.” The table
asserts that New Trier’s
2017 Rate ($1.99) is way
below the Rates in these
“neighboring districts”
(where Rates range from
$2.10 to $3.41) and
among the “lowest” in the
state. There’s no explanation
of what a $1.99 Tax
Rate means or how it’s
applied. In fact, a Tax
Rate standing alone is a
meaningless number. The
only reason I can imagine
for NT’s including this
table in its Report is to
razzle dazzle us taxpayers
into believing that we’re
being taxed less heavily
than taxpayers in other
districts.
So I decided to create
a table that presents more
information than just the
Tax Rate. I obtained the
data from the Illinois
State Board of Education’s
“Report Cards”
for 2017-2018 (the most
recent Report Cards
available). My table
includes NT and the six
“neighboring districts”
listed by NT, plus two
other districts (Highland
Park and Stevenson)
which I regard as more
“neighboring” than some
of those listed by NT.
NT and other districts
rely on property taxes
as their main source of
revenue. They levy
taxes on the Equalized
Assessed Value of the
property in their district
(EAV) to raise the money
needed to educate the
students in the district.
When the total EAV per
student is relatively high,
the Tax Rate tends to be
low. When the total EAV
per student is relatively
low, the Tax Rate tends
Please see jacoby, 23
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