Support Black Hawk College - vote yes
Black Hawk College has been a well-run and venerable institution in the area for a long time. They do an outstanding job of outreach to the community and have provided education and practical career training and re-training to hundreds of thousands of students, both young and not-so-young. Currently, the college serves 13,000 credit students and another 9,000 community education students.
Blackhawk has not asked the district residents who received its benefits to increase their finanical support for more than 20 years, that alone should be reason enough to prove both the need for an increase in funding.
To provide these vitally needed funds, a 15.5 cent property tax increase will be put to referendum on the March 21st ballot. For the owner of a $100,000 home, this would represent an additional $31.71 a year, a pittance in comparison to what the college returns to the community.
Students with an associate degree earn $366,044 more over their lifetime than those with a high school diploma, and 73% of Black Hawk students remain in the area, contributing to the economy and tax base.
The college has found that taxpayers, "receive an 8.9% annual return on their tax investment in the college andrecover all costs in 12.2 years due to higher tax receipts and avoided costs due to lowered crime rates, decreased welfare, and increased personal health."
This is truly a measure that is long overdue, justified, and a good investment in the area and improving the futures of thousands of people of all ages and backgrounds.
It's Small Business Development Center alone has helped create 1,110 jobs and injected $22.3 million dollars into the local economy.
To find out more, visit Citizens for Blackhawk,
e-mail CitizensforBlackHawk@yahoo.com, or call 309-796-5111
Help spread the word and help support the further vitality of Black Hawk and ensure it's able to provide high quality training and education into the future.
posted by The Inside Dope @ 3/01/2006
7 comments
7 Comments:
Can't tell you for certain, but I'd think that your property may have appreciated in the last 16 years and the formula for calculating what share Black Hawk gets simply went up as a function of that and other factors
I quoted the figures provided by the organization working to get this measure passed in a recent mailing and trust that they're accurate. I'd imagine that they'd be pretty certain of any figures they put out.
Anyone else have an explanation for this person's woes?
The rate they charge has not gone up. Your valuation of your property has, thus higher tax. What Black Hawk is requesting is an increase in the rate. Your valuation will continue to increase as the value of real estate increases.
I think you're right, dope. Two things determine how much tax a property owner pays to a taxing body - the assessed value of the property and the taxing district's rate. What the College referedum boosters are saying is that the college's maximum rate has not been increased for 20 years. But since taxes are determined by taking the property's value times the rate (according to a formula that's not vital to this discussion), an increase in property value will increase total taxes paid even if the rate doesn't increase. It would be interesting to find out how much the college's tax levy (the total amount of tax a taxing body requests and receives) has increased over the past 20 years. Twenty years seems like a long time without a rate increase, but if property values have increased at a decent level, then the college's levy, or amount collected from property taxes each year, should reflect that. Let's ask the county clerk or county treasurer
All I can add by way of information is that the Black Hawk reports states:
If the referendum fails, the college's total tax rate would be 41.79 cents per $100 of Equalized Assessed Valuation (EAV)
If passed the rate would increase to 51.67 per $100 EAV, an increase of slightly less than 10 cents.
Then considering that the BHC mailer also says the school is asking for a 15.5 cent property tax increase....however that is defined... and you quickly realize that these numbers can be sliced, diced, minced, and pureed in many different ways. Short of being an accountant, I can't sort it out precisely.
But WOW! I gotta hand it to you all for coming through like champs with explanations and digging up information.
Excellent!
I LOVE Blackhawk - but simply cannot afford a tax increase! I'm voting my pocketbook and will say no to further attempts to tax me into non-existence!
BTW - I work for $12 an hour - I own a very modest house (built in 1929 & below the hill in E.M.) - and my property taxes already run about $1500 a year - that alone is close to 1/10th of my actual take-home pay - and then I still have to pay the mortgage etc!
Please get the local governments out of my pocketbook!
The key is to get state government to quit giving property tax breaks to middle and high income senior citizens. Any home owner over 65 - regardless of income - gets two property tax breaks in Illinois - one for being a home owner and another for being over 65 - again, REGARDLESS of income. Also, a few years ago, the Illinois Legislature froze taxes for property owners over 65 who made less than $30,000 a year. Legislators have continually increased the annual income and currently, the legislature is proposing to completely FREEZE the property taxes of anyone 65 and older who makes $50,000 a year or less. So, Illinois Legislators have decided to transfer the taxes that would be paid by seniors making $49,000 a year (or $23.56 per hour in a 2,080-hour year) to working families with kids and mortgages, many who make far less than $49,000 a year. Who elected these guys? Seniors, of course!!
If they dont get the tax increase do they raise the tuition??
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