The Case for Voting NO’ on the Winfield Road Referendum TAX

This an archived article from February of 2010

This fall our village is putting to a public vote a referendum for $3.3 Million in order to fix the most decrepit roads in our town. After that, we need an additional $705 Thousand Dollars per year just to maintain the remaining roads. The initial tax will show up on your property tax bill as an extra $243 charge if your house is worth $300,000. If your house is worth more, your tax bill will be proportionally more. The tax will continue until the bond is paid off in 20 years. (Daily Herald, 12-18-09)

Note: The $243.00 does not include the additional cost of  the $705 thousand dollars for the next 20 years. In reality you are looking at approximately a 200% tax increase on the Winfield side of your tax bill.

An Epic Failure of Leadership

If you have been a resident for a few years, and if you watch the newspapers, you are probably aware  Winfield has had many opportunities to develop and grow our commercial tax base, which alleviates the financial pressure put on residents in the form of property taxes. Commercial real estate creates higher land values, puts no additional pressure on our schools, and they pay higher taxes per square foot than residential real estate does. Commercial developments also have the distinct advantage, if done right, of creating sales taxes. This town’s politicians for years have actively denied growth opportunities that would create net tax revenues for our town. (Daily Herald 3-25-09) If we had taken even a few of them, we would not find ourselves in such dire straights.

Lost Annual Transaction Tax

It is impossible to truly know how much sales tax revenue Winfield has forgone. I checked with the Illinois Department of Revenue and they tell me specific numbers are confidential. I have general numbers, and they are in the millions of dollars.

Currently, our heaviest traveled corridor is Roosevelt Road. The land along Roosevelt is zoned residential. Roosevelt Road has a traffic count of 30,000 cars each day. Of all the opportunities our village has to generate revenue in order to provide services like road maintenance, there is no better opportunity than Roosevelt Road.

“Winfield has lost every opportunity to raise tax revenue without raising taxes on our people…”

An Epic Failure of Government

During the last election cycle we were assured that Winfield Village President Deborah Birutis was a financial wizard that had spent 5 years on the finance committee and all was well with the budget. Glenn VadeBonCoeur and Jack Bajor also served with her on the finance committee and still do. Jack Bajor and Joel Kunesh are long time Winfield Trustees. One has to wonder, given their financial prowess, how did they NOT see this coming? In that same election cycle we were assured the budget was balanced and there was nothing to worry about. We should all be disappointed that we have arrived at this juncture in our town’s history; out of money and worse, out of ideas that do not revolve around raising taxes on the residents of this great town. The next step for these politicians is apparently to outsource our police department. The way I see it, if you boil the village’s responsibility to the residents down to its core, the local government is responsible for delivering clean water, disposing of sewage and garbage and providing police protection. If Village President Birutis doesn’t think Winfield should provide police protection anymore, then what, really, are we paying a local government for? If disbanding the police department is really an option, then disbanding the Winfield’s Village government should be too.

Why I ask you to join me in voting NO for the Winfield Road Referendum.

Let’s be honest with ourselves, the roads need to be fixed and Winfield is in a very bad spot because of monumentally bad management. But unless we take this opportunity to set the town on a path to fiscal responsibility, you can rest assured your politicians will come back to you in a few years from now to ask for more money for something else that is lurking (or should I say lacking) in our budget. However, we must vote NO for the Winfield Road Referendum UNTIL such time as they adopt reforms such as changing the zoning on Roosevelt Road to create the possibility for future revenues and outline a plan for developing a sustainable revenue stream. If our elected officials can put together a cogent plan with vision that clearly demonstrates a path to sustainable revenue, then we should change our vote to YES. I am not looking at a complete denial of the fact the roads need to be addressed, just a pause in doing what needs to be done. A pause just long enough for our current elected officials to do the right thing, to remember they are the stewards of the entire town and they manage the resources for the benefit of all the residents. I ask you to vote NO until a clearly defined plan has been devised to never have to come back to the residents again for more tax dollars.

Questions to Ask Your Elected Officials

1. President Birutis, Trustee VadeBonCoeur, with your 5 years on the finance committee, how long did you know that Winfield was out of money?
2. Did you know we were going to have to go to referendum for the roads during the last election cycle?
3. All your campaign literature said that you had “Balanced the Budget”. Tell me, is the budget really balanced when you are robbing from the road maintenance fund to cover operating expenses?
4. If getting a “Yes” vote for this referendum required changing the zoning of land in Winfield’s control on Roosevelt Road to commercial zoning would you do it?
5. Would you support leasing the Metra Commuter lots to a private company in order to raise $1 Million dollars?
6. Why did you vote against video gambling in Winfield that would have raised $45,000 per year?
7. Why did you not support the proton treatment center and its estimated $450,000 of tax revenue in the TIF district?
8. If we had the opportunity for a major commercial development to go in on Roosevelt Rd would you support it and the millions of dollars it would make for the Village?

“…the village needs to realize that there is a correlation between having an anti-development mindset and paying increased taxes …”

Trustee Jack Bajor ‘The Six Million Dollar Man’

This is an archived article from January 2010

The newest local arm of Winfield United, the Winfield Post ran an article featuring Winfield Village Trustee Jack Bajor’s account of how the DuPage Water Commission misappropriated 19 million dollars in taxpayer’s funds.

Of course Mr. Bajor plays the ‘blame game’ – he always has, he always will – but what’s truly annoying is the hypocrisy, the near-constant accusations where the accuser is far guiltier than the accused. The most common political hypocrisies are Mr. Bajor’s accusations concerning the fiscal irresponsibility of the DuPage County Water Commissioners, yet we all know, the current Winfield Village Board has brought us monstrous operating shortfalls and foolhardy spending.

Mr. Bajor should explain to the residents why under his watch six million dollars earmarked for infrastructure repairs were carelessly spent on unwarranted projects. Why he ignored the degenerating infrastructure to fund nonessential pet projects instead of critical needs. It took less than four years for Trustee Bajor the liaison to the public works committee to irresponsibly squander the entire six million dollars.

There needs to be greater accountability on the village board. Mr. Bajor has an obligation as a public official to report on the usage of public resources and answerability for failing to meet stated village objectives. Furthermore, Mr. Bajor has a responsibility to guarantee initiatives meet their stated goals and meet the needs of the community.

Unlike Steve Austin we just can’t just rebuild our six million dollar fund.

Will Red Light Cameras Really Prevent Accidents in Winfield?

Or is installing sneaky red light cameras just another way for Deborah Birutis & the Village Board to “TAX” the residents?

“Red Light Runners Compilation”

Warning the video compilation may contain content that is inappropriate for some users. Click the link below to view video.

YouTube – Red Light Runners Compilation

Also Read:

Winfield Village Board Considers Red Light Cameras – Safety of Trap?

Just the Facts?

The late, Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan once famously asserted, “Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts.” The senator was wrong. Of course, for those of us who still believe that objectivity is objective, a fact is still a fact, though the heavens may fall.

The key word here is “entitled.” Today in Winfield, not only does the political action committee Winfield United believe the community is entitled to pay for their self-serving lifestyle. Winfield United feels they are entitled to their own facts to support their claim, to their own entitlement to the residents money to support their narrow positions.

Not only that, they believe they are entitled to their own facts to describe the character and conduct of their political opponents. In the last election, Winfield United used The Winfield Register to collectively smear candidates who opposed their hand-picked candidates in the absence of a single verified fact to support their outrageous claims.

“Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence. –John Adams (“Argument in Defense of the Soldiers in the Boston Massacre Trials,” December 1770).

Though Adams may have been correct technically — the facts cannot be altered in the eyes of God — he was wrong to the extent that the facts cannot be altered in the eyes of the public.

Winfield United repeatedly told the community their endorsed candidate for village president, Deborah Birutis, was a “financial genius” and because of her “financial insight” over the previous four years, the village was “financially sound.” But here we are barely one year after the “financial facts” were presented by Winfield United’s “financial genius” Deborah Birutis and the residents are now faced with a $3.3 million dollar road referendum, coupled with an additional $705 thousand dollar, 20 year tax to maintain the roads which will increase taxes upwards 200%. A reduction in police protection, a possible outright dismantling of the entire police department, higher water cost, increased waste collection fees, red light cameras, and a budget on life support due to Ms. Birutis’ blatant distortions and  financial mismanagement.

It will be interesting to see, seven months from now, how stubborn the facts will be. How effectively the advocates of the non-fact “communicate” to the residents — and how effective the rest of us are — will determine whether residents are hit with a massive tax bill. And remember, Winfield elections tend to be won or lost on the margin. If 18% of the voters are motivated by incorrect “facts” to vote, that may well be enough for the massive tax hikes to go through.

Of course, it is not a novelty in Winfield since Winfield United’s formation, there is often a struggle over convincing the public of the truth. As has been said, “A lie is halfway ’round the world before truth has got its boots on.”

So, we have a jolly seven-month public match over economic and political theory, Winfield United’s agenda  and the honest facts. Deborah Birutis and Winfield United have been quite upset for being called out as the responsible parties for Winfield’s financial troubles and for being identified as a  self-concerned, myopically-designed, deeply controlling organization desperately trying to save their sorry self-serving agenda. But if this massive tax increase goes through, Winfield United will once again enjoy the benefits of the taxpaying residents to maintain their lifestyle.

So, come out, come out where ever you are, my little WU’ers. We want to debate the facts, not duck your mud balls. What are you afraid of? Admittedly, the truth may hurt you — but only metaphorically. And, as the phrase goes, the truth will set us (even WU) free.

Winfield’s $3.3 Million Dollar Bailout

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSsPanB6Ga8

As I am sure you all know by now, I have been very critical of Winfield’s current crop of politicians, especially where the $3.3 Million Dollar Road Referendum is concerned. In my opinion, any village president that was also the chair of the finance committee should have seen and budgeted for what became a $3.3 million dollar fiasco. Using the Freedom of Information Act, I received documentation stating the village board knew about the need for the referendum at the end of March 2008.

Politically, it would have made the existing village board (at that time) of Rudy Czech, Deborah Birutis, Jack Bajor, Joel Kunesh, and Glen VadeBonCoeur look completely inept in an election year had they told the public that they had deferred maintenance causing this issue. So they did the politically expedient thing and pushed the problem off two more years. The roads are now two years older and in worse condition and nobody has accepted responsibility for this issue.

There was an official town hall meeting on February 27th, that was poorly attended and poorly put together. The village did not take out advertisements in either of the town’s two papers (The Winfield Post, or Winfield STUFF). They didn’t spend a dime on running the Xerox machine to make handouts explaining the issues to the people. Curt Barrett laser printed a few graphs that were too small to see from the first row of the gallery at that meeting. They couldn’t even be bothered to offer coffee, water or a scrap of a cookie to their guests.

It strikes me as someone that works in sales, that it was possibly the worst sales presentation I have ever attended. Aside from not advertising, not having handouts, not preparing graphs and charts which could be read from the back row, Village President Birutis said nothing, except for a few sentences to back up Trustee VadeBonCouer’s comments. While the meeting was attended by all the trustees, essentially no politician had anything to say except Glen VadeBonCouer.

Winfield’s infrastructure is deteriorating to an alarming degree. (See Winfield’s Infrastructure Woes http://winfield411.com/blog/?p=686 ) In November, you are going to have the opportunity to vote on a referendum to raise $3.3 million for road repair and replacement. This referendum will also include another tax to raise $705 thousand per year for additional maintenance. These tax increases alone represent a +200% increase in the portion of your real estate taxes that go to Winfield and will last for the next 20 years. In addition, your taxes are being increased on water consumption, sewer usage, Metra parking, business permits, liquor licenses, and real estate. The politicians have also discussed vehicle permit stickers and the potential of disbanding our police force as well as adding red light cameras as a revenue generator.

So in an effort to do the town hall right, I am holding my own town hall. As my civic duty to my town, I have taken out advertising in both of our local papers, and I have sent out a massive email blast this week announcing the town hall meeting. As well as notifying the press. I respectfully request your presence.

Winfield Village President Deborah Birutis and Village Manager Curt Barrett have been invited to present again. The meeting is Tuesday 7:00 pm, April 20th at John’s Buffet in the meeting room. I have another meeting set up for Wednesday April 21 at the Winfield Park District at 7:00 pm in the meeting room. I have many people that have RSVP’d because space is limited.

I have FOIA’d all of the PDF’s from the original town hall meeting and reprinted them on paper large enough to be seen from the back row. I will have handouts for the people to take home. I plan to have coffee, water, and even a cookie or two.

I plan to cover the topics of how we got to this point in our town’s history and what we can do about it. Unlike our politicians, I have not only a plan B, but a C, D and E. I plan to show that our town has a 20 year history of essentially squashing growth, business and anything related to sustainable revenues, especially when the area in question is Roosevelt Road.

I would appreciate if you would consider attending, I believe that this meeting, unlike the last, will actually be productive.

Thank you,

Tim Allen

For Reservation: Email Tim @ TimAllen57@Gmail.com or Call 630.344.9354 to reserve your seat.

Village Board Wants 200% Tax Hike

Bleeding to Death in a Room Full of Doctors

Deborah Birutis:

Bachelors of Science in Finance – John Carroll University

Masters of Business Administration – Lake Erie College

Vice President of Finance – Consumer & Industrial Companies

Glen VadeBonCouer:

Finance – University of Illinois

Jack Bajor:

B.S. in Civil Engineering

Masters Degree of Public Administration

23 Years of Municipal Experience

12 Years Engineering Consulting

So we find ourselves and our village without money in our budget for roads. As a citizen and a taxpayer I have to ask how this happened. From what I understand, each of the three trustees listed above are either on the finance committee currently or have been on the finance committee in the past 5 years. Deborah Birutis was the chairwoman of the finance committee for the better part of the past 4 years.

The purpose of a budget is to make sure that an organization like a company or a town does not get hit with very large expenses that can not be serviced out of revenues in any given year. Roads would fall into that category. In a properly done budget, a fraction of the service life of an asset would be set aside each year for the replacement of that asset as it wears out. So if a road lasts 15 years, you set aside 1/15^th of the value of the road so that in year 15 you have all the money you need to replace the road.

Winfield is currently going to referendum on $3.3 Million for road repairs. Winfield’s revenues were $8.2 Million last year. So we have an expense that is 40% of our operating revenues. This is exactly what a budget was designed to prevent.

I am searching for a way to understand how this happened. It would be unfortunate but understandable if between last years budget and this year’s budget something unforeseen happened to the roads that caused us to have to complete $3.3 million dollars in repairs. Say for instance a comet strike, nuclear war, renegade bulldozer… Barring these unforeseen events, the roads could only have deteriorated naturally which would have been accounted for in a properly constructed budget.

As a citizen, I want to know how a village board with two finance majors, one with an MBA and experience as a Vice President of Finance together with an engineer whose job it is to council other towns on the state of their infrastructure couldn’t or wouldn’t account properly for the state of Winfield’s infrastructure.

To me, this is exactly like bleeding to death in front of 3 doctors while the doctors stand around and scratch their heads.

A November No Vote

“We could say they spend money like drunken sailors, but that would not be fair — to drunken sailors. It would be unfair, because the sailors are spending their own money.”

– Ronald Reagan on Congress

If past is prologue, the Winfield Village board will continue to put short-term interests ahead of long-term interests until pressure is put on them to change their actions. Fiscal responsibility will be accomplished only when the village board does what is best in the long-term and sacrifice parochial interests in favor of community priorities.

Village President Deborah Birutis and her village board outdid themselves the last three years, wasting taxpayer money in ways and amounts once thought unimaginable in Winfield — all without blushing. So outrageous was the spending, an outside observer would be forced to think not only do the residents love to pay taxes, but the Winfield budget was in a state of perpetual surplus.

This article is an attempt to pull back the curtain on 4 examples of wasteful spending (there are many more) by the village board which cost the taxpayers of Winfield close to $5 million dollars, and by doing so, show why the November 2010, $3.3 million dollar referendum is a cover up for the board’s fiscal mismanagement and why, the resident cannot trust this board with any new taxpayer dollars.

Village President Birutis and her village board are on their knees begging the residents to pass the $3.3 million dollar referendum. A massive tax hike they are attempting to sell to the residents as the only alternative to repair the crumbling roads in town. If you drive around or just walk around town, at own risk, you will undoubtedly see the need is real. The problem is, the village board has spent millions of dollars on low-priority and questionable projects, ignoring the most pressing needs of the community. The current village board had the money to repair the roads but instead chose to ignore the roads and carelessly spent  millions of taxpayer dollars on unjustifiable projects.

1. $1.5 million dollars for remote read water meters – Which did nothing to correct a system operating at about a 20% loss of finished water due to leaks and failures.
2. $1.1 million dollars to run water infrastructure to an empty lot on the corner of County Farm and St. Charles Roads. -  A cost which should have been born by the developer – 2 years later still no development in sight.
3. $2.0 million dollars for a new public works facility. – An unneeded and very expensive expenditure.
4. $300K to study the Town Center for a 3th time in less than 5 years.

Wasting taxpayer dollars is unacceptable, but to the extent to which it occurred over the last three years was a clear demonstration of how Birutis and her village board often put low-priority items ahead of the more important needs of road and infrastructure repairs.

While this can be discouraging – and even frustrating – to the residents of Winfield who work hard for their pay and do not appreciate seeing taxes squander by the village board. A NO VOTE on the November referendum  will send a very clear message to this village board to rein in their wasteful spending, give the community an opportunity to elect fiscally responsible officials and make sure Deborah Birutis and the village board will not be able to spend any additional taxpayer money in unwise ways.

As a community we must demand measurable results before even considering handing over any additional tax dollars to the village board. Furthermore, the Deborah Birutis lead village board needs to ensure efficient use of our own resources before turning to the taxpayers and asking for more. Ignoring the Roosevelt Road corridor as a sustainable revenue source is a fatally flawed position.

The examples of waste in this article total almost $5 million dollars, and do not represent the entire amount of taxpayer money wasted in the last three years. If the wasteful spending habits of the Winfield Village board are going to change, it will only happen because members of the village board are held accountable by the voters. When the residents demand change, they will get it–but not until then.

Breaking Tax News…..

$3.3 Million Tax Increase?

Winfield Property

Tax Hike +200%?

You are about to get taxed because Winfield

politicians did not properly budget for road

maintenance. If that makes you a little cranky

then we need to talk….

Winfield Town Hall Meeting

April 20 & 21 @ 7:00 PM

Space is limited. For reservations;

Email: TimAllen57@Gmail.com

or Call: 630.344.9354

(Sponsored by: Winfield Debate Club)

Winfield: Long Division Without the Vision

In the realm of politics, it is not often that absolute certainty will make an appearance in issues or problems that arise. Politicians find endless ways to argue the minutia of an issue. So when the hard sciences of math, physics or chemistry show up in politics the results can be harsh.

Winfield is faced with a budget problem. We need to go to referendum for a   $3.3 Million rehabilitation of our neglected roads. Then, every year after that, our new budget needs to accommodate $705 Thousand for yearly maintenance to keep us on a 15 year road replacement cycle.

Budgeting for the roads is not difficult math to understand. It is known widely by competent village managers and village engineers that asphalt needs to be rehabbed or replaced every 15 years. Thus, easy math states that one needs to determine the cost for replacing all the roads in a town, divide that by 15 and budget for that amount every year.

In addition, because asphalt is made with crude oil (a volatile commodity) the budget needs to account for inflation and adjust accordingly.

It is interesting to note that the dollars identified to fix this problem are actually pointers to how the budget got so far off track. The yearly amount that the village needs for maintenance ($705,000) divided into the up-front amount that the village wants from us ($3.3 Million) equals 4.68.  In other words, 4.68 is the cumulative number of years that maintenance was deferred on our roads.

Thus, for about the past 5 years, it should have been crystal-clear to the village board and the finance committee, that we were under-budgeting for our road maintenance.

The only question left to ask is which elected officials have been sitting on the village board and the finance committee and for how long?

Deborah Birutis –Current Village President has been a member of the Finance Committee all 5 years she has been a board member and was the Finance Committee Chairman for 4 years,

Jack Bajor – Has sat on the Finance Committee for  1 Year and has been a Village Trustee for 5 years.

Glen VadeBonCour – Has been a member of the Finance Committee for 3 years, is the current Finance Committee Chairman and has been a Village Trustee for 3 years.