Let Schaumburg vote on property tax

I am quite disappointed in the Village of Schaumburg's proposal for creating an entirely new $24 million dollar property tax, which comes at the worst possible time for local residents and businesses. It is unnecessary and should be entirely rejected.

One of the prominent justifications given by Village Manager Ken Fritz was that "costs for removing and melting snow have increased 63.49 percent in the last five years."

Through a FOIA request, I found out that the Village of Schaumburg is paying nonunion village employees $48.69 and hour, and even more for union employees, to remove snow and ice during the winter season.

This is shocking! Schaumburg residents are being forced to pay 140 percent more in labor costs for snow and ice removal than in Hoffman Estates, which hires outside CDL drivers to perform the same task at only $20 an hour.

At the last Village Board meeting, many Schaumburg citizens pointed out a plethora of great ideas to cut unnecessary and wasteful spending, including the hotel and convention center, airport and baseball stadium, which combined cost area taxpayers over $10 million per year to operate and maintain.

Village officials stubbornly refused to even explore the opportunity to privatize and sell the properties. Instead they engaged in fear-mongering, threatening to lay off 123 employees and make drastic service cuts if the property tax does not pass.

Even if Ken Fritz, Mayor Al Larson and the Village Board are successful in passing this property tax for "emergency" reasons, they should commit to giving the citizens of Schaumburg the opportunity to vote on this property tax proposal in the next municipal election, April 2011, before it becomes irreversible.

The citizens of Schaumburg should have the power to approve or reject this property tax proposal at the ballot box.

Brian Costin

Schaumburg