Village not yet facing the unpleasant facts

My wife and I attended the village meeting the other night on the imposition of real estate taxes on Schaumburg property. The presentations focused on declining revenues and rising cost of government to justify the need for new sources of revenue if the current services are to be maintained.

Some remarks were offered to support the claims that the village had taken steps to reduce costs, but the year over year cost growth was still far in excess of the CPI growth.

We were disappointed that little was stated about the worsening financial conditions of the residents who will be paying the proposed taxes - data such as the number unemployed, underemployed, bankrupt, foreclosed, homes vacant, families with children who have returned home, retired families whose retirement savings were significantly reduced, would assist in putting the issue into perspective.

If our neighborhood is indicative of the village, residents at least 25 percent of the families are suffering some form of financial distress at this time and can ill afford more taxes.

The financial problems that the village faces are reminiscent of the problems that are faced in the commercial field where forward planning tends be overly optimistic and management tries to avoid being the bad guy and reduce operating costs.

Since labor represent typically 80 percent of the cost, the problem thus translates into layoffs, furloughs, pay cuts and reduced hours.

The necessary actions are delayed hoping that the situation will improve and the problem worsens with sometimes-catastrophic conclusions. In my 40-plus years of employment I observed that situations never improved as rapidly as they deteriorate.

In each case where change was needed, the clues were evident years ahead of the time change was implemented. I fear that Schaumburg is learning this lesson now.

Larry Stump

Schaumburg