Political fallout from Schaumburg property tax begins

As 2010 begins, a new property tax and a lingering poor economy are both testing Schaumburg's traditional identity.

The first fallout from the property tax has appeared: For the first time in 16 years, a challenger says he'll take on Village President Al Larson in the April 2011 muncipal election. Brian Costin, a 30-year-old libertarian activist, says the village has a track record of wasteful spending.

The unpopularity of Schaumburg's first municipal property tax in its 53-year history is evident - even Larson says he is discontented by it. But whether angry residents will be able or want to use it to unseat incumbent officeholders is speculative this far out from the election.

On the night of last month's historic vote, Larson remarked to a reporter that the voters probably will throw them all out. Since his first election to mayor in 1987, he has been challenged for re-election only twice, in 1991 and 1995.

Political scientist Paul Green, however, says Larson's assessment probably is premature.

The Roosevelt University professor acknowledged that politicians can successfully build on public outrage to win elections, as when Chicago's anger over snow removal in 1979 catapulted Jane Byrne to victory.

But while Byrne was elected mayor only a couple months after the blizzard of '79, maintaining the current level of anger over Schaumburg's property tax for 15 months is less likely, Green said.

Furthermore, he said people may come to realize the new tax is not a legitimate reason to be angry when virtually every other city in the area pays a municipal property tax.

"Schaumburg residents, they've been living in a property-tax fairyland," Green said. "Now they've got a taste of reality. They've gone from Disneyland to Reality-land."

Costin, a Schaumburg resident for nearly three years, has championed several contentious issues that have won him popular support, including his opposition to a red-light camera on Woodfield Road that the village took down last summer.

"I have a track record in Schaumburg of being the watchdog on wasteful spending," he said.

More recently he's put his shoulder into opposing the property tax, saying the village has never faced a financial problem that couldn't be solved by reduced spending.

Instead, he claims, the village has created myriad new or increased taxes during Larson's 24 years as mayor - the property tax being the most recent and the one most important to get rid of quickly.

Costin also hopes to get a referendum on the spring 2011 ballot allowing the public itself to set long-term policy on the use of a property tax levy.

Larson, meanwhile, is not committing himself this early to running for a seventh term. Since the night of the property tax vote, he has walked back a bit his own assessment of the damage the tax will do politically.

"This is something I've agonized over for some time now," Larson said. "I understand the ramifications of a tax vote and how that can be used in a political campaign. I was acknowledging the reality of the situation -- people really don't like taxes!"

Larson is unsurprised by Costin's use of the property tax to leverage popular support.

"I'm discontented about it too," Larson said. "I don't want a property tax in Schaumburg. But in this perfect storm of a recession, all we could turn to was a property tax. Who saw this coming?"

The $25 million in reserves the village had when the economy started to sour would have been enough to outlast any previous recession in the village's history, Larson said.

"We didn't cause the recession," he added. "What I was hearing at the (property tax) hearings was that Schaumburg should have avoided what no one else could."

Costin previously had stated his intention to run a slate of candidates for village board in 2011, but his own role seemed confined to that of campaign manager.

Now, however, he has quit the nonprofit, libertarian-based Heartland Institute, which prohibits its workers from seeking elected office, and found new employment at the Illinois Policy Institute.

Both agencies share the philosophy of seeking free-market solutions to economic problems, but the Illinois Policy Institute has no restriction against running for office.

Costin has been a frequent critic of Schaumburg's ownership of the Renaissance Hotel and Convention Center, Schaumburg Regional Airport and half-ownership of the Alexian Field baseball stadium.

He believes all three entities should be privatized to cut off the "corporate welfare" of taxpayer support.

Larson, on the other hand, cites these as examples of the investment in long-term economic development that has made Schaumburg what it is.