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IPI criticism of Arlington Heights just plain wrong: Mayor

The Illinois Policy Institute recently posted a report, accompanied by letters to the editor decrying local government waste.

In one section they claim that the Village of Arlington Heights spent $570,000 on government affairs and lobbying between 2015 and 2018 with the West Central Municipal Conference.

Unfortunately, if the Illinois Policy Institute had approached us prior to posting their report or had just done their homework, they would have found that such claims couldn't be further from the truth.

The village did indeed spend $570,000 through the West Central Municipal Conference during that period but it was not for lobbying. The village used a joint bid purchasing program that West Central runs to purchase parkway trees in the aftermath of the emerald ash borer's damage to our community.

Through diligent research our village staff found that by joining the joint bid process conducted by the West Central Municipal conference we could get the absolute best price for our trees.

So our spending $570,000 during this period is not an example of government waste, but actually an example of finding the best way to save the taxpayers of Arlington Heights money.

While there are certainly areas where governments can reduce waste, writing falsehoods in ill-researched reports does nothing to help, it just wastes the time of the taxpayers who read it.

Mayor Tom Hayes

Arlington Heights

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