Ackerman Paid for by Tax Increase

In the past week I have heard several comments about how the Ackerman Sports and Fitness Center was built without raising taxes. This is false.

Ackerman was paid for with funding from 3 sources: $7.4 million from the 2006 referendum bond money, $3.2 million from non-referendum bonds and the remaining from fund balances.

The park district taxpayers pay for all bonds. This is above and beyond the normal operating budget and outside of the constraints of the tax cap. Had the 2006 referendum failed, our taxes would have gone down. The Board voted this year to sell another $4 million in non-referendum bonds to finance Ackerman. Because of this new debt, we are collecting additional money from the tax payers in 2010 (2010 budget, page 65). Had the Board not borrowed this money, our taxes would have gone down.

The park district needs to sell bonds from time to time in order to finance park projects. This is necessary and appropriate. Let's not pretend though that our money doesn't come from our taxpayers.