Illinois Election Interference
How do you feel about your tax dollars being used to get more of your tax dollars? Many school districts in Illinois are doing just that. Are Illinois' Election Interference statute or the Illinois Attorney General's Model Ethics Ordinance being violated? Read these pages for specific examples, and decide for yourself.
Latest update, December 21, 2004
OUTLINE
1. What is election interference?
2. Local State's Attorneys' views of the March 16, 2004, primary election
3. Specific school district examples
4. Examples of election interference and ethics act violations documented in local newspapers
5. Further use of taxpayer dollars to obtain more taxpayer dollars
6. Attempts to obtain tax dollars for schools without referendum
7. List of school districts asking for higher taxes on November 2, 2004
What is election interference? Illinois statutes prohibit the use of public funds (i.e. taxpayer dollars) to promote votes for or against a candidate or proposition. The statutes also prohibit public (government) employees from engaging in prohibited political activities on compensated time, requiring other public employees to do so, or using public resources in connection with prohibited political activity. Links to specific citations and text of the statutes can be found at the bottom of this page.
Local State's Attorneys' views of the March 16, 2004, primary election. Leading up to the March 16, 2004, primary election, several Illinois school districts appeared to be using public resources to urge Yes votes on tax increase referenda -- questionably balanced information on school web sites, in school newsletters, and sent home with the children; a superintendent walking door-to-door stumping for Yes votes; and even a district producing a pro-tax increase referendum video and showing it to all students during class time.
The Lake County State's Attorney has taken a stand, and pointed out specific examples of what constitutes election interference. The McHenry County State's Attorney didn't see similar information in the same light when presented with similar complaints from several private citizens. Click here for more information on how the Lake and McHenry County State's Attorneys have handled complaints of election interference, including letters from the offices of both counties State's Attorneys.
On September 14, 2004, an attorney from Seyfarth Shaw told the McHenry District 15 board and administrators that they could not use district resources to advocate passing a referendum. As of September 27, 2004, CRAFT found no links to referendum information on the official McHenry District 15 web site. The explanation from attorney Mary Kay Klimesh was documented in a Northwest Herald article.
Specific school district examples. Click on these links to see examples of some Illinois school districts appearing to use public resources to urge Yes votes on tax increase referenda. After reading the examples, and the Election Interference statute and Model Ethics Ordinance, decide for yourself if these examples violate the statute or the Ordinance. Decide for yourself if this is how you want your school district to use your tax dollars.
/* D-36 page updated with information about a board member co-chairing the tax increase referendum committee.*/
Huntley District 158 five minute video shown to all students at Huntley High School
Coming soon: Palatine D15, Barrington D220 -- all have links to referendum "information" on their main pages
Further use of taxpayer dollars to obtain more taxpayer dollars. Not all cases of using taxpayer money to get more taxpayer money are covered by Illinois Election Interference statutes. In Wilmette District 39, the school board is using taxpayer dollars to pay attorneys to fight taxpayer property assessment appeals. Click here and here for two articles by the Chicago Sun-Times' Mary Laney documenting this use of taxpayer dollars..
Attempts to obtain tax dollars for schools without referendum. With voters starting to wake up and decide they are taxed enough, many are voting NO when asked to raise their own taxes. To combat this trend, politicians, special interest funded groups, and government "public" school officials and sympathizers are designing ways to get the money out of taxpayers WITHOUT their approval. The latest effort is HB750, basically a $4.7 billion tax increase. Click here to see how HB750 circumvents the referendum process to get more of your money.
Following is a list of school districts that are asking for more money through property tax increases in the November 2, 2004, general election. Links to the official school web sites are provided -- monitor these for use of public resource to urge yes votes on their tax increase referenda! Also included are links to the well-funded (by teacher unions and public school vendors -- financial analysts, construction firms, architects, law firms) referendum support groups. * indicates the district just had one defeated in March.
- Harvard D50*
- Harrison D36* (Wonder Lake)
- Johnsburg D12 (April, 2005)
- Palatine D15 (April, 2005)
- East Maine D63* (near NW suburbs)
- Des Plaines D62 S.U.C.C.E.E.D.
- Lake Forest D115 (April, 2005)
- Belvidere D100* (April, 2005)
- Orland D135 (April, 2005)
Specific Election Interference Citations
"No public funds shall be used to urge any elector to vote for or against any candidate or proposition, or be appropriated for political or campaign purposes to any candidate or political organization."
Complete text of the Election Interference statute can be found in (10 ILCS 5/9-25.1) Sec. 9-25.1(b) (toward the bottom).
The Illinois General Assembly recently enacted a comprehensive revision of State ethics laws intended to ensure that public officers and employees adhere to the highest ethical standards. Under the provisions of the State Officials and Employees Ethics Act (enacted by Public Acts 93-615 and 93-617), all units of local government and school districts are required -- by May 19, 2004, to adopt regulations governing political activities, and the solicitation and acceptance of gifts of public officers and employees that are "no less restrictive" than those contained in that Act. (http://www.ag.state.il.us/government/ethics_ordinance.html)
For more information on these web pages or to submit examples of election interference in your district, contact Citizens for Reasonable and Fair Taxes.
CRAFT believes public school funds or resources should *not* be used to educate the public on political issues.
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Site last updated December 21, 2004 email the site owner to report dead links and with any other questions / comments