Welcome to Tri-Cities Talk—a new feature in which we ask our Facebook fans to share their views on current issues facing Geneva, Batavia and St. Charles.
Every week, we get the conversation started by taking a look back at a question we asked the Tri-Cities community the week before on local Patch Facebook pages.
We've heard complaints from residents of all three towns about the level of local property taxes. That brings us to this week's question.
What can be done to hold the line on property taxes in the Tri-Cities? Where could cuts be made locally to reduce them?
Take a look at what people had to say and join the conversation in the comments section.
Florence Runquist: street cleaning. it was 2 times a week last summer. it must cost a lot to run that sweeper. — Batavia Patch Facebook
Jo Dennis: Cut the publicly-funded pensions and make government employees save their own money like private citizens. Stop wasting money on buying land and a bigger library that less and less people utilize. — Geneva Patch Facebook
Andrea Ahlsen: Stop unnecessary construction that lasts the roads for only part of the year. it slows down traffic and productivity. — St. Charles Patch Facebook
Elizabeth Bohler Thompson: Cut the frills or anything that can be lived without. I want the Batavia we had in 1950! — Batavia Patch Facebook
Amy Burford: Maybe they should reach out to suburbs in other states to find out where we are out of whack. A friend of mine owns with a mortgage $100k over mine in an Atlanta suburb and he pays $1000 less a month due to taxes. — Geneva Patch Facebook
Frank: Where could St. Charles cut $? New schools is one sore spot. I was on the building committee for Hosanna! and we built a huge building with some advanced energy-saving features for $6.5MM. We couldn't have afforded to build the old bldg at Crane/Randall with the $ available because of brick and glue-lam beams, so we rethought things and ended up with a nice-looking church about twice the square footage at Red Gate/Randall as the previous building. Today's schools have the team logo in inlaid tiles in the floor, brick exteriors, pools, etc.--many over-the-top building features. The architects say "here's the building you need" and school board just taps consumers to pay the bill. There's no oversight to beat prices down, no taxpayer advocates. With some dedicated individuals working together they could cut the cost of buildings by half or more. There are other things I could guess at but that's a concrete example of how to save some very serious $. — St. Charles Patch Facebook
Ann Landreth-Heath: How about the multi million dollar "make the street look pretty" projects we are doing? — Batavia Patch Facebook
Dan Kernler: How much of those street projects are local money? It seems like at least a debatable point whether those expenditures add value to the city. Not an obvious cut, IMO. Yes, taxes are high, but we have great schools (the bulk of property tax bills), a great library, excellent park programs, good streets and sidewalks. I haven't seen many expenditures that seem way out of line. — Batavia Patch Facebook
Laura Felvey: Great schools is a debatable point. School administration expenditures are way out of line. Teachers are over worked and under paid while quite a few of the administrators are high paid empty bobble heads. — Batavia Patch Facebook
So what's your take? Tell us in the comments.
CLICK HERE TO SEE WHAT YOUR NEIGHBORS HAD TO SAY IN PAST TRI-CITIES TALKS.
We love our library. My wife takes our four year old son there at least twice a week. I too take him to the weekly story times and have participated in other activities they offer. But libraries aren't used like they used to be.....More and more material is available electronically and let's face it families don't check out books like they once did. The board is forging ahead with dreams of building a bigger/better library. Should we instead remodel and repurpose our current facility. Rethink it's use and bring it up to par. The building is a bit worn and could clearly use a bit of TLC. The idea of issuing bonds to build a new library concerns me. We are all getting a bit tax weary. Parks, parks and empty parks everywhere. Why are we maintaining and insuring all these empty neighborhood parks. When I'm off work during the week I have a hard time finding kids for my son to play with at the parks. The parks in the affluent neighborhoods are ghost towns. We might run into a nanny or mom here or there but outside of that they are empty. Families stay home. They have built there own parks in their backyards and basements. Including the schools we have nearly sixty parks or recreation area's. The majority of the pics of the parks at genevaparks.org lack kids.??? John Rice
I do take out books on line and i can tell you that the selection is not great. Additionally, libraries serve other functions with classes, lectures, etc. Going to the library helps me to maintain my sense of community. We cannot stand alone. Parks are important too.We spend too much time in front of the TV. Recreation, community participation, and exercise are vital to the town. Pretty soon, we will see the team sports starting up and the parks will be quite busy. Having a good library and good park system helps the value of our homes. I'm sure somethings in their budgets can be cut or reduced but I doubt that either would be a significant source of property tax reduction. Look at your bill to see how much goes to either one
Parks....I was a kid in the seventies. We did not have all the electronic distractions which the young families and kids have today. We played outside from sun up to sun down. Today's young families tend to hunker down in the A/C during the summer months. They do the same in the winter. They don't use the parks like they were used twenty years ago. Of course I'm painting with a wide brush but in general the parks are under utilized. I'm an older father (47) with a young son (4). We are out and about during the week and on the weekends. It's hard to find families at the playgrounds. Wheeler, Dryden and a few others are exceptions. I think we are geared towards an earlier time and not really filling the needs of the lifestyles of todays familes. John
I agree with you Geneva does not need another library especially at the expense of paying a librarian a six figure salary! But may I suggest you and your family could partake in visiting the St. Charles Library or Batavia as they have alot of the amenities also and Geneva patrons may participate. I visit the St. Charles library more often as their DVD movie selection is awesome. I believe your son would embrace and rejoice in. Take Care. Thanks for your input.
Isn't it really too late to kill the new library? I have to agree that we as a society seem less book-oriented with the advent of more advanced forms of media. When the library starts putting out e-books that people can borrow on-line and load into their tablets, they'll be much more relevant. I'm imagining some software and copyright issues with a program like that, but that's what it would take for people to really start using the library the way they used to. The school system is too top-heavy. 3 towns in a row "tri-cities" with separate and top-heavy administrations. I just about cried when the City of Geneva shut off the right turn lanes on State St. as part of their beautification program. We have a shortage of bridges and people have to wait for the light to turn right on 31, causing a gridlock situation across the bridge in the afternoon. Why did we do that? I just cut through on River St and dodge pedestrians and cars pulling out of parking lots instead now. Same issue at the 3rd St. light. You can't turn right there because the curb has been extended out. Obvious answer: Build yet another pricey bridge?
There are dozens of issues , that could lower our property taxes, leave the parks alone !
Second and most important, NO city employee should be in a union, I am quite sure there are qualified electricians etc, that we could pay half of what we pay to these over paid UNION employees,
Costs that have risen exponentially over the last several years while enrollment and student performance have stayed flat. The GEA/IEA public teachers unions are hell-bent on bankrupting the community and we have a chance this April to get some tough fiscalyy-minded people on the school board. SHOW UP AT THE POLLS IN APRIL, or the Union will keep running the business of education in Geneva
If I can't find a spot out front on James then I normally easily find one on second st. I'll be there later this afternoon, with my son, and if I can't find a spot ill report back. But I have honestly never experienced a problem. Maybe during festivals or weekends its a different story. I'm just throwing some ideas out there. As I've said we love the library and parks. My observations with respects to the parks, specifically the playgrounds, are that in some neighborhoods they are under utilized. Fox run, eagle brook, mill creek playgrounds are ghost towns. Building a new library is going to cost a fortune. The school district has a mountain of debt coming due so they will probably levy close to the max for the unforseable future. I believe the park district just took the max levy allowed. The city has done a good job of keeping cost contained but eventually they will need to increase their levy. They just increased the water rate, etc.... This community is going to have to get creative. My property taxes are roughly $6400 on a 1700 sq ft home. We're good up till $10,000 or so after that Kenosha starts to come into play. The folks in the $18,000 a yr range are starting to rightfully freak out. IMHO we need to figure out our priorities. John Rice
@ Michael Mak. Michael I'm just tossing idea's around. From my experiance and obsearvations a lot of the playgrounds are under utilized. I think I said this but we use the play grounds all the time. I drive to various ones looking for kids, for my son, to play with and a lot of the times they are empty. There is a cost associated with maintaining and insuring these parks. I'm just wondering, out loud, if we need to rethink and retool our park district. I think we are maintaining a park system which was a better fit for the lifestyles that families had in the 60's and 70's. Wheather you like it or not the young familes of today don't get out like they used to. The affluent families have built playgrounds in their backyards which rival some of the cities best. If they don't have one built out in their backyard then a neighbor up the street has one. They have outfitted their basements with indoor playrooms which would keep the most hyper five year old busy for hours. It's too hot for them in the summer and it's to cold in the winter. I love parks we use them but go to genevaparks.org and click on the names of the parks listed. A pic pops up and they show no kids. That's accurate. John Rice