It's time for real
research
Rooftops 'n Taxes
Editor's Note: Before reading
my rants about rooftops and taxes, I thought I would share
some email exchanges between myself and the City Editor at
the Chronicle. I submitted this letter to the editor and it
was felt necessary, by them, to edit the letter before it
was published based on input from the school district.
FIRST EMAIL:
Hello Chris,
I received your telephone message. I
must have written some letter. I didn't mean to add to your
work load.
I don't take it personal that you
would "take their word over mine" regarding the growth
percentage of low income students. It might be an affront to
journalism but not to me. I wouldn't take my word or theirs,
I'd look at the numbers.
If you feel like you need to put a
postscript to explain my position with the DCBDA that's fine
but be certain of this, the letter is not written on behalf
of or for the DCBDA. The price for 40 hours of my time for a
month: $1,200... my opinion? Priceless. I submitted the
letter to express my opinion as a private citizen.
Mac McIntyre
RICKERT'S REPLY:
Mac--
If taking the word of a school district as to the number of
poor students it has in its schools — or taking the word of
a city when it says what its budget deficit is, or taking
the word of a park district when it says how many people use
its parks, etc., etc. — is an affront to journalism, then
all us journalists, and all those city, park, school, etc.
officials, should probably just hang it up. I suppose I
shouldn't believe you — a representative of a homebuilder's
group — when you tell me the average price of a new home.
The school report cards for the district for 98 and 02, the
two years you are comparing, are in different formats when I
download them. 98 is all jumbled. Finding the number of poor
students in that mess was not possible.
For the record, I know of few papers that print virtually
all of the letters they get in their entirety. I know of no
other papers that print letters containing detailed
statistics about an organization the letter writer is not
even remotely affiliated with. Opinions pages are for
opinions. College classes are for research papers. That's
why you submit your sources with the latter. How about you
give me your reference list the next time you write a letter
like the one that will run today? That would be helpful.
Not including your position with the developers group would
be an affront to journalism. An employee of Planned
Parenthood can write a letter about birth control; he's
still an employee of Planed Parenthood. A lawyer for Enron
can write a letter about corporate regulation; she's still a
lawyer for Enron. Both should be identified as such,
assuming the editor knows. You've taken a public
pro-development stance so many times that I'd be surprised
if regular readers don't already know you work for the
developers.
Chris Rickert
My Reply:
Chris...
I'm not criticizing the Chronicle.
It's my hometown newspaper, my former employer and despite
the daggers that are sometimes thrown at me I will always
have a soft spot for it.
I do take exception to your changing
the 25% growth in low income students to the 21% number the
school district told you. And its not about who you would
rather believe or why you would rather believe them. I
suspect that you use an old browser because the student
report cards are in .pdf and will open for viewing without
downloading if you use a current browser.
There are 832 new students from 1998
to 2002. 291 of those new students are classified as low
income. In 1998 there were 1161 low income students. That
represents a 25% increase. If the school district wants to
dispute those numbers perhaps they should amend the IL
School Report Cards.
Its a cheap shot for you to suggest
that I did not want you to identify my association with the
DCBDA because I've "taken a public pro-development stance so
many times that I'd be surprised if regular readers don't
already know you work for the developers." I was not trying
to hide that the DCBDA is one of my clients. I don't want to
confuse the public by thinking that my opinion is that of
the association, because it is not.
I just might be trying to be an
active, informed good citizen.
Mac McIntyre
No further correspondence
And here is the letter in its
unedited form:
Dear Editor:
Are the new rooftops appearing on
the local horizon the reason taxes are so high?
It sure seems that way. Many among
those who spend those tax dollars says so. DeKalb School
District President, Tom Teresinksi, says it costs roughly
$23,000 per student to build a new school. The school
district spends a little more than $7,000 per student in
operating expenses. Those numbers appear to support the
position that residential growth doesn't pay for itself.
The average selling price of a new
home in DeKalb is around $215,000. The average new home pays
in the neighborhood of $5,000 each year in property tax,
plus impact fees. The average existing home in DeKalb is
selling for about $145,000 and is paying about $3,000 in
annual taxes.
Could it be that neither residents
of new construction nor existing homes are paying for
themselves? If so, perhaps it is just as plausible to think
that tax-spenders are simply spending too much money.
As a volunteer member of the DeKalb
Growth Summit I was in complete agreement with the majority
of the committee who felt research was needed to determine
what the impact of development really is. I encouraged those
members who were in the government sector to use real, local
numbers in that research. I believe determining the impact
of growth on our community is too important to rely on
philosophy, politics, national/regional statistics or what
other communities do.
According to the Illinois School
Report Cards from 1998 through 2002 for the DeKalb School
District there has been steadily increasing enrollment.
There has been an increase of almost 25% in students
classified as low income. Dr. Ali told the growth summit
that there has been a sharp increase in the number of
students who are now living in rental properties.
Eleven-percent of the school district's enrollment are
apartment residents.
Those numbers don't appear to
support placing the blame for increased enrollment on new
construction. Perhaps too many of our seniors decided they
could no longer afford the taxes on their life-long
residences and have moved, to be replaced by young families,
in our older homes that are selling more and more to
investment buyers and converting to rental properties.
From 1998 through 2002, according to
the school report cards, the average salary of a full time
teacher rose from $40,800 to $45,500. Administration salary
(average) rose from $67,400 to $79,100. District enrollment
grew 16% over that period. Teacher staff size grew by 26%.
Real research might prove that we
need more tax-payers to support those salaries. If actual
demographics were compiled it could be revealed that
empty-nesters are buying those new rooftops, and if so, it
would seem that we need more of them.
If actual local statistics were
considered then we might discover that the average selling
price of even existing homes, along with their tax bill, is
close enough to being more than the average citizen of
DeKalb, who lives here now, can afford.
Objectively looking at the impact of
new construction could also reveal that it has generated
rare growth in local higher paying non-government jobs. If
so, it should not be overlooked considering the loss of
manufacturing jobs experienced by almost all of Illinois nor
in this area's growing dependency for the government to
provide most of the decent paying jobs.
Real numbers provide real solutions.
Spin of numbers produce rising taxes but they do not provide
solutions to the problems we really face.
Give us the facts. And let's work
together to intelligently seek solutions.
Mac McIntyre
Submitted 1-19-04
Pulitzer must be rolling with disgust in his grave
concerning the Daily Chronicle. Pulitzer has been a name
coveted for excellence in journalism and to see how the
Chronicle has slanted its view has to be an embarrassment to
real papers and reporters everywhere that accurately report
both sides so that their readers can make an educated
decision for themselves. To actually change someone's letter
to the editor is absolutely wrong. If they had a problem
with your letter, they could have made a notation below
questioning the content, or, let someone else write in to
make the correction if there needs to be. How many others
letters have been changed by the Chronicle's editorial
staff? Is that why more readers do not write in?
Anonymous
Submitted 1-20-04
I was just wondering if you are running for a political
office or if you are just committing suicide.
Anonymous
