Incumbents Send Out Misleading Information to Combat the Bad Job They Have Done

With the incumbents on the losing end of this election, they felt it necessary to combat the residents on the most important wrongdoing they have been accused of.  We also reserve the right to comment to their allegations.  Here is the debate...

A Letter To All Bolingbrook Residents - Fact Sheet

Black = contrived answers from incumbents, Red is the Watch Dog comments.

BOLINGBROOK GOLF COURSE/AMERICANA ESTATES

• Golf Course lakes serve as storm water management for 4,000 acres of land west of Weber Road.  TRUE

• Flood plain land that could not be developed was reclaimed with soil from the Golf Course lakes to create Americana Estates.  TRUE

• Americana Estates is now buildable which adds property on to the tax rolls.  Many residential lots were sold before the recession.  Sales will pick up as the economy recovers. FALSE, This would add property to the tax rolls,only if they were occupied.  The village spent hundreds of thousands of tax dollars to build these lots.  They thought if they built million dollar homes, people would buy.  Less than 30 people bought into the 200+ lots.  Some of these are vacant.  Bolingbrook incumbents used your tax dollars to BUY INTO the REAL ESTATE market, making them the ONLY trustees in the state of IL to get into this type of business and gamble and lose with your money!

• On a cash basis, the Bolingbrook Golf Club made $88,311 in FY 2009/2010, (without applying depreciation and amortization as required by the Government).  This is fabricated numbers.  This does not match the 2010 annual financial statement viewable on the Bolingbrook Village Web site.  As you can see, the Golf Course has lost money EVERY YEAR.  Once again, they got into the business of owning a business, the Golf Club, with your money from taxes.  They were told in 2002 that Golf Courses were failing nation wide and still took the risk of over $40 Mil of your money to build the LARGEST public golf course in ILLINOIS!  It failed before it even opened its doors and the mis-management has capsized it.  
In addition we, the tax paying residents, are stuck with the MILLIONS of dollars a year price tag paying just the interest on the huge loans the incumbent trustees took out to build the golf course.

CLOW INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT

• 76 acres were purchased at a price of $13,214,000 which resulted in less housing and infrastructure (helping to manage Village costs). This could have been used for tax paying land.

• In FY 2009/2010, the airport made $52,498 and in FY 2008/2009 it made $8, 818 (before depreciation and amortization).  The real numbers, according to village financials is that they make less then they spend.  They have showed a loss every year. Numbers don't lie, only politicians do.

• The airport brings many people for business and pleasure.  True

• The airport is a family orientated destination - Cavalcade of Planes and the aviation museum.True
In addition (as with the golf course) we, the tax paying residents, are stuck with the over a MILLION dollars a year price tag paying just the interest on the huge loans the incumbent trustees took out to buy the airport.

ILLINOIS AMERICAN WATER

• In 1997, the Village entered into an asset exchange with IAWC in order to obtain Lake Michigan water.True

• The Village received IAWC’s sewage treatment facilities in exchange for the Village’s local water distribution system; the value of the assets was $33,200,000.True

• IAWC’s rates have increased 84% since they acquired the utility company in 2002.True

• Bolingbrook wants to buy back the water at an increased price.  Bolingbrook cannot run the water company because it does not have the experience or expertise to do so. Buying it would require large bonds, which would be passed down to the taxpayer, raising taxes greatly year over year for 30 years!
In addition at the January 25 Village Board Meeting, the incumbent Trustees unanimously voted to ban ALL residents from drinking water from their own wells.  They stole everyone's water rights to FORCE all residents to buy the high priced water from IAWC.  Another bad example of Bolingbrook incumbent Trustees gone wild.

DEBT

• The Village has $201,288,142 in bonded indebtedness (as reported in FY 2009/2010 financial statement); most of this was used for infrastructure projects; i.e., road improvements, building construction and land acquisition. FALSE, most of this was used to build businesses that have failed.  The money that was used for roads were not given to the best bidders.  In fact, the Trustees gave this to companies that should not have had so much Village business.  (Orange Crush who was indicted for ripping off residents was a high paid contractor.  Z Corp was given special favors... etc).  By the way, why does the 2009 financial reflect almost $400Mil and the 2010 reflect $200 Mil.  We did not pay down that debt, so where did it go?  Are the residents getting the "real" books or the cooked books?  I think it might be the cooked books because the treasurers report states to remove some items and the accountant forgot  to...

• Revenue streams (stormwater fees, tap-on fees, sale of surplus property, etc.) have been identified to pay down future debt.  The debt is so high you are getting extra taxed every where you turn.  Your water bill has a tap on fee.  Your stormwater fee is there but your paying for nothing.  Your cell phone bill Bolingbrook tax is high.  Your sales tax is high.  All because the bond debt is so high.  Per capita, Bolingbrook has the highest debt ratio of ALL villages and cities in the state of Illinois!  This is thanks to all those rubber stamp trustees trying to win in office again!  Therefore, since they voted to add the debt, they had to vote to tax you to death to make up the money.  Nice, huh.

• The Village bond rating by Moody's has stayed constant at AA-/A-1+.  The Moody rating has already deteriorated one level.  As we near the debt cap based on village worth, the rating will continue to drop.  This is expected NEXT YEAR!  Let them brag, as this is about to catch up to them.  Once it does next year, people will see just how much debt they got us all into!  If they buy the water on bonds, this will tip the scale and we could go bankrupt!

ORGANIZATION DONATIONS

• The Village supports many nonprofit organizations - Boy, Girl & Cub Scouts, Heart Haven Outreach, The Heart Organization, Valley View Educational Enrichment Foundation, Community Service Council, Bolingbrook Athletic Youth Organizations, Kiwanis’s, Rotary, Bolingbrook Lions, Bolingbrook Women’s Club, March of Dimes, Muscular Dystrophy, St. Baldrick’s, American Cancer Society, and many others.

• The candidates serve as volunteers on many of these boards because of their dedication to community involvement.  It is not cool for the Village to ONLY donate to pet charities.  These pet charities took precedent to our service workers this year.  They raised the donations and cut services.  This is despicable.  Furthermore, in an economy like this, they should use that money to stop the excessive taxing of the residents instead of donating.  My father always said charity starts in the home first.  There is NO justification for these actions.  The residents are FURIOUS!

MISCELLANEOUS

• The Village has historically maintained a balanced budget.  We have never budgeted more funds than we have had available. If this statement was true, there would be NO BOND DEBT.  Yet we hold the highest bond debt per person in ILLINOIS!

• The Village has maintained a stable tax rate.  The Village's share of property taxes has decreased over the last 23 years.  The tax rate has increased.  The value of your homes INCREASED in a recession.  They increased the sales tax, the misc. taxes and the bond debt.  This entire statement is riddled with twisted lies!

• Currently, there has been no reduction in sworn Police & Fire personnel.  Five (5) employees that were laid off have been rehired.  For the last two years the Village has cut service personnel and their support.  They do so right after the election and this year will be no different.  They tell people every year this story, but let's ask one question... why does the Village NOT have a Police social worker?  They took two years to sign the union contracts and waited to go to arbitration to do so.  They are NOT for the Service workers.  If they were, they would not have cut the services, they would have cut pet charity donations.

If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact us at:  (630) 300-4207.  Call them and confront them on their misrepresentation of facts.  This is what they have done to you.  They have consistently deceived the residents, fought against transparency, and want to win another election?  We don't think so.  In finality, have you noticed that these answers are written by an attorney and missing facts?  Did you notice that the three incumbents Brown, Shanks, and Morales have NO VOICE of their own?  If they have no voice, they cannot be a voice for the residents.  They haven't this whole time and they can't moving forward.  Rubber stamping, bad money decisions, and bullies--it is time for them to be voted out.