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Shawano, WI – Taxpayers United of America (TUA) urges Shawano School District taxpayers to VOTE NO on the $14 million property tax increase referendum November 3, 2015.
“Government school bureaucrats in Shawano suffer from the same policies that are destroying cities across the country….borrow, spend, rinse, repeat!” stated Jim Tobin, TUA president and Shawano resident.
“The school district can’t bare to give taxpayers a break by paying off existing debt. Instead, they plan to increase your property taxes through new debt of $14 million to grow their empire. Not to mention they are trying to pull a fast one on us by understating the property tax increase on their propaganda and omitting the interest on the debt. Shawano School district’s total debt would climb to $43.3 million if this referendum is passed.”
“The real reason for the special election is that voter turnout is typically much lower than in a regular election. This gives the bureaucrats the edge because they order the union minions to show up and vote for the referendum. After all, this additional $14 million in taxpayer expenditures will give plenty of the construction union members more taxpayer-funded jobs.”
“The Shawano School Board bureaucrats have already increased the 2015/2016 budget by $140,000 and plan on giving an automatic 2% wage increase to all school employees, whether they deserve it or not. I’m guessing that not too many of the taxpayers in Shawano School District have gotten automatic pay increases over the last several years.”
According to the Census Bureau, Shawano County’s per capita income is $23,500…that’s every man, woman, and child.
“Take a look at the salaries and estimated pensions of the Shawano government teachers and administrators. They are listed on the back of our VOTE NO flyer. Do you really think they are underpaid and need another pay increase? The top 8 or so names are all administrators who don’t educate students whatsoever.”
“It’s time for all government employees to understand that when they ask for more money, it is essentially like knocking on their neighbor’s door and demanding a check for $200 or more! Their employer isn’t some nameless, faceless government entity; they are their neighbors, the taxpayers who employ them and fund their salaries, benefits, and empire building.”
“63% of the Shawano School District operating budget goes to salaries, pensions, and other benefits of government school employees. This is down from about 76%, likely due to Gov. Walker’s reforms requiring teachers to pay into their own pensions.”
“Shawano taxpayers need to defeat this money grab and demand our school bureaucrats live within our means, not to continue to spend beyond what we can afford. They need to learn, once and for all, that the taxpayers refuse to let them treat us like their own personal ATM!”
“VOTE NO on the latest money grab on November 3. Polls are open from 7 am to 8 pm,” urged Tobin.
Click here to download a copy of our Flyer and Shawano Government Schools top salaries and estimated pensions.
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Chicago—Taxpayers United of America (TUA) have fought against higher taxes, reckless spending, and government largesse for nearly forty years. As we look back at our decades of activism and education of taxpayers, TUA is releasing some footage from our archives featuring our president and founder, Jim Tobin.
“This pyramid [pointing at a dollar bill], that’s the social security program. It’s a pyramid scheme. It’s a legalized Ponzi scheme. And it’s a terrible system for the young people of this country,” said Tobin on the evening of February 20, 1997. He was one of the audience members who offered commentary on the subject of Social Security at a special Chicago Tonight live event at Triton College. The event also included a panel of social security experts and politicians.
Tobin, who holds a masters in economics, goes on to briefly discuss the downsides of the Social Security system, including the shifting retirement age and the tripling of tax rates to fund the program, both of which do great harm to those who can least financially afford the arbitrary policy changes.
“We are not going to get twenty cents on the dollar back, unless we live to be 110,” joked Tobin. Host John Callaway then posed the all-important question, “What do you want to see happen?”
“I want to see the system privatized. I want the Senator from Illinois to support privatization of the Social Security system,” responded Tobin, addressing the host as well as U.S. Senator from Illinois Carol Moseley Braun, who was in attendance.
Tobin concluded, “And I’ll do it on my own. I want my responsibility for my own life and I don’t want to be talked to and told what to do by the U.S. Senate and the U.S. Congress. We want our freedom!”
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Chicago—Taxpayers United of America (TUA) responds to Prospect Heights SD 23 Strike.
“It is incomprehensible that the teachers of SD 23 could actually strike at this time. By no measure are these ‘civil servants’ underpaid in employment or retirement,” stated TUA executive director, Rae Ann McNeilly.
“These teachers are effectively demanding that their neighbors take another pay cut, which will come in the form of even higher property taxes, so the teachers can make more today and in retirement. The reality is that these striking teachers must look their neighbors in the eyes and say, ‘I don’t really care if you can no longer afford to live in your home, as long as I get what I want.’”
“Government school teachers make more than their counterparts in the private sector in both wages and benefits, they enjoy virtually iron-clad job security, and are only active for about 8 months out of the year,” added McNeilly.
“In any case, the State of Illinois is near implosion, financially speaking, and it is just irresponsible for any government employee to expect compensation increases when the taxpayers who fund them can barely keep their own heads above water.”
“The most recent report indicates that the Prospect Heights Education Association, the union at the heart of the strike, expects taxpayers to cough up pay increases of 4.5% for the first two years of the three year contract and 4.25% for the third year. How many taxpayers have received comparable pay increases recently or expect such huge increases over the next three years? Most of our members are worried about hanging on to their homes and keeping up with their property taxes as is, yet Illinois tries to tax its way out of the financial debacle, the same way bureaucrats created it.”
“It’s about time for teachers, and any other government employees, to suck it up and live on the very fair wages they are already getting and give the taxpayers a break.”
“If they really want to do what’s best ‘for the children,’ they will let the kids’ parents keep more of their hard-earned money and hopefully continue to afford their property taxes.”
“The following data shows taxpayers what a few of these ‘poor civil servants’ are making in retirement; we can only imagine what kind of salaries warrant these pensions.”
Click here to see the complete list of SD 23 pensions.
“Although many of the top pensioners retired as administrators, they were all teachers first,” concluded McNeilly.
