Blogs

Where Did the Tax Hike Go? Fact-Checking District 65 Finances

It’s a paradox of Evanston that fiscal hawks and taxpayer advocates focus on City finances, but it’s the two school districts that collect and spend most of our property tax dollars. Our K-8 system slips by with, generally, lack of attention, since at any given time most Evanston households don’t have kids in that system. Hot-button issues like redistricting or the closing or construction of a school draw a spotlight, but generally curriculum is too little discussed and school finances even less. If District 65 is getting a lot of attention it is usually because there is a problem.

District 65 is now getting a lot of attention and there is a problem. A couple big ones, actually.

Evanston Patch article misleads on EPD comparison data

Hi everyone,

I read this Evanston Patch article last night … and checked some of the references used… then found the numbers did not add up.

The article is ... Patch 7/14/2020: Amid Calls To 'Defund Police,' Evanston Mayor, Chief Talk Budget

From the article sub-headline: “Evanston's ratio of police to residents has been among the highest in Illinois.”

There is a lot of outside data in the article and that data generally supports the sub-headline despite the errors.

The article quotes two outside data sources to make comparisons with EPD ... this is where things go off track. 

I quote the article below and then the correction I think needs to be made.

  1. “Evanston's ratio of police personnel to population – about 269 department employees to 100,000 residents — compares to that of San Francisco, Miami or Little Rock, Arkansas, according to an analysis by the Vera Institute of Justice cited by Papachristos."

269 per 100,000 residents is about right for Evanston.  But the data for the other cities is actually the number of residents per police department employee … and not employees per hundred thousand residents.  So, this is not a valid comparison. Evanston actually has 364 residents per police department employee.  A much higher ratio than these three cities which run from 260-275.

 

  1. “Chicago's police to resident ratio is 40 percent lower — just 183 employees per 100,000 Chicagoans."

Chicago actually has about 506 employees per 100,000 residents.  Evanston has about 270. So, Chicago is actually about 100% higher and not 40% lower.

  1. “Apart from Chicago, Evanston had the fourth highest ratio of police to residents in the state, trailing only Addison, Elk Grove Village and Carbondale.”

The data for this comparison was from 2016 when Evanston PD  had 227 employees.  In 2020 that number is now 202 with unfilled open positions.  That would put Evanston at about 7th highest (below Chicago) on the list of 52 Illinois police departments. Still high on this measure when compared to 52 others in the database.  But in the top 15% not in the top 10%.

Jim Hughes

2518 Hartzell St.

 

Are Evanston Residential Property Taxes Going Down? Crain's says "likely"

From a recent Crain's Chicago Business article:

"If there is a silver lining, at least in the near term, it's that higher assessments on commercial properties in Cook County are likely to result in lower taxes for many homeowners. In Evanston, for instance, the assessed value of all residential property rose 25 percent from 2018 to 2019, while the assessed value of all commercial and industrial property rose 125 percent. The wide gap suggests that taxes will rise for commercial and industrial landlords in the suburb when property tax bills come out next year but drop for Evanston homeowners"

Read the full story here:

Crain's Chicago Business 4/12/2019: What Evanston's assessments tell us about the new assessor's new math

Thurs. 6-7:30 Gilbert Park - Mural of Africa -Cake & Ice Cream

Take a break and take some time.. Thurs. July 26 6-7:30 stop by Gilbert Park and see the Mural of Africa which has been restored in joint collarboration with Friends of Gilbert Park, Evanston Parks & Lakefront Alliance, City of Evanston and Pinel Andrew Costruction( who graciously did the work for free) 

This is an important park in the 5th ward and we hope you will come by and make some new friends while seeing the mural. 

Bring the kids, friends, grandparent, anyone...

 

Stop the Rush for Demo of Harley Clarke? Mon. July 23 7:00 City Council-Come show your support

The Demolition cost will be more than the $400,000 offered by the Dunes group.
If the Supporters who want to raise fund to renovate and operate the building give the $15,000 a year the city said it cost to maintain the property -let them have time to show they create a place on the lakefront for all-and NOT funded by the taxpayers.- Unlike the $56,000,000 Robert Crown Project.

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