Geneva’s big bad bond blunder!

Geneva’s big bad bond blunder!

That actually sounds like a Stephen Herek movie, but I digress.

Proving that, once again, nobody’s really paying attention, Geneva City administrators carefully submitted a referendum to the County Clerk to be considered in the April 1 consolidated election. The irony of that particular date isn’t lost on me.

But after informing their constituents – and the city council – that the average homeowner would have to cough up another $200 in property taxes to cover the brand-new police and fire station, they swiftly realized some staffer made a major booboo!

Instead of calculating the tax hike based on the typical two bond payments per annum, they calculated it on just one, which means my fellow average Genevans would have to part with $400 more each year.

 Of course, with Mayor Burns running for his 98th term against a real opponent this time, he and the city council rescinded that referendum question faster that Agent Orange could break every single one of his “day one” promises. The Mayor’s already in a heap of hot water over all of the Emma’s Landing violence and sending property taxes skyrocketing would be the final nail in his pathetic political coffin.

But even if Geneva did manage to get the math right, there are two major mountains they haven’t begun to ascend.

The first is they used a push-poll survey to consider the probability the question would actually pass. Again, a push-poll is a traditional political contrivance whereby the “pollster” asks the question in such a stilted manner that it demands a specific answer. Here’s a perfect push-poll example we’ve used before:

If you knew that heinous, mattress tag cutting, Major League Baseball account without express written consent spreading, neighbor hating, loudmouth, pain-in-the-ass Jeff Ward was running for mayor, would you vote for him?

Of course you wouldn’t vote for that jackass. I certainly wouldn’t! And that’s exactly what the city did with their police station phone “question” canvas, which means the results don’t begin to reflect any reasonable constituent reality. They’ve clearly been taking too many pointers from Donald Trump.

And that political reality is, I don’t think Geneva, or any similar Kane County City, could pass as much as a $100 tax increase right now. How do I know this? Because while our Mayor, City Manager, and progressive city council members were either too arrogant, slow, or both to perform any form of due diligence, I referred back to the 2024 KC bond questions, and it ain’t pretty.

There were five bond questions involving schools, libraries, and parks on the November 5 ballot, and four of ‘em went down in flames. The only one that made the cut was a school bond issue in South Barrington where folks tend to have a bit more disposable income.

And those referenda failures came during a presidential election cycle when Democratic voters came out en masse to turn the Collar Counties an even darker shade of blue. Those Dems generally have a more enlightened view of parks, libraries, and schools than their Republican counterparts, but they still shot those questions down.

So, what would make the Mayor, the City Manager, and the progressive City Council loons think a $200 tax hike would fly during an exponentially smaller consolidated election when older conservatives dominate the vote? To wit, the average age of a Kane County odd-year election voter is a whopping 66 to 68, and the last thing those fine folks want to do is pay higher taxes for something as mundane as a new police or fire station.

Come to think of it, I don’t think they’d pull the trigger for the schools, parks, or libraries, either, at this 2025 point. 

The sad thing is, all the Mayor, the City Manager, and the progressive City Council loons had to do was buy a $29.95 e-copy of my not-quite-best-selling book, So You Want to Win a Local Election where all of the relevant referenda possibilities are spelled out in no uncertain terms. The first rule is, if you’re asking for money, the odds of getting it dramatically increase in a presidential election cycle.

That means even if Geneva got the math right – not a terribly difficult proposition when you think about it – push-polls be damned – the question would’ve failed. And the Mayor and City Manager paid a consultant 20 grand to tell them what they wanted to hear and get it completely wrong. I could given them far better advice in 10 minutes. 

We do need a new police station, but the City is going to have to get creative about getting it, because even if they do separate that question from a new firehouse, the prospect of Genevans approving a $200 tax hike in any Post-COVID election cycle is less than bleak.

This is your Geneva city government at work people – mistake upon mistake upon mistake! And all of the city staffers involved are getting six-figure salaries to screw up this badly. It’s time for a change. I’m voting for Karsten Pawlik and I’d encourage you to do the same.

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