Locals React to Proposed Tax Hike

With only two weeks until Election Day and , the issue of Homewood School District 153’s proposed is a hot discussion topic all over town.

Homewood locals have been expressing varied opinions of the referendum which, if passed, mandates seven years of increased taxes.

Local shop owner Otilio Puente has his reservations about the referendum. Although he rents his storefront from a landlord, he is wary of the effect an increased tax would have on his monthly bill.

“I am pretty much against it, only because it is going to have to come out of somewhere and it is probably going to end up in … us being charged (more),” Puente said. “They get this little bit of increase, then what is it going to be next year, and the year after that?”

Homewood resident Val Williams expressed a different take on the referendum. She says she feels sympathy for a district that has suffered considerable neglect in state funding.

“It is really important,” Williams said. “It’s not the teachers’ fault or district’s fault for not being funded (by the state)." 

To another local shop owner, who wished not to be named, fault is irrelevant. He is more concerned that now might not be the best time to be going to referendum in the wake of a and a faltering economy.

“You can’t ask for money in a time like this,” he said. “Nobody’s going to want to get rid of more money after everything else that is going on.”

Not all business owners are opposed to the referendum, however, as owner, Christine Rooney, demonstrated in a recent H-F Patch Q & A.

"We (at ) are all very supportive of our teachers and our schools and we stand behind our schools," said Rooney.

While the Homewood Village Board has made no official decision on the matter, Trustee Tom Kataras voiced his opinion on the referendum during the March 8 board meeting.

“Nobody likes a tax increase, but I think this is something that is well worthwhile for our community,” Kataras said. “I’m supporting it, and I would hope that people will get the information and support it also.”

Puente feels that a different course of action is more appropriate. He is in favor of cuts to balance the district's budget, but not the ones that have already been proposed.

“My outlook on … budgets is, if you want to … run a business or municipality, and you want to start cutting people, don’t start at the bottom," Puente said. “It is the same as if you were pruning a tree, you are not going to cut it from the trunk up, you are going to cut it from the top down.”

But to resident Val Williams, it's all about the students.

"What's good for the kids is good for all of us," she said.