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The $50 Billion Illinois Favor Factory Hums Along

 
Adam Andrzejewski , CONTRIBUTOR to Forbes 9/2/2016
I cover the “daily greed” of national, state, and local politics.
Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own.
It’s been two years since Illinois state government had a full-year budget. Now, more than 70,000 vendors are owed $8.2 billion. Yet, despite the legislative deadlock and seemingly fiscal insolvency, more than $50 billion in state payments flowed to providers and other entities in FY2016.
Socialism Sucks
So, who actually got paid and for how much while others waited in the long line of unpaid bills?
Recently, our organization at American Transparency (website: OpenTheBooks.com) filed our annual Freedom of Information Act request with Illinois Comptroller Leslie Munger (R) for the state’s checkbook payments. Here’s what we found: 56,738 recipients received fast-tracked payments of $50,125,427,171.
We plotted the recipients by ZIP code – review your neighborhood or look across the entire country. Just zoom-in, click a ZIP code pin, and scroll down to see the results rendered in the chart below the map.
http://www.openthebooks.com/map/?Map=1855&MapType=Pin
The top 25 accounts paid by the Comptroller received $21.8 billion. The vast majority of the payments were for social safety-net healthcare providers ($5.9 billion); the Teachers Retirement System pension payment ($3.224 billion); Cook County ($2.7 billion); Chicago Board of Education ($2.1 billion); Regional Transportation Authority ($1.7 billion); and transfer payments to the state treasurer or banks.

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Here are some of the entities receiving the large state payments in the fiscal year ending June 30, 2016:

  • Road contractors and construction companies ($1.4 billion) – 45 companies received more than $1 million. Here’s the top five: Plote Construction Inc. ($300.4 million); Lorig Construction Company ($225.4 million); Walsh Construction Co. ($151.9 million); D Construction Inc. ($147.5 million); and E T Simonds Construction Co. ($61.98 million).
  • Cities and Villages ($6 billion) – Chicago received $1.7 billion. But even the uber-wealthy North Shore communities received tens of millions of dollars:  Highland Park ($20.4 million); Wilmette ($9.3 million); Glencoe ($3.4 million); Lake Forest ($7.2 million); and Kenilworth ($421,200). My hometown of Hinsdale in DuPage County received $7.5 million.
  • Counties ($4.3 billion) – Here are the top five:  Cook County ($2.7 billion); DuPage County ($183.9 million); Lake County ($132.4 million); Will County ($98.5 million); and Kane County ($70.6 million).

Over the past two years, we’ve seen a patchwork of state budget stop-gap spending measures, federal and state court ordered disbursements, and the prioritization of state payments from the growing list of unpaid vendors.

Yet, even in a fiscal crisis, the state isn’t embracing basic spending reforms.
For example, in 2016, Comptroller Leslie Munger continued to pay a lobbyist $50,000 out of her own budget. More than $370,000 in payments flowed to lobbyist Shea, Paige and Rogal since 2009 (a key executive is the chairman emeritus of the IL Republican Party) even though state agencies are barred by law from contracting with lobbyists. So, how is this legal?
Since 2005, $178.1 million in taxpayer funds flowed through J. Walter Thompson (JWT), one of the world’s largest advertising agencies. Last year, JWT got $1.049 million from the Illinois Tourism Board. Why is the state wasting any money on Public Relations?
While unpaid social service providers sue the state, what is the compelling public purpose to pay paving contractors to spread a little more asphalt on the roads that may not be in need of vital repairs?  Vendors with the word “paving” or “asphalt” in their names received payments of $260 million in FY2016.
Last summer, at Forbes, I wrote about Comptroller Munger’s refusal to pay vendors serving our most vulnerable citizens – the developmentally disabled.  She wrongly claimed a lack of constitutional authority until a federal judge threatened her with contempt-of-court. Now we find Munger paid $9.4 million to Planned Parenthood over two years – including payments for abortions.
Over the past two years, Munger also fast-tracked $1.7 million in payments to refugee relocation firms. While Governor Bruce Rauner stopped additional refugees from Syria, World Relief Refugee Services – one of 10 organizations contracted with the U.S. Department of State to resettle refugees into Illinois – helped relocate approximately 1,200 refugees from countries like Iraq, Sudan, Congo and Myanmar (Burma).

Despite a two-year budget stand-off, taxpayer dollars to insiders continue to flow

Despite a two-year budget stand-off, taxpayer dollars continue to flow to insiders…

The Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) already employs 1,133 civil engineers and 1,155 engineering techs. So why did Illinois pay millions of dollars over the last two-years to civil engineering firms like ESI Consultants ($3.7 million) and other firms at huge hourly rates?
The Illinois credit ranking is the lowest of all 50 states. But, the public patronage machine rolls on.
IDOT is the historic haven of Illinois political patronage. Today, August 31st, Munger cut $4.1 million of “performance bonus” checks to 1,320 IDOT employees – members of the Teamsters. That’s a handout, not a performance bonus, when one of every two eligible IDOT employees qualifies for a first time ever pay enhancement. To see the list, clickhere.
Last spring, I documented 50,000 state and local public employees making $100,000+ costing taxpayers $8 billion annually. Currently, there are 7,500 school administrators and teachers with $100,000+ pensions – a number we forecast to increase to 20,000 by 2022.
At the Illinois State Fair on Republican Day 2016, Comptroller Leslie Munger flunked an impromptu math quiz by the Chicago Tribune. She wrongly answered two of three problems – missing 9×3 and 8×7 – then blamed the “hot weather.”
But, excuses are not going to cut it. Transparency and regular reporting will hold their feet to the fire. In Illinois politics, for the new governor and comptroller, the honeymoon with voters is over. The People want real results and are sick and tired of paying the “corruption tax.”
The Chicago machine had 12 years of iron-clad control and succeeded in making Illinois a net-outward migration state, but for the good of Illinois, this crew – from the opposite party – must quickly do much better.
Adam Andrzejewski is CEO of OpenTheBooks.com – the world’s largest private database of government spending with 3 billion captured public expenditures at the Federal, State and local levels across America.

Olympian Haley Augello visits Young School

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News Release
Homer CCSD 33C
Goodings Grove   Luther J. Schilling   William E. Young   William J. Butler
Hadley Middle   Homer Jr. High

Contact: Charla Brautigam, Communications/Public Relations Manager
cbrautigam@homerschools.org | 708-226-7628
 
For Immediate Release:
Sept. 1, 2016
 
Olympian Haley Augello visits Young School
 
Wrestling wasn’t Olympian Haley Augello’s first pick when trying to find a sport to participate in as a child.
 
First there was soccer; then it was softball. But nothing stuck until she tried wrestling.
 
“It kept my attention,” she said. “I got bored with the others.”
 
The Olympian, a Lockport native who competed in Rio, visited Cynthia Bickelman’s second-grade class on Thursday (Sept. 1).
 
There, she patiently answered questions about her trip and encouraged students (including her younger brother who is a student in Bickelman’s class) to keep trying different hobbies and activities until they find something they love.
 
“It’s important to have something you enjoy doing,” she said. “And it doesn’t have to be a sport. It can be art, music, food…. If you love what you’re doing, it will be fun.”
 
Like us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/homer33c?fref=ts&ref=br_tf
 

Mexican Pres. Concedes Trump Has WON

 Mexican Pres. Makes Shock Announcement, Concedes Trump Has WON

 
 
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Based on what happened Wednesday, when GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump traveled to Mexico and held a joint news briefing with the nation’s president, Enrique Peña Nieto, one could argue that the billionaire candidate has won.
 
During the briefing, Peña Nieto lauded Trump for his “genuine interest” in “build(ing) a relationship that might lead us to prove both our societies better conditions,” according to The Washington Times.
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He also admitted that the North American Free Trade Agreement needs to be improved, the porous border must be secured and, more importantly, criminals have indeed been taking advantage of the weak border to transport guns, drugs, slaves and money between Mexico and the United States, as Trump has long argued.
So despite President Barack Obama, Democrat nominee Hillary Clinton and the liberal media claiming nonstop how Trump’s candid rhetoric about illegal immigration would irrevocably harm our relationship with Mexico, it appeared that the relationship was just fine and dandy.
Moreover, the fact that Nieto conceded nearly every one of Trump’s points demonstrated that his tough-talking method of international diplomacy possessed more merit and future potential than Obama’s deliriously pitiful “do with me as you like” strategy of appeasement.
The Mexican president also reportedly took direct shots at Obama by complaining about the guns that were smuggled into his country during Operation Fast and Furious — and also scolding him for having ostensibly erected a “welcome” sign over the border that, incidentally enough, has spurred problems in Mexico as well as the U.S.

Chicagoans are battered by tax hikes as city worker pensions increase

More government workers are taking home massive yearly pension payments as Chicagoans are battered by tax hikes.
9/2/2016 Illinois Policy
As Chicagoans face a hefty hike in their water and sewer bills to pay for city-worker pensions, the number of retired workers receiving lucrative payouts is booming.
More than 220 retirees collect pensions of at least $100,000 a year from the city’s largest pension fund: the Chicago Municipal Employees Annuity and Benefit Fund. That’s triple the 2012 number, according to a report from the Better Government Association, or BGA. Chicago’s water-sewer-tax hike will dump $239 million into this flailing pension system.
Former labor leader and Streets and Sanitation Department employee Dennis Gannon takes home the largest pension in the group at nearly $190,000 year.
Gannon retired from the city in 2004 at age 50. While the city credited him with 33 years of service, Gannon spent more than a third of that time working for private labor unions, not city government, according to a 2011 Chicago Tribune investigation.
Part of Gannon’s lucrative arrangement is due to the fact that city government rehired him for a single day in 1994. And his pension payout is based on his salary as a union official, not as a city worker.
Like virtually all government-worker pensions in Illinois, Gannon’s has grown by 3 percent each year. His first-year payout came in at roughly $130,000, which he received while also earning a union salary, according to the Tribune.
The BGA’s pension findings follow the group’s recent research showing the number of Chicago city workers earning a base salary of $100,000 or more has nearly doubled since 2013.
Despite preparing to pay hundreds of dollars more per year on their water bills, and far more in property-tax increases, Chicagoans have seen no meaningful spending reform from City Hall.
While the Illinois Supreme Court has ruled any changes to unaffordable promised pension benefits unconstitutional, the city has refused to control skyrocketing pension payments with the tools at its disposal: pay freezes to rein in the salary levels that determine pension payouts, rightsizing payrolls, and moving new city workers to defined-contribution retirement plans.
Furthermore, city leaders have responded with deafening silence to calls for a state constitutional amendment that would allow them to bring government-worker pensions in line with what residents can afford.
As the data demonstrate, politicians at City Hall have no interest in acting on behalf of taxpayers. They’d prefer to hit up their constituents’ pocketbooks again and again.

TAGS: Chicago, municipal pensions, pensions

GOP Fall Rally September 17th in Geneva, IL.

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GOP Fall Rally September 17, 2016,                                                                       4 to 7 pm                                                                    Fifth Third Bank Ballpark, Geneva, IL
gop122915
 
Come meet the Game Changers who are working to turn around Illinois. Meet your elected officials and promising candidates in an informal venue. Enjoy a good ol’ fashioned ballpark cookout. And fireworks at the end! • Guest Speakers • Candidates • Exhibits • Keepsake Autographed Baseballs • Ballpark Cookout • Fireworks!
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Save Illinois!
Learn about Governor Rauner’s Turnaround Agenda: • Worker’s Compensation/Unemployment Reform • Property Tax Freeze • Tort Reform • Term Limits • Fair Political District Maps If we are to Save Illinois, the voting public must understand the importance of the Turnaround Agenda and what they can do to support it. Subject matter experts and information displays will be featured for these five key pillars of the effort to make 2016 the year we truly begin to Turnaround Illinois. A learning opportunity for all.
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Sponsorship Opportunities Tickets $35 in Advance or $50 at the Door Buy tickets and more online at www.fallrally.gop 

Paris at war

France Is at War, Officials Say After Terrorist Attack in Nice Kills at Least 84

As part of Operation Sentinelle, 10,000 French troops are deployed to patrol the streets—including 6,500 in Paris alone. (Photo: Nolan Peterson/The Daily Signal)

The Growing List Of Anti-Islam Incidents Since Paris

KYIV, Ukraine—At 3:45 a.m. Friday, just hours after a man drove a large truck through a crowd in the French seaside town of Nice, killing at least 84, French President François Hollande made a televised address to the nation.
He began by making it clear the attack at the close of Bastille Day, France’s Independence Day, was an act of Islamist terrorism.
“All of France is under threat from Islamist terrorism,” Hollande said from the Elysée Palace in Paris. “This attack, of which the terrorist nature cannot be denied, is once again of an absolute violence, and it is clear that we must do everything to fight the scourge of terrorism.”
In a separate address Friday afternoon from Nice, Hollande said about 50 other victims were “critically injured between life and death.”

Two Americans, a man and his 11-year-old son from Texas, were among the dead, according to news reports. At least 10 children were killed.
Police shot and killed the driver of the truck more than a mile after he began the carnage.
France’s justice minister,  Jean-Jacques Urvoas, and other authorities identified the driver as 31-year-old Mohamed Bouhlel, a French-Tunisian who was a resident of Nice. Urvoas described Bouhlel as having been a petty criminal up until the attack, Associated Press reported.
This was the third major terrorist attack in France in 18 months, and a devastating blow to a country looking to move on from November’s attacks in Paris, in which Islamic State terrorists killed 130 in a coordinated series of bombings and shootings.
Other French officials were quick to join Hollande in declaring France was at war with Islamist terrorism.
Nicolas Sarkozy, a former French president and candidate for president in 2017 said, “We are in a war that will last, with a threat that will constantly renew itself, until it’s completed.”
He added: “Adaptation and the permanent strengthening of our will to fight against Islamist terrorism remains an absolute priority. Nothing can be as it was.”

Paris fell under the watchful eyes of security forces months before the attack in the seaside city of Nice. (Photo: Nolan Peterson/The Daily Signal)

Paris fell under the watchful eyes of security forces months before the attack in the seaside city of Nice. (Photo: Nolan Peterson/The Daily Signal)

No Reprieve
As France celebrated Bastille Day earlier Thursday, Hollande had announced that Operation Sentinelle—an emergency security crackdown put in place across France after the November Paris attacks—would officially end July 26. The attack in Nice late Thursday night quickly laid that plan to rest, however, only hours after it was announced.
Hollande said in his predawn speech Friday that he would extend France’s national state of emergency by three months. France also would escalate its military campaign against the Islamic State, or ISIS, in Syria and Iraq, the visibly mournful French president added.
“We will continue striking those who attack us on our own soil,” Hollande said.
Operation Sentinelle includes deployment of 10,000 troops across France to establish de facto martial law, including 6,500 troops deployed in the Paris area alone.
Since November, the throngs of tourists at classic Parisian tourist landmarks such as the Notre Dame Cathedral, the Champs-Elysée boulevard, and the Louvre art museum have weaved around French commandos walking in combat formations with weapons drawn.
The soldiers stoically scan tourists’ faces, looking for tells that might give away a potential terrorist.
There was a quiet, somber pall in Paris in the weeks following the November attacks.
Yet, despite the overt presence of French troops on patrol across the French capital since November, the city’s summer pace of life appears to be unaffected. Crowds fill cafés, children float model sailboats in the Jardin de Luxembourg, fanny-packed tourists line up at the entrance to the Louvre and other attractions.
Amid the terrorist threat and state of emergency, the Euro 2016 soccer championships went off without major incident and the Tour de France is underway. Friday’s stage of the annual bike race went ahead with heightened security.
In many ways, the greatest strain of the 8-month-old security crackdown has been on the military.
Reservists have been called up to meet manpower needs, and many soldiers deployed to patrol the streets of major cities are living away from their families in bare-bones, temporary housing.
Operation Sentinelle also comprises aggressive law enforcement and intelligence gathering protocols, including house raids and searches without a warrant or judicial oversight. The state of emergency grants officials extra powers to place people under house arrest and shut down mosques with suspected ties to radical Islamists.
Battlefront
Some French commentators have claimed that France is in the midst of an “internal war,” in which the country’s disaffected Muslim minority, many of whom were born in France, is increasingly susceptible to recruitment by radical Islamist groups such as ISIS or al Qaeda.
Those who see terrorism as the byproduct of a cultural schism lean toward law enforcement action and intelligence gathering as the best recourse, as well as the need for a hard reckoning within French society to better integrate its ostracized Muslim minority.
Mohammed Moussaoui, president of France’s Union of Mosques, said In an interview with French media that the fight against terrorism should prioritize the “education and the prevention” of Muslim youth.
An estimated 70 percent of the French prison population is Muslim, while Muslims comprise only about 8 percent of the overall French population.
Marion Maréchal-Le Pen, a politician for France’s National Front political party, said the French penal system needs to do more to prevent Islamist radicalization within prisons.
“There is a radicalization ongoing on prisons due to a lack of space,” Maréchal-Le Pen said Friday, according to the French newspaper Le Monde. “There needs to be buildings specifically for Islamist terrorists so they are not mixed with others.”
Others, however, say France is at war against an external enemy, and military action abroad is the best way to diminish the terrorist threat to the homeland.
Some experts also partially attribute a recent worldwide uptick in Islamic State terrorist attacks, from Baghdad to Bangladesh, to the terrorist army’s losses on the battlefields of Iraq and Syria.
In May, the U.S.-led coalition combatting ISIS in Iraq and Syria estimated the terrorist group had lost 45 percent of the territory it once held in Iraq and 20 percent of its territory in Syria.
Veryan Khan, editorial director of the Terrorism Research and Analysis Consortium, said terrorist attacks like the one in Nice are a way for ISIS to divert attention from losses in Iraq and Syria.
“The more we see the caliphate shrink, the more often we will see foreign attacks,” Khan told The Daily Signal.
This report has been updated to include the name of the suspected terrorist, and to add other details.

I wonder why we have never seen this before/ from a friend in an angry land

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I wonder why we have never seen this before?
 

I never knew that this even existed.
http://static.ijreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/911-memorial-jerusalem-1024x576.jpg
http://static.ijreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Screen-Shot-2015-09-11-at-1.06.13-PM-808x1024.png
 
Completed in 2009 for $2 million, it sits on 5 acres of hillside, 20 miles
from the center of Jerusalem.
The memorial is a 30-foot, bronze American flag.
http://static.ijreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/memorial4.jpg
That forms the shape of a flame to commemorate the
flames of the Twin Towers.
http://static.ijreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/079.jpg
The base of the monument is made of melted steel from the
wreckage of the World Trade Center.
http://static.ijreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/PikiWiki_Israel_29906_Geography_of_Israel-817x1024.jpg
And includes this engraving in Hebrew and English
.http://static.ijreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/memorial8-1024x768.jpg
This metal remnant was taken from the remains of the Twin
Towers, that imploded on September 11th disaster. It was sent
over to Israel by the City of New York to be incorporated in
this memorial. This metal piece, like the entire monument, is
a manifestation of the special relationship between New York
and Jerusalem.
http://static.ijreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/memorial2.jpg
Surrounding the monument are plaques with the names of the
victims of 9/11.
http://static.ijreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Twin_Towers_Memorial_Near_Jerusalem-1024x768.jpg
It is the only memorial outside the U.S. that includes the names of
all who perished in the terrorist attacks. Including 5 Israeli citizens.
http://static.ijreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Twin_Towers_memorial_in_Israel-Names_of_the_Victims-1024x768.jpg
The site solemnly overlooks Jerusalem’s largest cemetery, Har HaMenuchot.
http://static.ijreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Twin_Towers_Memorial_Israel-1024x768.jpg
The monument is often used for memorial and commemoration services.
http://static.ijreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/memorial7-1024x701.jpg
A powerful memorial from a powerful ally.
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http://static.ijreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/arazim.jpg
 

Student leaders and activists hit the ground on campuses across the country.

From Charlie Kirk Turning Point USA
Last week we kicked off our Fall 2016 Field Program. Our student leaders and activists hit the ground running by organizing activism on college campuses across the country.
In just one week we hit over 150 different campuses in 39 different states. On Saturday when many schools held their annual student organization fair, TPUSA signed up over 3,200 new activists across the country in one day.
Take a look at our success:

















The energy for our Field Program can be seen off campus, too. Check out what others are saying about Turning Point USA on Twitter:











This first class, well-trained field staff is shaping the next generation!

I couldn’t be more excited about the success we’ve seen so far… and we’re only 1 week in.

Tentative budget now on display in Homer 33C

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News Release
Homer CCSD 33C
Goodings Grove   Luther J. Schilling   William E. Young   William J. Butler
Hadley Middle   Homer Jr. High
 
Contact: Charla Brautigam, Communications/Public Relations Manager
cbrautigam@homerschools.org | 708-226-7628
 
For Immediate Release:
Aug. 31, 2016
 
Tentative budget now on display in Homer 33C
 
Homer School District 33C continues to work at bringing expenditures in line with revenues while providing fair, competitive compensation to its employees.
 
On Thursday, administrators presented a tentative budget plan to the school board showing $45,924,558 in revenues and $46,209,470 in expenses in the Education, Operations & Maintenance and Transportation funds.
 
Highlights include:

  • A continued investment in 21st century learning with resources committed to Chromebooks, computers, projectors and the STEAM labs
  • The purchase of eight new school buses
  • A generator at Homer Junior High to provide power to computers during power outages
  • Roof repairs at Butler School
  • Chiller replacement at Butler School
  • Asphalt repairs throughout the district

 
Unknown at this time are compensation packages for certified staff. Homer 33C teachers are currently negotiating a contract settlement with the district.
 
As it stands now, the district is expected to end fiscal year 2017 with a deficit of $284,912 in its Education, Operations & Maintenance and Transportation funds.
 
Administrators attribute the deficit to rising insurance costs.
 
“Renewal on the district’s fully insured benefit program is increasing 9.6 percent on the PPO plan, 1.5 percent on the HMO Illinois Plan and 1.5 percent on the Blue Advantage HMO plan,” said Christi Tyler, interim assistant superintendent for business. “That averages to an 8.2 percent overall increase — or $758,190.”
 
Absent from this year’s budget are debt payments related to the expansion and renovation of Schilling School — the district’s oldest facility on Cedar Road.
 
“We made our final payment of $3,828,070 last fiscal year and are anxious to begin rebuilding our reserves so that we are prepared for any unforeseen expenditures or legislative changes that could have an adverse impact on property rich school districts like Homer 33C,” said Superintendent Kara Coglianese.
 
Legislators are currently looking at a number of ways to address the state’s fiscal crisis, including:

  • A change in the state funding formula by shifting revenues to those districts with the least amount of local resources and the highest percentage of needs students (Senate Bill 231)
  • Altering both real estate tax and income tax policy, including multiple year tax freeze (House Bill 696)
  • Shifting massive pension obligations from the state to school districts

 
“Virtually every piece of legislation currently considered in Springfield will have an adverse impact on property rich school districts like Homer,” said Tyler.
 
A change in the state funding formula (Senate Bill 231), for example, will cost Homer 33C an estimated $2.9 million annually.  A multiple year tax freeze would cost the district an estimated $1.3 million annually.
 
And if the state were to shift its massive pension obligations onto school districts, Homer 33C would have to absorb an additional $800,000 to $1.8 million in annual expenses.
 
“Districts like Homer must be aware of a triple threat of all these events occurring,” said Tyler. “This would turn balanced budgets into multi-million dollar annual deficits.”
 
The tentative budget will remain on display at the district office through Sept. 29 when a public hearing will be conducted at 7:15 p.m. The school board is expected to vote on the tentative budget later that night.
 
Like us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/homer33c?fref=ts&ref=br_tf
 
 

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