By: Diane Benjamin
Read this story: https://www.wglt.org/local-news/2026-09-22/mclean-county-superintendents-say-school-sales-tax-has-made-a-big-impact
For now concentrate on Unit 5.
The story claims Unit 5 collects more than $1 million a month from the 1% Sales Tax voters approved. Keep in mind the referendum was placed on a ballot for an elections few people bother to vote in – the local election held in April 2025. Yes, that was on purpose.
The chart above that statement shows $1,485,850. Of course the chart does say if that is per month of total. Either way, the numbers don’t chive.
The story goes on to explain 72% of the money received by Unit 5 went to property tax relief, $6.5 million.
If $6.5 million is 72% of the total collected, that means $9,027,711 was collected. Again the numbers don’t make sense. The story claims the school districts have been collecting for a full year. $9 million only makes sense if the full year is a school year. (Hint: they collect it even when school is off for the summer)
Did you notice the same $255,000 house value was used to show how much taxpayers have saved? The County used the same house: https://blnnews.com/2026/09/29/corey-beirne-is-bragging-about-raising-taxes/
That $255,000 house won’t be $255,000 next year!
The story claims $161.50 was saved. Does anyone else see the silliness in paying 1% more for almost everything you buy to save a little on property taxes? Who buys the most stuff covered by the 1% Sales Tax increase? Older people don’t want more “stuff”, so the tax burden is on younger people complaining about unaffordability.
Maybe try voting in local elections. The tax never would have passed if everyone had. Another local election is early next year.
The percentage increase for Unit 5 property taxes did go down. The total went up anyway. Keep in mind they are educating fewer students too.
The district is only allocating about 1/3rd of the sales tax revenue for property tax relief, and ONLY for 5 years. The rest is going for their large capital spending on new buildings and hiring mental health counselors, because apparently most of the children are mentally ill or have low self esteem. Maybe this has to do with the fact less than half of kids in Unit 5 can read or do math at grade level, because the district spends less than half of their total budget on classroom instruction. If I was a poorly performing student, because my district thought new buildings were more important than students outcomes, I’d probably be depressed too.
In any other setting where clear goals are established and performance results are published; heads would be rolling. Illinois school districts have set clear goals and results are published but nobody is held accountable. It is amazing that failure has become accepted as the norm. After years of failure, more money and doubling down on failed policy is the only solution that they can come up with?
It would be nice if Unit 5 could be sued for wanton negligence, not only for their lack of performance but their apparent lack of care. We’re talking about our children’s future!
Public education is rotten to the core.