hasn't eveyone found $6.5 million in an old coat pocket?

On Monday, November 19, the Proviso Township High Schools (District 209) board of education held its regular meeting.

Nikita Johnson, the assistant superintendent for money issues, reported the district has $6.5 million dollars in the bond and interest fund that has unknown origins.

According to Johnson, staff has gone back ten years and cannot find the source of the money. Apparently, the bond and interest fund has stricter accountability than other funds. Accountability is to the penny and there isn't any possibility of adding or subtracting a little money at a time.

Th district speculates that a bond or interest payment was made out of another fund and therefore the $6.5 million can be transfered to the other fund.

IIRC, the district has eleven funds. And the district budget is about $70 million per year.

The idea that somehow $6.5 million was accidentally removed from a fund without someone noticing the money being gone seems highly improbable.

Anyway, the district is hiring an auditor to find the source of the $6.5 million.

what has the Iraq War got to do with Proviso Township?

When President George W. Bush speaks about Iraq, he's lying--at least on the important stuff.

What has this got to do with Proviso Township?

According the the National Priorities Project the war has cost $451.5 billion as of when I'm writing. There are 435 seats in Congress. We've spent over a billion dollars per district. If Danny K. Davis had a billion dollars to spend on improving IL-07, do you think it would make sense to spend it all on Iraq?

How about Dan Lipinski? If he had a billion dollars to spend bettering the lives of the people of IL-03, would it make sense to spend it all on Iraq?

The argument for not leaving has become, "Things will really descend into chaos if the U.S. military leaves."

Let me get this straight. We've spent over a billion dollars from each Congressional district--much of this Bush charged to the national credit card--to make the United States less secure than before Bush decided to invade. And now we have to keep giving money to Dick Cheney's company or things will get worse.

What has this got to do with Proviso Township? Bush, Cheney and their fellow war profiteers have spent over $450 billion. What's Proviso Township's share?

In the 2000 Census Proviso had 155,831 residents. The United States of America had 281,421,906. If you divide the number of people in Proviso Township by the total number of people in the United States and multiply that by the cost of the Iraq War and subsequent occupation you get $250 million.

Bush, Cheney and the other war profiteers have sucked $250 million (and the meter is still running) out of Proviso Township. And what have we gotten in return? We get blackmailed that if we don't give them more money things will get truly disastrous.

And are the Democrats holding the Bush administration accountable? No, not really. Are the Democrats making sure we don't throw good money after bad? Nope, not really.

There's something wrong with our society. I can't explain why, but our leaders aren't behaving rationally.

But hey, a couple weeks ago Suburban Life ran an article saying a Broadview company got a $55,000 contract in connection with Bush's military adventurism. So we got some of the $250 million back.

POL, how should voters evaluate fiscal policies of taxing bodies?

In an earlier discussion Chris Miller asked for information about the Village of Forest Park's budget and spending history.

And do you also have any information on the village budgets over the past 10 years -- like what was the total v income/expenses in 1996 compared to 2001 compared to 2006 ?

(and where the changes mostly came from ?)

These just seem to be things we ought to know going into this election.

Chris Miller's question raises a larger issue.

How should voters evaluate taxing bodies on fiscal issues? The easiest way is to say, "I agree/disagree with the last tax increase" or "I'm impressed [taxing body] hasn't raised taxes."

But these statements are pretty simplistic. It seems like there should be an online resource for looking at the taxing bodies history of revenue and expenses and there should be comparison with comparable taxing bodies. Then academics and other experts could question areas where individual taxing bodies appear to be spending too much.