Park district's tax burden will haunt us long after it's dead
It is not on the ballot yet, but they are gathering signatures for a Nov. 6 ballot question that will kill the Collinsville Area Recreation District.
Voters should sign the petitions, then vote to end it.
The district could have been a great thing, merging the park functions or expanding them to Collinsville, Maryville, Glen Carbon, Pontoon Beach and Caseyville. It created the popular Splash City, a water park that draws families from across the region.
But at some point since it started in 1991, board members went a little crazy with the expansions and borrowing. They tallied $21 million in debt and made unpopular decisions about property purchases, were seen as favoring one of their five communities over another and just did a poor job taking care of the older parks the communities were used to seeing in good shape.
Taking on greater property tax burdens for new obligations is unforgivable if you can't handle the job already in front of you.
So thanks to the community members, mayors and folks who got control of the district's board and said "enough." The district has already parceled out most of the parks to the communities and is a year away from giving Splash City to Collinsville.
To the voters, there is still the legacy of that $21 million in debt. That will not be paid off for as much as 25 years, with a hope that bills will drop 25 percent for the district's portion of property taxes.
And there will still be a tax burden shifted to the local communities, but to its credit, Collinsville is working to keep things tight and the burden on hotel and restaurant taxes rather than property taxes. The other communities at least will have local control of those tax decisions and not be at the mercy of an extra layer of government that showed little responsiveness to complaining constituents.
Ending the district will eliminate at least one layer of government and its accompanying pensions in this state of 6,963 little taxing bodies. Your savings may vary.
This story was originally published May 14, 2018 at 3:31 PM with the headline "Park district's tax burden will haunt us long after it's dead."