Dabrowski: Property Tax Cuts Through School Consolidation, Pension Cuts
Republican Ted Dabrowski announces his campaign for Governor in September. (Photo: Chicago Tribune)
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One of the latest entrants into the race for Governor says reducing property taxes is a top priority, but would require forcing school districts to consolidate and to reduce pension benefits for high-wage educators, like superintendents.
Dabrowski told me on the radio yesterday his first effort to reduce property taxes would come by forcing school districts to consolidate, reducing administrative costs.
“Imagine just getting rid of duplicative, overlapping school districts. In Wilmette area, where I am, [in the] New Trier area, we have six six elementary feeders into one high school district that could be one unit district,” Dabrowski said. “Tomorrow you could fire six superintendents, fire all these district staff, consolidate, have one CEO, one bookkeeper, that’s it. And we’re talking about salaries of 200, 300,000, $400,000. It’s all duplicative. And it happens all over the suburbs.”
To reduce pension costs for school districts, Dabrowski suggests all new hires be enrolled in a 401k-style retirement program instead of the current Tier 2 pension system. He also suggests capping benefits for high wage education employees, like superintendents.
“You take the top pensioners, the superintendents, you go to the universities. You’re talking about 300, $400,000 yearly pensions with automatic 3% increases,” he said. “This happens all over the place. Again, you get back to consolidation. Not only are you then attacking that problem, but, you’ve got to look at how much everyday Illinoisans are paying for services, where in many cases the actual service provision isn’t working for them.”
Dabrowski has raised in excess of a million dollars in large donations since launching has campaign last month, including $250,000 from conservative megadonor Richard Uihlein. Dabrowski says he’ll have the resources to overcome the built-in name ID of former senator and 2022 GOP gubernatorial nominee Darren Bailey, who entered the race last week.
