And So It Begins...

Well everyone, it begins.  "What begins?," you might ask.  Minooka CCSD 201 has begun to issue working cash fund bonds (see here at page 4 of the July 17, 2017 meeting minutes under Item 5.01).  This is the end result of years of overspending.  It is an eventuality that I have warned about a number of times both in this blog (see here, here, and here) and as a member of the school board.

Essentially, the school board is funding day-to-day expenses with long-term debt (in this case five-year bonds).  Why?  Because the district has been overspending for years.  Rather than cut expenses to meet the revenue that the taxpayers have provided based on the approved tax rates, the school district has created and the school board has approved a cost structure that exceeds such revenue.

This is not something that is responsible for you or I to do in running our households, and it is not responsible for a government body to do either.  Many people decry the financial condition of the State of Illinois, the City of Chicago, and Chicago Public Schools, among many others.  If one looks back in the history of each of those entities, one would find the point at which they each began to fund day-to-day expenses with long-term debt.  That point represents the beginning of the financial crisis that each such entity finds itself in. 

No one should expect this to be an isolated event.  This represents merely the first of what will likely be many such bond issuances.

Finance Committee Meeting

There will be a meeting of the Finance Committee of the Minooka CCSD 201 school board on Wednesday, December 9, 2015 at 6:00 p.m. in the board room at the Minooka Primary Center located at 305 Church Street in Minooka.  The meeting is open to the public, and everyone is encouraged to attend.  You can find the agenda for the meeting here.

Next Minooka 201 School Board Meeting and Proposed Tax Levy

The next meeting of the Minooka CCSD 201 school board is Wednesday, November 18, 2015. The Committee of the Whole Meeting starts at 6:00 p.m. in the board room at the Minooka Primary Center located at 305 Church Street in Minooka. The Committee of the Whole Meeting will be followed by the regular Board Meeting at 7 p.m. Each of the meetings is open to the public, and everyone is encouraged to attend. You can find the agenda for each of the meetings here.

Information for the Committee of the Whole Meeting and the regular Board Meeting can be found here.

One item of note that will be discussed at both meetings is the proposed tax levy for fiscal year 2016.  The information regarding the proposed levy can be found here.  The proposed tax levy represents an increase of approximately 17% from last year.  About 7% of this increase is due to an increase in the Equalized Assessed Valuation (EAV) of the district.  However, the remaining 10% increase is due in large part to an increase in the levy for the Tort Immunity Fund from $650,000 last year to $2,000,000 this year. 

Finance Committee Meeting

There will be a meeting of the Finance Committee of the Minooka CCSD 201 school board on Monday, October 26, 2015 at 6:00 p.m. in the board room at the Minooka Primary Center located at 305 Church Street in Minooka.  The meeting is open to the public, and everyone is encouraged to attend.  You can find the agenda for the meeting here.

Next Minooka 201 School Board Meeting and Budget Hearing

The next meeting of the Minooka CCSD 201 school board is Wednesday, September 30, 2015. The Committee of the Whole Meeting starts at 6:00 p.m. in the board room at the Minooka Primary Center located at 305 Church Street in Minooka. The Committee of the Whole Meeting will be followed by a Budget Hearing at 6:45 p.m.  The Budget Hearing will be followed by the regular Board Meeting at 7 p.m. Each of the meetings is open to the public, and everyone is encouraged to attend. You can find the agenda for each of the meetings here.  In addition, you can find the background information for the meetings here.

Finance Committee Meeting and Next Minooka 201 School Board Meeting

There will be a meeting of the Finance Committee of the Minooka CCSD 201 school board on Tuesday, August 25, 2015 at 6:00 p.m. in the board room at the Minooka Primary Center located at 305 Church Street in Minooka.  The meeting is open to the public, and everyone is encouraged to attend.  You can find the agenda for the meeting here.

The next meeting of the Minooka CCSD 201 school board is Wednesday, August 26, 2015. The Committee of the Whole Meeting starts at 6:00 p.m. in the board room at the Minooka Primary Center located at 305 Church Street in Minooka. The Committee of the Whole Meeting will be followed by the regular Board Meeting at 7:00 p.m.  Each of the meetings is open to the public, and everyone is encouraged to attend. You can find the agenda for each of the meetings here.

Information for the Committee of the Whole Meeting and the regular Board Meeting can be found here.

Next Minooka 201 School Board Meeting and Budget Hearing

The next meeting of the Minooka CCSD 201 school board is Wednesday, September 24, 2014. The Committee of the Whole Meeting starts at 6:00 p.m. in the board room (the old library) at the Minooka Primary Center located at 305 Church Street in Minooka. The Committee of the Whole Meeting will be followed by a Budget Hearing at 6:45 p.m. in the gymnasium.  The Budget Hearing will be followed by the regular Board Meeting at 7 p.m. Each of the meetings is open to the public, and everyone is encouraged to attend. You can find the agenda for each of the meetings here.

Next Minooka 201 School Board Meeting

The next meeting of the Minooka CCSD 201 school board is Wednesday, August 20, 2014. The Committee of the Whole Meeting starts at 6:00 p.m. in the board room (the old library) at the Minooka Primary Center located at 305 Church Street in Minooka. The Committee of the Whole Meeting will be followed by the regular Board Meeting at 7 p.m. Both meetings are open to the public, and everyone is encouraged to attend. You can find the agenda for each of the meetings here.  Information for the Committee of the Whole Meeting (including the proposed budget for the 2014-2015 school year) can be found here.

Minooka 201 Salaries, Benefits and Contracts for 2014-2015

The Minooka CCSD 201 salary, benefit and contract information for 2014-2015 (including collective bargaining agreements) is now available. Click the following links to be taken to this information: support personnel contract, teacher contract, superintendent contract, and administrative and non-union salaries.

Is CVA the Public School of the Future?

Take a look at Columbia Virtual Academy (see here).  CVA is a public K-12 virtual school in the State of Washington.  There are no brick and mortar buildings.  There are no school buses.  There are no passing periods.

There are of course advantages and disadvantages to everything, but here is one striking advantage to virtual schools: cost!  Familiarize yourself with a typical public school's finances, and you will see that a significant portion of the money spent is not spent IN the classroom.  It is spent ON the classroom and on transporting the students TO the classroom.  Minooka 201, for example, spent roughly $7,500 per student per year, but only about $3,700 of that (slightly less than half) is spent in the classroom.  The remainder is spent on operations and maintenance, transportation, etc. (essentially, maintaining the brick and mortar buildings and transportation to the brick and mortar buildings).  When you take into account all expenditures (including construction and debt service), Minooka 201 is currently spending roughly $10,500 per student.

Given the above financial advantages of virtual schools and the lean budgets that each state is experiencing, it is easy to see why virtual schools like CVA are being started and why they are expanding to deliver educational services to an increasing number of students.

Sales Tax Redux

The Grundy Economic Development Council and Grundy County Chamber of Commerce and Industry are hosting a meeting and presentation regarding the proposed County School Facility Tax (the proposed sales tax increase which I have previously written about here and here) at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, October 22, in the board room of the Grundy County Administration Center.  The address is 1320 Union St., Morris.  The public is welcome to attend this meeting.

The meeting will feature a presentation from representatives of Stifel, Nicolaus, an investment banking firm based in St. Louis, Missouri.  They, of course, will tell everyone that they are doing this out of the "goodness of their hearts" and have "no financial interest" in seeing a sales tax increase pass.  I find that hard to believe, when they make their money by helping school districts to float bond issuances, and there will be a lot of money to be made on those if this sales tax passes in Grundy County.  Mark my words, if the sales tax passes, and Grundy County schools float bonds based on the anticipated revenue from this sales tax, you will see Stifel, Nicolaus and their ilk collecting handsome fees from Grundy County school districts.

An additional side note:  the County School Facility Tax has been defeated twice in neighboring LaSalle County (the second time around the percentage opposed was greater than the first time around). 

Next Minooka 201 School Board Meeting and Budget Hearing

The next meeting of the Minooka CCSD 201 school board is Wednesday, September 25, 2013. The Committee of the Whole Meeting starts at 6:00 p.m. in the board room (the old library) at the Minooka Primary Center located at 305 Church Street in Minooka. The Committee of the Whole Meeting will be followed by a Budget Hearing at 6:45 p.m. in the gymnasium.  The Budget Hearing will be followed by the regular Board Meeting at 7 p.m. Each of the meetings is open to the public, and everyone is encouraged to attend. You can find the agenda for each of the meetings here.  In addition, for those who are interested, click here and here for information regarding issues that will be discussed at the Committee of the Whole Meeting and the Board Meeting.

The proposed budget for fiscal year 2013-2014 can be found here.

Why I Oppose a Sales Tax Increase for Grundy County

At a recent joint school board meeting of Grundy County school boards, the possibility of asking voters to approve a School Facility Occupation Tax for Grundy County was discussed.  For more background on this tax, see here.

As a member of the Minooka CCSD 201 school board and as a voter, I will be voting "NO" on the question of the tax increase.  Here is why:

1.  I have two children, currently attending Minooka CCSD 201 schools, who will one day be taxpayers.  I would like them to be able to afford to live in Grundy County if they so choose.  I am therefore opposed to increasing their future tax burden.  This is not a one time referendum for issuing bonds to build a school or two.  This is a permanent tax increase.  There is no provision in the statute for a county to decide that this tax is no longer needed (if it ever truly was).  So, on top of a recent 67% increase in the state income tax (from 3% to 5%), we would be piling on a 16% increase in our sales tax (from 6.25% to 7.25%).  I know many people are going to say that "this is for the children" (in fact, I have already heard this), but we should be careful what we do "for the children."  The people that are children right now are going to be taxpayers one day.  We should do everything in our power not to burden them with additional taxes.  Otherwise, they may find that it is too expensive to live in the communities in which they were raised.

2.  This would be a pure tax increase no matter what anyone would lead you to believe.  This is not swapping one form of tax for another.  It has been argued that school districts could lower their property tax levies to offset the impact of this tax.   Even if they could, that does not mean that they will.  There is no provision which requires them to lower property taxes in response to increased revenue from a sales tax.  If you think that some or even any school districts would lower their property tax levies in response to an increased sales tax, you are putting a lot of faith in school boards to look out for the interests of taxpayers.  A school board may promise to do this in order to get the voters to support the sales tax increase, but such a school board would have no legal obligation to fulfill the promise and, in any event, cannot bind a future school board (remember, the tax increase would be permanent).

3.  Voters will be giving up an enormous amount of control over spending on school facilities.  As it stands right now, school districts must come to the voters for approval to issue bonds for capital projects such as building new facilities or improving old facilities.  With this tax increase in place, the voters will be giving up the ability to control such spending.  School boards will no longer need to "sell" projects to the voters.

4.  This money will burn a hole in the pockets of many school boards.  Governments, even more than individuals, have a tendency to burn through any money that they can get their hands on.  If there is no pressing need to spend and they have money, they spend on what are arguably wasteful projects.  Right now, many school districts are feeling the pain of the recession (which brought about falling property tax revenues) and are looking for a way to raise more money.  Rather than cutting back on spending to make it through the rough patch, they want to increase revenue.  Once we get through this rough patch, however, they will still be collecting money through this tax, even though they will no longer need the revenue.  Again, this tax is permanent.  You will be paying the tax whether the school districts need it or not.  And it can only be spent on school facilities.

5.  The revenue from any potential tax increase can only be spent on school facilities.  It can not be spent "in the classroom."  Some school districts in Grundy County may need new facilities now or in the future.  This tax would be collected on behalf of all the school districts in Grundy County whether they need new facilities or not.  Let those school districts that have a need for new or improved facilities ask the voters of their districts for approval to issue bonds to fund such projects.  That way, taxpayers in those districts that don't have such a need will not have an additional tax burden.

6.  A sales tax is the most regressive form of taxation.  That is, it has the most impact on those who are least able to pay the tax.  Everyone who buys goods in the county will see their sales taxes increase.

7.  There has been some talk about how many people who are not residents of Grundy County will pay this sales tax.  Well, I doubt that the percentage of such people is very high compared to those of us that live and shop in Grundy County.  So, I doubt that there will be much of a subsidy from non-residents.  But, even if there were, how is it fair to try to shift the financial burden of educating our children to others?

 

Our Very Own Fiscal Cliff

I hope everyone in Minooka CCSD 201 is prepared for our very own "fiscal cliff."  Yes, the school board and the superintendent have set up a situation in which the district is purposely spending more than its revenue.  And when the district runs out, they are going to go to the taxpayers for more money.  The school board and the superintendent are going to tell the taxpayers that unless the taxpayers give the district more money, educational programs and/or athletic programs will be hurt and it will be the taxpayers' fault if the district goes over the cliff.

In the meantime, the school board and the superintendent are going to act like they are doing something about the current operating deficit (which is in excess of $2 million per year).  The latest deficit reduction plan, passed at last month's board meeting (see here), consists mainly of "smoke and mirrors."  If you read to the end of the deficit reduction plan, you will see a projected savings of $768,000.  Two-thirds of that number (the $500,000 "Health Insurance Fund" surplus), however, consists of savings that have already been realized and are already accounted for in the calculation of the current deficit. 

You see, the "Health Insurance Fund" is part of the Education Fund.  And even though there might be a surplus in the "Health Insurance Fund" (which is not a fund recognized by the state for school budgetary purposes), there is a deficit in the Education Fund as a whole.  It is as if you decided not to spend the $100 in your left pocket (which you counted as a saving, which of course it was at the time) and later transferred that $100 to your right pocket (counting it again as a saving, which of course it is not).  You see, it is not just politicians in Washington D.C. and Springfield that engage in "smoke and mirror" games.  Local entities are just as adept at these type of shenanigans.  So, the real number is closer to $268,000 (though even that contains more than a little wishful thinking).

As you can see, the latest deficit reduction plan at best represents a mere 10% of the current deficit.  Within two or three years, the balance in the Education Fund will be depleted and it will start going "into the red."  Rather than trying to significantly reduce or eliminate the deficit, the school board and superintendent are choosing to run the district right up to the cliff.  Then when we are at the cliff, they will try to convince the taxpayers that the taxpayers will be responsible for going over the cliff unless the taxpayers give the district more money by passing a referendum to increase the tax rate.

Is This The Future Of Illinois?

This blog is about Minooka CCSD 201, but sometimes I post about happenings in other places in order to illustrate a point.  (Also, because the school district is affected by happenings on the state and federal level).  This is one of those times.  It seems that Harrisburg, Pennsylvania is sinking, not only financially but literally (see here).  You see, they spent money unwisely and took on too much debt.  As a result, the city is on the verge of bankruptcy and is having difficulty getting a loan.  Over the years, they neglected the maintenance of basic infrastructure like sewer and water pipes.  Now, sink holes are opening up all around the city due to the sandy soil and the leaking pipes.  The city not only neglected this maintenance but now is having trouble even making its payroll.  The State of Illinois, meanwhile, had its credit rating recently down graded (again) by one of the major rating agencies (see here), leaving Illinois with the worst credit rating of any state in the nation.  As a result, Illinois recently shelved plans to issue $500 million in bonds for school and transportation projects (see here).  Now, Illinois may eventually issue these bonds, but the state (and, therefore, ultimately the taxpayers) will end up paying more in interest on the bonds due to the state's poor credit rating.  This is a classic debt-spiral, which I have written about previously (see here and here).  Harrisburg is merely farther along down the spiral than Illinois.

So, what causes a debt-spiral and how does a state, city, school district (or nation, for that matter) avoid one (or, if it is already in one, how does it get out)?  If you boil it down to its root cause, a debt-spiral is caused when an entity (state, city, school district, etc.) refuses to live within its means.  Public sector entities are supported by taxes on the private sector (even money printing by a central bank like the Federal Reserve is ultimately a tax).  However, there is only a certain level of taxation that the taxpayers (the private sector) are willing or able to support.  It is sometimes difficult to determine what that level of taxation is for any given public sector entity since it depends on a multitude of factors.  As is all too typical, once a public sector entity starts to bump up against that level of taxation and has trouble raising current revenue it enters the debt markets and floats bonds in increasing amounts to obtain current funds in exchange for future taxation.  (Long term debt financing for necessary and prudent capital projects is one thing, but debt financing for current consumption is a clue that you have entered debt-spiral territory.)  The interest payments on these bonds, of course, just make the current problems worse and the public entity finds itself going to the debt markets with increasing frequency just to pay for current services.  (This is very much like a family that lives beyond its means and starts to use mortgage debt or a home equity loan to pay for day to day expenses.)

So, how does a public sector entity avoid a debt-spiral?  The same way that an individual or a family avoids a debt-spiral: it lives within its means.  For a public sector entity, that means that it must keep its expenses below (to be safe, well below) that level of taxation that the relevant taxpayers are willing or able to support.  This is the crux of the matter since most people spending public money do not spend such money as if they were spending their own money.  They tend to spend it much more freely.  Once a public sector entity finds itself in a debt-spiral, how does it get out?  There are really only two ways out: some form of debt restructuring (such as bankruptcy) or a bailout from a public sector entity higher up the food chain (also known as "kicking the problem upstairs").  In order to avoid going back into the debt-spiral again, the public sector entity must live within its means.

Calvin Coolidge (one of the most underrated Presidents of the United States) once stated the following:  "I favor the policy of economy, not because I wish to save money, but because I wish to save people.  The men and women of this country who toil are the ones who bear the cost of the Government.  Every dollar that we carelessly waste means that their life will be so much the more meager.  Every dollar that we prudently save means that their life will be so much the more abundant."

Tax Rates Set to Rise With or Without Referendum

Sometime in the next few years, the taxpayers of Minooka CCSD 201 will be asked to raise their own property tax rates.  Yes, it's coming.  If you attend the Finance Committee meetings, you can already here talk of it.  Oh sure, there will be talk of deficit reduction, but the real plan in the end will be to ask the taxpayers for more money (it seems like this is always the plan whether the government body be federal, state, or, in this case, local).

Well, regardless of the outcome of a possible future referendum, Minooka CCSD 201 tax rates are already set to rise.  Why?  Because of the current bonded indebtedness of the school district and the slow growth (and, in some recent years, decreases) in equalized assessed valuation (EAV).  You see, when the school district issued the bonds to build the two new schools (Jones and Minooka Intermediate School), add on to Minooka Elementary School and renovate what is now the Minooka Primary Center, the district and its financial advisors projected that the EAV of property within the school district would increase at a rate of 8% per year for the next twenty years.  As it turns out, this was a "pie in the sky" projection.  Perhaps this was another instance of "normalcy bias" since the EAV had been growing at such a rate during the housing bubble.  Perhaps this was done because it made the resulting bond and interest tax rate appear to remain stable throughout the payback period of the bonds.  In either case, projecting such a growth rate to continue for that time period was, at best, wishful thinking.

Unfortunately, reality intervened, the housing bubble burst and the EAV did not continue to grow at the projected rates.  In fact, in each of the last few years, the EAV has dropped.  As a result, the bond and interest tax rate (only one component of the total tax rate of the school district) must increase in order to compensate.  The school district's financial advisors recently issued a new chart of the Minooka CCSD 201 current bond and interest payments based on a revised projection of a 2% EAV growth rate.  Even this may be optimistic, since the EAV is projected to drop again next year and may remain flat for a few years after that.

What this means is that, even assuming that the tax rates for the other funds remain the same, the district's total tax rate will increase each and every year for the foreseeable future.  This increase will occur automatically since by law the district must levy sufficient funds in the bond and interest fund to pay the then current principal and interest payments on the bonds each year.  Based on the projected bond and interest tax rates, the projected implied total tax rates (assuming tax rates for the other funds remain the same) are as follows:

Fiscal Year	B&I Tax Rate	Implied Total Tax Rate
2013	0.5306%	2.9630%
2014	0.5686%	3.0010%
2015	0.5993%	3.0317%
2016	0.6366%	3.0690%
2017	0.6741%	3.1065%
2018	0.7152%	3.1476%
2019	0.7653%	3.1977%
2020	0.8094%	3.2418%
2021	0.8568%	3.2892%
2022	0.9074%	3.3398%
2023	0.9539%	3.3863%
2024	1.0061%	3.4385%
2025	1.0739%	3.5063%
2026	1.1340%	3.5664%
2027	1.2108%	3.6432%
2028	1.2927%	3.7251%
2029	1.0661%	3.4985%

Next Minooka 201 Finance Committee Meeting

The next meeting of the Minooka CCSD 201 Finance Committee will be Wednesday, December 5, 2012. The Finance Committee meeting starts at 6:00 p.m. in the board room (the old library) at the Minooka Primary Center located at 305 Church Street in Minooka. Finance Committee meetings are open to the public, so everyone is welcome to attend. The Finance Committee will be discussing a new deficit reduction plan to further address our operating deficit.  So, if you want your voice heard during the process, you may want to attend the Finance Committee meeting.  The agenda for the meeting is available here.

As an informational reminder, here is a link to the Minooka CCSD 201 budget for fiscal year 2012-2013, as well as a link to a previous post regarding the financial projections which were presented to the Finance Committee this past January.  We now know that the EAV (the property value upon which property taxes are based) in the district fell by roughly 8% in 2011, whereas the projections had assumed that the EAV would be stable.  Therefore, updated projections would reflect a bleaker local revenue picture than previously projected.

There are really only two courses of action open to the school district.  The first course of action is to make the needed cuts in order to bring our spending into line with our realistic revenues under the current property tax rates.  The sooner these cuts are made, the smaller the cuts will need to be since their effects would be compounded over time.  If the district were going to opt for this course of action, what would be needed would be a complete top to bottom review of the district budget.  Every dollar that is being spent would be questioned.  Every opportunity to save money would be explored.  The current deficit is approximately 5% of the total budget.  Which means that for every dollar that the school district spends, it would have to find a way to save 5 cents.  The second course of action is to refuse to make the needed cuts (or make largely symbolic cuts) and hope that the voters in the district will vote in favor of a referendum to raise their tax rates.  Of course, if the voters vote down the referendum, then the school board and the school district will be faced with making drastic cuts quickly.  If this is the situation that we find ourselves in a few years from now, it will not be the fault of the voters but rather the fault of the school board.

Budget Ideas Anyone?

It should be no secret that Minooka CCSD 201 currently has a multi-million dollar operating deficit and that these deficits are projected to continue for the foreseeable future.  So, the Finance Committee held a meeting on October 18, 2012 to talk about a deficit reduction resolution (the next meeting will be December 5th at 6pm).  Click here to review the proposed deficit reduction resolution.  The proposed deficit reduction resolution purports to save $902,000.  Note, however, that over half of this number ($500,000) comes not from new savings but rather from money that has already been saved in the education fund.

If anyone has any deficit reduction ideas, please send them (either by comment or email).  While coming up with ideas, it may be instructive to go through the budget line by line to come up with savings.  Click here for the detail of the 2013 budget.

What Does Fiscal Responsibility Look Like?

At a meeting on September 19, 2012, the school board in Quincy, Illinois (Quincy Public School District #172) passed resolutions stating that they were going to end the all too common practice of end of career salary bumps for district personnel (you can read the resolutions here).  In the resolutions, the Quincy school board stated their reasoning for this move.  The resolutions state that "the [Board of Education] believes the practice of pre-retirement compensation increases to staff members is a contributing factor to the current economic crisis of the [Teachers' Retirement System]" and further that "the [Board of Education] believes it fiscally appropriate to work for the expeditious elimination of such pre-retirement compensation increases as they exist today within the Quincy Public Schools, in order to strengthen the financial condition of the Quincy Public Schools, contribute to the strengthening of the [Teachers' Retirement System] and contribute to the financial integrity of any other retirement systems affected by such increases."

So, at least one Illinois school board is considering the affect that their actions have not only on their own school district (and, therefore, local taxpayers) but on the pension systems as a whole (and, therefore, participants in the pension systems as well as local and state taxpayers).  But, we must keep this in perspective, since these glimpses of fiscal responsibility are few and far between.

For a refresher on our own school board's actions with regard to these matters, see here, here and here.

On the Subject of Property Taxes

Since most of the funding for our schools comes from local property taxes, perhaps we should take a minute to think about the subject of property taxes.  Property taxes are not really "property taxes" at all.  They are, in reality, a form of income tax.  What I mean is that while the tax that you pay is certainly based upon the value of a piece of real property, you do not pay them by selling a piece of that property or deeding a piece of that property to the taxing body.  You pay the tax out of your income.  It is, therefore, a type of income tax, and a highly regressive one at that (meaning that, on average, the lower your income, the higher the percentage of that income is taken in property taxes).  Therefore, when property taxes are increased, it typically has the most impact on those least able to afford the increase. 

It is true that you get a deduction on your state and federal income tax return for the property taxes that you paid.  But a "deduction" is different from a "credit."  A "deduction" does not reduce your income taxes dollar for dollar the way that a "credit" does.  A "deduction" merely reduces your taxable income.  So, if your tax rate is 15%, for example, your income taxes are reduced by 15% of the amount of property taxes you paid.

If you rent property, such as a home or an apartment, you may think that you are not affected by property taxes.  But, it doesn't matter if you own property or rent property, you still pay property taxes (out of your income).  If you are a renter, of course, you do not get a property tax bill, but your rent is based in part upon the property taxes that the property owner pays.