Not just candidates are on your ballot this November. For many, there will also be a local referendum for a government looking to tax you more, either through a sales tax or a property tax hike.
Does anyone believe they don’t pay enough taxes in Illinois?
And does anyone believe that if the government only had more money, they would fix whatever they perceive is broken?
Sure, money can solve a lot of problems. But in Illinois, spending for education isn’t the issue when it comes to improving outcomes. Illinois spending per student is the 10th highest in the nation according, to a new report by Heritage at an average cost of $20,583 in cost-of-living-adjusted terms, and Illinois ranks 17th, tied with Pennsylvania, in its combined fourth-grade and eighth-grade math and reading average NAEP score.
In the Heritage Education Report, Illinois ranks 43rd overall, and in terms of return on investment, Illinois ranks 50th. Parents and taxpayers are not getting a good value for the money spent. And when you read the report in detail, it isn’t because the system lacks money; it’s because the system lacks accountability.
Instead of being prudent and using those skills they should have learned in their fancy PhD programs, school administrators throw money at problems when they should be sharpening their pencils and focusing the budget on direct classroom resources.
Here is a look at the referendum in D214 and the games being played against taxpayers. The information below comes from an informed citizen, and it reveals the collusion between the teacher union, administration, and companies that will profit off of a referendum.
To sell a referendum to the public, the administration hired former Republican state rep Ed Sullivan’s company to market the “right-sized” referendum to residents. Read here about how the district took a poll under Sullivan’s direction to sell the referendum level that would pass. This wasn’t based on need, in other words. Americans for Prosperity IL Director Brian Costin filed an ethics complaint and explains more HERE.
Sullivan’s big money comes from the school budget directly. (He was paid at least $72,500 by CUSD 200 Wheaton-Warrenville to help pass their referendum in 2024.) Then, the referendum PAC, supported by unions and vendors, pays Collin Corbett’s company, from which he has taken a leave of absence as he runs for governor, to run the campaign to pass the referendum. Corbett and Sullivan frequently act as a team as they did with CUSD200. The whole scheme is spelled out below.
Who’s Behind the $295 Million D214 Referendum?
Like other referendums we see around the state, taxpayers in Township HSD 214 are being sold a massive referendum by paid campaign operators with money from vendors looking to make big profits from the construction.
Based on available evidence and past history, it is highly likely that teachers’ unions and contractors are/will be funding a $50,000 campaign for a referendum “yes” vote in a way that hides this fact until it’s too late.
If you are a voter in District 214, you will likely get a postcard in the mail telling you to vote “yes” on the D214 referendum, or maybe half a dozen of them, or a similar number of texts.
People should read the mailers carefully and read between the lines of the slick language prepared by companies like EO Sullivan and CorStrategies, which are hired to prepare the “campaign” mailers and send them to a targeted voter list. Those mailers most likely won’t tell the whole story – most importantly, the total cost of the referendum. With interest costs for the bonds, that $295 million referendum is likely costing taxpayers $350 million.
The most important question, though, is who is funding them?
The short answer is this: a PAC named Vote Yes for All District 214 Schools.
Their disclosures are available at the Illinois Board of Elections website.
They report a Chair and a Treasurer on their D-1 Statement of Organization, and a starting balance of $5,000. Their official PAC email is yes@yes214.com — and there is a website, yes214.com. The D-1 form has the hallmarks of being DocuSign-ed, and the Treasurer uses a P.O. Box.
But who is funding this group? Where did the initial $5,000 come from to open the PAC? State law doesn’t require the source of funding to be disclosed for the first $5,000.
And if history is any guide, $50,000 or more could be spent on this referendum, funded not by parents but by unions, vendors, and contractors.
This is what happened in District 23 in 2025, with a PAC chaired by State Senate candidate Carina Santa Maria. And this is what happened in District 21 in 2018 – with a PAC helmed by Kelly Eidson, now the chair of the 214 PAC.
Already, we know that in addition to the initial $5,000 in the PAC, two subsequent donations, each in the amount of exactly $10,379.14, were made by two contractors. Those companies are Ameresco (builds public infrastructure) and , a woke construction company with an entire Equity and Inclusion section on their website.
READ the rest of the story HERE, as I have more to cover in this newsletter.
Ted Dabrowski has put together a map of the other referendum on the ballot this November. In all cases. Voters should carefully consider who is behind the quest for higher taxes and how well has current leaders managed your money before entrusting them with more.
CANDIDATE PROFILE
The race for Illinois House District 41, centered in Naperville and Warrenville, is one to watch. That race is between Janet Yang Rohr and Ajay Gupta.
Yang Rohr is the incumbent Democrat running for a fourth term. She presents herself as a middle-of-the-road professional suburban woman who wants to serve her community. But her record in Springfield tells a different story.
Despite her many degrees in finance and economics, during her six years in Illinois, she has voted to increase spending by $10 billion, raise taxes by billions, and pass the largest state budgets in history.
During her tenure, property taxes are up, student achievement is down, and private sector job growth is stagnant. Citadel, Boeing, Caterpillar, Tyson Foods, and Morton Salt all fled the state.
She keeps filing a bill to freeze property taxes on seniors, but we already do that. How about a bill eliminating property taxes for seniors? Florida is headed that way.
Her economics and finance degrees are useless if she can’t convince her Democrat leadership that higher taxes and more spending are wrong.
Terrible votes on finances, even worse votes on children and families.
She voted to mandate that schools provide mental health evaluations in grades 3-12 and that the parents don’t have to opt in. So, if you don’t know about the evaluation, then your kids are going to be evaluated by some marginally trained school employee.
Yang Rohr voted for the tollway increase tied to bailing out the Chicago Transit Authority and their $5 billion pension debt.
She voted for assisted suicide.
Her stinging accomplishment this year was passing a bill designating the Black and Gold Bumblebee as the official state bee of Illinois.
Voters, though, have a great choice this year to represent them in the 41st district that covers parts of Naperville and Warrenville.
Ajay Gupta is a tax lawyer and financial economist with degrees from Harvard, Yale, and Stanford. He served as a federal prosecutor and teaches at local colleges. Ajay is a conservative. He would be a game-changer down there. Visit his website at https://ajayforilhouse41.com/
You won’t find a more thoughtful, kind candidate running for office this cycle than Ajay Gupta.
As always, it’s important to know that, as a lawyer, Ajay is representing parents fighting the transgender issue in two IL schools.
DUPAGE COUNTY’S DEMOCRAT DISASTER
The County Affordable Housing Act is just one of many reasons that Deb Conroy should be voted out of office in November. Read more about the Act HERE.
Conroy has been a disaster since taking office four years ago. She has brought her prickly feminist attitude and progressive cultural values to a board that should be focused on core services.
Her fellow Democrats in the clerk and auditor offices, specifically, have failed in their duties under her leadership. The clerk’s office has been saddled with lawsuits, overspending, missed revenue from not filing paperwork with the state on time, and poor election administration. Just recently, they closed early voting because the database contained inaccurate information. That’s not just a reflection on the clerk; it is also a reflection of Deb Conroy’s leadership.
Conroy also took down the DuPage County history panels in the 421 building that highlighted the county’s founders. It was too white and too male for her tastes – so she had our history removed from the site.
Conroy took Henry Hyde’s name off the judicial building because he was pro-life. That’s how radically pro-abortion Conroy is.
Former county board member Bob Larsen recently posted that county spending is up 47% in six years. Under Conroy, the increase is over 20% in three years.
In that budget, Conroy has created a $25 million slush fund to support her progressive ideas. She calls it a DuPage Sustainability Initiative, using meaningless buzzwords to hide what she is doing with your money.
What she is funding is first-time homebuyer down payments, NGO funding, and money for her affordable housing act discussed above. Read Below. But realize that whoever gets this money, many others will be denied the benefit. This is Socialism, folks! Recognize it and reject it; otherwise, you will get more of this redistribution.
If there are extra funds, then send it back to taxpayers.
Running against Conroy is Gary Grasso, former county board member and Mayor of Burr Ridge.