[Communications] Urgent, well pretty urgent response needed

[Lorraine Kells]

Amy and others,

You know from the email received from Emily Reusswig and forwarded to you
on Jun 29, that CCGA has been invited to join a coalition of organizations
supporting a referendum to raise taxes for the Cook County Forest Preserves
on the ballot in November 2022.

I emailed Emily in reply that we'd call a special meeting to take a vote on
CCGA support.  Since we are not meeting until September with our two month
break, we have to call a special zoom meeting or send out the info to the
chairs/networking group with a motion. Perhaps a google vote form would be
best?  The next meeting of the Cook County Board where the Commissioners
vote to move the referendum forward  is scheduled for July 27, 2021. We
need to act soon to get included in the coalition and be read in at this
meeting.

I'm not really crazy about a special zoom.  What do you think about a
google vote form?  Would you, Amy, be able to set this up? I have prepared
an email explaining the referendum with links to a WTTW News report and a
link to the Referendum itself for clarification.

Explanation: Urban forests are a valuable resource; they help to filter air
and water, control stormwater, conserve energy, and provide animal habitat,
and for Chicago community gardeners, they give us shade and add beauty and
form to our neighborhood landscapes.


*Motion to Support the Forest Preserves of Cook County Referendum and have
CCGA join the coalition supporting the referendum to provide funds to pay
the cost of conserving and restoring land to good health, protecting the
water quality of rivers, lakes, and streams, providing natural flood water
storage, protecting wildlife habitat, protecting forests to improve air
quality, improving and maintaining existing forest preserves and trails.*


The Cook County’s board of commissioners has thrown its unanimous support
behind a proposal for a ballot referendum that would put a property tax
increase for the forest preserves, all 70,000 acres, directly in the hands
of voters, allowing voters to decide if they want to make an investment in
the future of our forest preserves. This measure is expected to be placed
on ballots in the November 2022 election, so for CCGA there is time to
garner support among community gardeners and those who value an urban
forest to help make an impact for the passage of this referendum.



“The referendum, as it currently stands, would propose raising the existing
forest preserve taxing rate by .025% to a total of .076%, which would add
approximately $40 million to the district’s coffers. For a single family
residence in Cook County with a fair market value of $100,000 at the time
of the referendum, the increase in annual taxes would be $7.29, according
to the resolution presented to commissioners.”



Read a WTTW News report
https://news.wttw.com/2021/06/22/forest-preserve-property-tax-referendum-likely-headed-ballots-2022


See the full referendum at

https://fpdcc.legistar.com/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=4994273&GUID=34E39ACB-1C59-4CA9-A717-FB47FA073FA5&Options=&



 The motion could be made shorter, I think.


Lorraine
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