Lost on property taxes?
Hear from experts
March 26 in Joliet
Hear from experts
March 26 in Joliet
A half-day workshop is being offered March 26 for northern Illinois news
reporters and editors who find it easier to pay taxes than to write about
them.
"Talking Taxes" will help reporters and editors overcome their
math anxiety and confusion about where to get county property tax information
... and then what to do with it.
Reporters will learn about tax assessment and the levy process and then
how to convert all those numbers and percentages into an easy-to-understand
and relevant news story.
Speakers will include David Earl Thompson, who has been Kendall County supervisor
of assessments since 1988. Thompson also is a senior instructor for the
Illinois Property Assessment Institute, where he has taught for 11 years.
He also served on the Kendall County Board in the 1980s.
Tips on writing tax stories and tracking government spending will be provided
by Mike Klemens, public information officer for the Illinois
Department of Revenue.
Klemens, who has been with the department since 1992, is manager of policy
and communications. His responsibilities include the offices of Local Government
Services, Research, Publications and Public Information.
In 1986, Klemens was appointed Statehouse bureau chief for Illinois Issues
magazine. His journalism career began in 1973 as a reporter for the Watertown
Daily Times in Watertown, New York, where he covered city and county governments.
The program is part of a series of training workshops planned this year
by NINA. Future topics will include Internet research, designing effective
advertisements and copy editing.
Talking Taxes
When
1 to 5 p.m. Friday, March 26
Where
Herald-News, 300 Caterpillar Drive, Joliet. From I-55, go east on Route
52-Jefferson Street; from I-80, take the Houbolt Road exit north to Jefferson.
From Jefferson, take Caterpillar Drive south. Newspaper is at corner of
Caterpillar Drive and McDonough Street.
Parking
Free. Employee lot on the north side of the building.
Cost
$10 a person. Includes afternoon refreshments. Write checks to the Northern
Illinois Newspaper Association.
Deadline to register
Monday, March 22. Call Dana at the NIU Department of Communication, (815)
753-1712. Or e-mail Jim Killam.
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