As McHenry County officials go over budget and not on time with its controversial Route 14 in the Crystal Lake watershed animal control facility, board members are sure to be concerned with the pending loss of $400,000 in sales tax revenues within a year or two.

Maybe folks will think, hey, that’s only one half of one percent of our general fund budget of $72 million.

But, $400,000 when one underestimates the cost of an animal control extreme makeover by $773,000 might come in handy.

In Kevin Haas’ Rockford Register-Star’s article on the relocation of Crystal Lake’s Chemtool

• headquarters,
• factory,
• research center and,
• most importantly from a revenue generating viewpoint, distribution center,

is tucked away a couple of tax loss facts.

Most important to the McHenry County Board ought to be the $400,000 is annual sales taxes Chemtool is estimated to generate.

Because Chemtool is located in the unincorporated part of McHenry County, ALL of the local share of Chemtool’s sales tax goes into McHenry County’s coffers.

Getting their hands on that kind of money was undoubtedly part of the reason that the Boone County Board approved Chemtool’s re-zoning request on Wednesday night by a 10-1 vote. Nine votes were required.