If there were ever an instance where the bias in favor of tax hikes was evident in the Northwest Herald, it is evidenced in the headline covering the top of the front page on Wednesday,

It’s not that the article by Kevin Craver is unbalanced.

It does report Crystal Lake Republican State Rep. Mike Tryon’s opposition to the “sales-tax increase.”

No word in the article on how State Rep. Jack Franks (D-Bull Valley) and State Sen. Pam Althoff (R-McHenry) will vote.

And, Craver does something I have seen no other reporter do.

He actually points out that the RTA wants to DOUBLE its sales tax take.

And, Craver pulls out a detail that I have not seen elsewhere.

Included in the deal is another tax of the same amount–¼ of 1%–to pay for local road projects collar counties think are important.

That’s 7.7%!

How do I get that?

The tax hike proposal is for an addition one-half of one-percent.

The sales tax rate now in most of McHenry County is now 6.5%, with Algonquin at 7.25% and Lake in the Hills is at 7%.

Do the division on the base rate of 6.5%, which is what shoppers are charged in the rest of McHenry County.

One-half of a percentage point divided by 6.5 percentage points is 7.7%.

Now that’s not as large an increase as the income tax hikers want—66 2/3 percent—but it is a big hike.

I’m think it’s about for a headline that says,

But, of course, taxpayers don’t have tax paid lobbyists and publicists to initiate a story in newspapers like the Northwest Herald.