That’s what McHenry County Blog predicted on August 30, 2007.
Now, the Algonquin Countryside’s Pete Gonigan has gotten confirmation from McHenry County officials that they are working with that number, too.
McHenry County Board member Marc Munaretto (R-Algonquin) offered this comment:
“That would fund $75 million in debt for 10 years. We want the money devoted to building roads.”
“That would fund $75 million in debt for 10 years,” he said. “We want the money devoted to building roads.”
Because of an amendment placed on the bill by three DuPage County Republican state senators–Dan Cronin, Kirk Dillard and John Millner at the behest of DuPage County Board Chairman Robert Schillerstrom and State’s Attorney Joe Birkett–the money can also be spent on law enforcement.
Without that amendment, the half cent per dollar sales tax hike would not have passed.
“We feel the real purpose of intent of the tax was for road improvements, not anything else,” Munaretto added.
Retiring Fox River Grove board member Dan Shea, also a Republican, added that he thought none of it should be spent on public transportation.
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I agree with Munaretto. All of it should be spent on roads. After all, people from all over McHenry County will be forced to pay the sales tax, but the Sheriff’s Department’s patrol division only serves the unincorporated part of McHenry County, where, incidentally, most of the county roads are.
McHenry County Board member Marc Munaretto can be seen in the top photography. Dan Shea is below with McHenry County Board Chairman Ken Koehler in the background.
At $4+ a gallon you still want to put this money in more roads and no additional transit? That is simply nuts. I can’t afford to drive any extra miles and would love to be able to take a bus to shop or to the train. The bus routes we have now are useless to me, plus they pretty much parallell the Metra lines, so what good is that? Buses should bring traffic to Metra stations from other areas, not along the same path. I still would have to drive 6 miles to make the final mile by bus to the closest Metra station, so the bus is useless at that point.
We need to look to ways to move more people with fewer vehicles instead of making room for more vehicles.
Since you live in Island Lake, you obviously know that traffic on roads around here are often beyond capacity.
When I was fighting creation of the RTA in 1974, I learned that bus service will not work if the density is not 3,000 people per square mile. There were three such square miles in McHenry County at the time–two in Downtown Harvard and one in Downtown Woodstock.
I don't think empty buses are a "social good."