The McHenry County Conservation Foundation sounds all warm and fuzzy until you figure out that the Conservation Board set it up specifically to keep $1 million paid by Lakehead Pipeline out of MCCD’s coffers.
Out of the control of public officials and into the hands of ex-Conservation District leaders. Read the whole sordid tale here, as well as how that Foundation spent $137,000 million to pass bond issue in 2001.
You might find of interest a statement by a local Republican leader asserting that raising taxes helps taxpayers.
In retrospect, it sounds a lot like Pat Quinn this spring.
For the 2007 $73 million bond issue, the Foundation only kicked in $63,000.
At least that’s what its captive campaign committee—the McHenry County Citizens for Clean Water & Open Space—reported to the Illinois State Board of Elections.
I guess the $24,000 of polling in the month before the election showed there was not a need to spend as much money that time around.
The mailings were financed over 95% by tax free money that should have been in the McHenry County Conservation District’s treasury where it could not have been spent to pass a bond issue.
You can read who lent their names, but, with few exceptions, not their money to passing the MCCD’s 27% property tax hike here.
Other people’s money is the best money, right.
Here are the mailings I snagged. (I may have missed some because they took me off their mailing list.)
McHenry County Conservation Foundation Hides Its Payment of Tax Hike Mailing