I asked for a Will County take on Democrat Jack Franks’ claim that Will County taxes were lower than McHenry County taxes and Republican Party Chairman Edward Ronkowski sent me the following email:
Jack Franks’ volunteers passed out flyers at Marengo’s Settlers Day Parade contending that Will County taxes were lower than McHenry County’s because it has the County Executive form of government and McHenry County does not.
“In a nutshell, Will County taxes are cheaper that McHenry County taxes because the Republican dominated Will County Board repeatedly rejects the Democrat County Executive’s attempts to “raise taxes to the max”.
“Your county is dominated by Republicans, and a Republican County Board.
“A county executive form of government would allow a popular Democrat to get elected County Executive and thwart a conservative agenda of low taxes, supporting the Second Amendment, and supporting family values.
“Here in Will County, we Republicans regret voting in a county executive form of government.
“Our Democrat County executive uses the zoning department to harass gun stores, gun ranges, and FFL licensed people who sell guns out of their own homes.
“He used his veto authority to ram through a map that might result in a Democrat controlled county board in a Republican County.
“If you want McHenry County to follow in the steps of Will County, support the referendum.
“If you want lower taxes, a Republican county board, and a conservative agenda in government, fight the county executive form of government referendum.
“Edward Ronkowski, Will County Republican Chairman”
Mr. Ronkowski’s response to your question is puzzling.
He states that the primary reason for Will County’s lower taxes is partisanship- but does not dispute Mr. Franks’ claim that Will County’s taxes are lower than ours.
He then points out, without comment, that McHenry County has a one-party board and chair.
And does not dispute Mr. Franks’ claim that McHenry County’s taxes are higher than Will County.
Could you share any evidence that shows that Mr. Ronkowski made any sense at all in his reply to you?
Why is Will County the only county in the state that has an executive ?
Even after 24 years still no other counties have an executive.
Does NOT sound like a wise move for McHenry County.
I agree with John… this response doesn’t make any sense.
And I say that as someone that can’t stand Rep. Franks.
Lets take a look at the response, and I’ll try to summarize:
**Will County taxes are cheaper that McHenry County taxes because the Republican dominated Will County Board repeatedly rejects the Democrat County Executive’s attempts to “raise taxes to the max”.
“Your county is dominated by Republicans, and a Republican County Board.**
McHenry County is dominated by Republicans. Will County has a bi-partisan government. Will County has low taxes because the two parties do not work together, and it keeps taxes low. What he left out here is that McHenry County has higher property taxes… because it is dominated by Republicans?
**“A county executive form of government would allow a popular Democrat to get elected County Executive and thwart a conservative agenda of low taxes, supporting the Second Amendment, and supporting family values.**
McHenry County, if it had a similar style of government as Will County, would in turn be run completely differently than Will County.
Huh?
The next couple of sentences are at least somewhat rational.
**“If you want McHenry County to follow in the steps of Will County, support the referendum.**
Huh? Will County has an executive government, and has lower taxes because of the bi-partisan nature of that government. McHenry County has a GOP dominated, non-executive government, and has higher taxes.
Again… completely illogical.
The main contention is one of the more illogical justifications to vote against Franks’ proposal.
And again, I am no fan of Franks, and will likely be voting against the proposal.
The tax bill for all of county government in McHenry County is only ten percent of the total collected.
The rest goes to other taxing bodies, mostly school districts.
The county has no control over those.
It is physically impossible for the County Executive to be responsible for a 57% tax differential, even if county government were completely flatlined.
Truth seeker- how many counties in Illinois are 300,000 plus and how many of them have a board chairman that is popularly elected.
I feel like you are asking the wrong question- why is it that the board is so against having the chairman popularly elected that we ended up here.
Giving one person the power to make decisions our elected county board members should be making would be a huge mistake in my opinion.
I guess I’m missing something….
If this issue were to pass then why would we need a country board?
** If this issue were to pass then why would we need a country board?**
Probably for the same reason that, say, Crystal Lake has a Mayor and a City Council.
Or Illinois has a Governor and a legislature.
Or the US has a President and a Congress.
I do favor popular election of the Chair over the County Executive for the simple reason that the Board can reduce the powers of the Chair at any time under it’s rules but the Executive’s sweeping powers are set by state statutue and can’t be modified.
Probably the best system would be to have term limits on the Chair and/or remove the ability of the Chair to appoint committee heads.
The latter removes the ability to trade favors for re-election.
Direct election of either does raise the spector of having developer dollars fund the race.