The Show You Care for the Developmentally Disabled Political Action Committee campaign to hike taxes in Kane County has the following post-election day results (a few absentee ballots yet to be counted):

• Yes 14,805 36%
• No 25,826 64%

I have looked at the contributions reported for the $183,803.98 campaign, which appear below in chronological order.

• Quarter ending 6-13, $3,473.20
• Quarter ending 9-13, $76,692.55
• Quarter ending 13-13, $35,673.46
• 2-12-14, $11,460
• 2-28-14, $5,875
• 3-4-14, $12,934.88
• 3-11-14, $17,876.96
• 3-20-14, $19,813.53

All are from the Association for Individual Development.

I could find not one contribution over about nine months that was from an individual, corporation or union.

What does that mean?

I am reminded of the McHenry County Conservation Foundation.

I’ve written about its organization before, but since Google wiped out two years of stories, what you read below comes from my memory.

When the last new pipeline went through McHenry County, opponents convinced the Illinois Commerce Commission that the pipeline should not have condemnation power.

The frosting on the opponents’ arguments was a paper by a University of Chicago Nobel Prize winning economist who argued that the price of gas and oil would not decrease if the pipeline were built.

So the company had to pay market value.

As I remember, the last100 feet were across Conservation District property in the Marengo-Union area.

The pipeline agreed to $2 million, but half of that was diverted to what I remember was not-yet-approved 501(c) charitable organization called the McHenry County Conservation Foundation.

The trustees of the $1 million of court ordered, but agreed upon by MCCD Board members, diversion of the $1 million from taxpayer-controlled to private interest controlled turned out to be former MCCD Board members.

That was disturbing enough, but it gets worse.

The Conservation District held a referendum to authorize the purchase of $40-70 million.

Guess who paid for the campaign to convince taxpayers to raise their taxes?

The McHenry County Conservation Foundation.

At the time, the Foundation claimed that it only use interest on invested money.

Pardon me, if I concluded that it was unethical.

But, apparently, not illegal.

The research I did then and a couple of years later when a similar sized bond issue was put forth and whose campaign was again financed by the Foundation showed me that such 501(c) organizations can spend 10-16% of their money on “lobbying.”

The IRS definition for “lobbying” includes supporting or opposing referendums.

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There is more to this story, but I haven’t written it yet.