Park District Taxes More Than Townships

Got this from a friend of McHenry County Blog and thought readers might find it of interest:

Now that Annual Financial reports are posted on the State Comptroller’s web site, the information is more readily available.

Information below was retrieved from the most current AFRs posted.

Most info is from 2013 but Huntley Parks, Lake In the Hills and Hebron Townships only have 2012 posted.

I find it of significance that the four Park Districts spend more money for Parks related items then all the Townships do for everything they do.

Towns like Harvard and several others fund their Parks without a Parks District.

In total, when we add Park District expense to Parks related expenses listed by Municipalities, a total of $37,955,680 is spent.

Criticism has been leveled against Townships relative to legal bills, employee benefits and pay rates but even in total, Townships spend $28,493,731, which is far less than what is spent on Parks.

Here is what some special units of government in McHenry County spend:

Cary Park District

$7,047,051

Crystal Lake Park District

$13,226,709

Huntley  Park District

$8,746,275

Marengo Park District

$818,908

TOTAL Park Districts

$29,838,943

Here are some more government expenditures for recreational purposes:

Algonquin

$1,751,978

Bull Valley
Cary
Crystal Lake

$550,248

Fox River Grove
Greenwood
Harvard

$357,933

Hebron
Holiday Hills
Johnsburg

$40,805

Lake In The Hills

$609,919

Lakemoor

$167,153

Lakewood

$871,984

Marengo
McCullom Lake

$32,784

McHenry

$1,989,343

Oakwood Hills

$19,566

Port Barrington

$25,211

Prairie Grove

$5,277

Richmond

$17,770

Ringwood

$13,146

Spring Grove

$82,163

Trout Valley
Union
Wonder Lake

$25,009

Woodstock

$1,556,448

Total ‘Parks” expenses

$8,116,737

Total Municipal ‘Parks’ Expenses plus Parks Districts

$37,955,680

Next, for comparison purposes, our researcher lists the expenditures for townships.

Township Name

Total Expense

Algonquin

$5,337,443

Burton

$254,201

Richmond

$895,630

Hebron

$589,674

Alden

$334,412

Chemung

$540,765

Dunham

$1,040,639

Hartland

$456,131

Greenwood

$1,353,534

Seneca

$350,078

Marengo

$852,222

Coral

$394,484

Riley

$429,047

Dorr

$3,560,253

McHenry

$5,310,860

Grafton

$1,905,723

Nunda

$4,888,635

TOTAL  Townships   – all expenses including Highways

$28,493,731

In addition, McHenry Township lists a Parks expense of $290,613 and the Conservation District lists expenses totaling $6,954,482 for Recreation.

Filing for the April 2015 election is December 15-22, 2014.  That’s when park district, library district, village, fire protection district and other special district leaders get elected. The first day for passing petitions is September 23th.

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You can compare this year’s park district tax takes with last year’s here.

The same comparison can be found for townships here.


Comments

Park District Taxes More Than Townships — 3 Comments

  1. And Bob Anderson wants to shut down Townships and give the Road Maintenance jobs to the County which tends to come up with projects to WASTE taxpayer dollars?

    Park & Ride; Continuous Flow Intersection, Salt Storage; Roundabouts; skim-coat paving which fails after one week; Fleming Road; Alden Road etc. etc.

    Where is Jack Franks?

    He has access to the same information!

    Why were Park Districts not targeted for elimination?

  2. Targeted Cautious?

    Park Districts are more powerful than any entity you will ever encounter in politics.

    You ever try to sue city hall?

    Try that with a park district.

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