Effort to Combine Townships Announced

A press release from Nunda Township Trustee and Nunda Township Republican Central Committee Chairman Mike Shorten:

Township Consolidation Initiative Launched Citizen Lead Effort to Reduce Government Units in McHenry County

Crystal Lake, IL March 31, 2015 — The McHenry County Citizens for Township Consolidation (MCCTC) announced plans today to pursue an initiative to reduce the number of Townships in McHenry County through consolidation via a binding referendum in the March 15, 2016 primary.

A map of McHenry County showing its seventeen townships, plus municipalities.

A map of McHenry County showing its seventeen townships, plus municipalities.

MCCTC spokesman Mike Shorten explained, “For many in McHenry County, township governments provide valued services.

Mike Shorten

Mike Shorten

“With 136 elected officials governing 17 different townships, it is our belief that those services can be delivered just as effectively and at a lower cost if we were to reduce the number of townships to eight through consolidation.

“While we are still are working on finalizing projections, our initial estimates indicate that taxpayer savings will be well in excess of forty million dollars over ten years.”

Illinois statutes allow for citizens of townships to vote via binding referendum to consolidate, however in order for the referendum to appear on the ballot county board approval is required.

“We do not anticipate any difficulty receiving the support of a majority of the county board to have the binding referenda placed on the ballot. The ultimate decision will be left to the voters,” Shorten said.

Shorten, who also serves as an elected Trustee in Nunda Township explained, “MCCTC would like to see the referendum on the ballot in March of 2016, so that the townships would have a full year to work on consolidation plans once the voters give their approval.”

The organization has launched a website and will be posting updates on the initiative as it moves forward. McHenry County Citizens are encouraged to visit MCC4TC.org to learn more about the initiative, submit questions, endorse, or contribute financially to the effort.

= = = = =
One possible configuration would put the following townships together:

  • Algonquin and Grafton
  • McHenry and Nunda
  • Dorr and Greenwood
  • Hebron, Richmond and Burton
  • Chemung and Dunham
  • Alden and Hartland
  • Marengo and Riley
  • Coral and Seneca

That would result in eight new townships.

Other combinations are, of course, possibilities

This could be accomplished through petition, which would mean gathering 10,000 signatures, or by having the McHenry County Board place a referendum on the ballot.

Organizers are looking at the March, 2016, primary election date so township governments would have about a year to figure out details. The next township elections would occur in the spring of 2017.

Voters in any township could vote down the referendum.  If a township’s residents did so, there would be no change in their township government.

Township populations in 2010 were as follows:

  • Algonquin – 88,389
  • Grafton – 53,137
  • McHenry – 47,653
  • Nunda – 38,245
  • Dorr – 20,911
  • Greenwood – 13,990
  • Chemung – 9,134
  • Marengo – 7,564
  • Richmond – 6,683
  • Burton – 5,003
  • Coral – 3,552
  • Seneca – 2,994
  • Riley – 2,922
  • Dunham – 2,844
  • Hebron – 2,356
  • Hartland – 2,031
  • Alden – 1,402

You can add up populations of the combinations being considered.

The Algonquin-Grafton suggestion would comprise almost half of McHenry County.


Comments

Effort to Combine Townships Announced — 23 Comments

  1. I think the only way they would save the kind of money they are talking about is if the Miller family just leave the county.

  2. How did these people come up with the est 40 million number?

    Using some of the numbers supplied, in 2010 the population of the county was 308,810.

    Of course that number is lower and now est to be 307,283, by a story in the NWH.

    Using either number for population and then dividing 4 million a year you’ll get a savings of around $13 per resident.

    Wow!

    I have a family of four so that means my house hold would see a savings of $52.

    Big money.

    My Twh tax bill for two acres and house with a Fair Cash Value of $258,100, is $147.77.

    So these dudes are telling with Consolidation I’ll save over a third on my Twh tax bill?

    Unbelievable, yes I don’t believe it.

    Add in the fact that businesses should get a cut of any savings, and the resident savings goes way down.

    It’s early granted, so I’ll be waiting to see some real numbers, not just hype that sounds good.

    I wonder if that est considers legal costs to consolidate in the first 10 years also.

    Their website isn’t much different that what is posted here.

    Say they do have ten big name supporters though.

    Impressive.

    Not.

  3. Their idea of savings just doesn’t add up.there will still be as many miles of road to take care of.they must expect that the officials in the newly formed townships will work for the same amount as if they still had one township .The smaller townships for the most part don’t provide benefits,and are mostly part time jobs done by people who are more interested in serving their communities .

  4. Here we go again, another politician trying to use Townships to get their name in print.

    Some Townships of McHenry County were the ONLY type of government to actually reduce the tax burden on the residents during the recession.

    I just love it when Republicans come up with recommendations for BIGGER government!

    Do any members of the leadership of the McHenry County GOP read their party platform?

    From the McHenry County GOP website: “Our Republican roots run strong and deep, committed to preserving and protecting our land, lower taxes, fiscal responsibility, transparency and smaller government.” Consolidation results in BIGGER government!

    From the State GOP Party platform:

    “We are the party that ended slavery, protected life, granted homesteads, built land grant colleges, and moved control out of Washington, back into the hands of the people.”

    “To reduce the size of government and the number of citizens dependent upon government;”

    “The Constitution of the United States establishes a separation of powers among the three branches of government in order to preserve our republican form of government and ensure that no branch takes government from the hands of the people themselves.”

    Here is one of the closing statements for the State of Illinois GOP platform:

    “The views expressed in this Platform, when accepted by the majority of the convention, should be the policy standard for candidates running as Republicans in Illinois. While we welcome Republicans that may not agree with specific planks, anyone elected as a Republican should strive to self-direct their activities and policy positions to uphold these principles as the unifying basis for the Illinois Republican Party.”

    I ask Mr. Shorten how his proposal fits into this statement.

    If Mr. Shorten wants to work on a project to reduce our tax burden, start with the Regional Board of Education, start with government entities collecting union dues for public sector unions, start with the elimination of library boards, start with reining in the out of control McHenry County Conservation District, start by eliminating the 708 Board and tax, start with the privatization of Valley Hi, start with working against the ridiculous plan of MCDOT building another Salt Dome.

    The problem in Illinois is not the number of units of government per se, it is what we pay public sector employees and the unaffordable public pension system.

    Overall, townships are about the only bright light in State government.

    That said, are there some Townships in the State which could be absorbed by municipalities?

    Yes.

    But Shorten’s consolidation proposal is guaranteed to increase cost to the taxpayers of McHenry County; a County losing population due to the higher tax rates.

  5. Abolishing townships in the more developed areas would be a better approach and one I have advocated.

    There should be an automatic referendum once more than a certain percentage of a township has become incorporated into municipalities.

    That way the more rural areas could keep their townships.

    However there are legal questions about whether or not individual townships can be abolished and what happens to the county board if only one township in a county were abolished while the others remain.

    Consolidation is the next best thing.

    It is clearly allowed by law if the County Board approves a referendum.

    Then it will be up to the voters to keep the township officials from raising their salaries to cover the new, larger townships, which they will argue should be done.

    The problem with the township elections as a check on this is that they are held at odd times (fourth Tuesday in February in odd numbered years once every four years for partisan primaries), so only those people recruited by the township officials show up to vote.

    Turn out for these elections is typically I the single digits percentage wise.

    People are going to have to make a commitment to show up for these elections or nothing will really change except that township officials will have even more power and patronage to throw around.

  6. Mike Walkup, have you bothered to read the State report on consolidation?

    It’s seems like not because you think making bigger gov is the solution to saving on our tax bill.

    Report: Illinois should make government consolidation easier

    Published: Saturday, April 5, 2014 11:20 p.m. CDT • Updated: Sunday, April 6, 2014 8:53 a.m. CDT

    The 90-page report by the Local Government Consolidation Commission advises that successful efforts to eliminate layers of government must be locally-driven and not mandated by the state.

    The report submitted to state lawmakers last week also advises that in many cases, consolidation may not guarantee tax relief as much as governments sharing resources.

    State Rep. Jack Franks, D-Marengo, filed the 2011 bill that created the 15-member commission and was its chairman. He said the committee’s research and testimony dispelled what he called his preconceived notions about the ease of eliminating the number of governments.

  7. Could you please connect Alden with a township with more money.

    We could call it Aldgonquin or AldHenry.

    As a Supervisor in the rural part of the county I can tell you it will be more expense for our residents if we consolidate. More equipment, higher pay, more employees and employee benefits.

    Fewer units of government do not equate savings of money.

    A review of your tax bill will clarify where your tax dollars go and it isn’t to townships.

  8. Preston, can you tell us what exactly it is that you do?

    You show up to the office once a month to deal with a handful of general assistance requests.

    Anything else?

    How much do you get paid for the maybe 4 hours of honest work you do a month?

  9. Sure, I

    make the budgets and put them together,

    do the levy ordinance,

    keep the township and road district books,

    do the payroll,

    pay the state taxes, unemployment taxes, federal taxes, quarterly state taxes, federal quarterly taxes,

    put together the township agendas,

    run the meetings,

    make the town warrants,

    pay the bills,

    Interview and administer general assistance,

    administer emergency assistance.

    trim the weeds,

    clean the toilets,

    clean the flies out of the lights,

    wash the windows,

    make plumbing repairs,

    fix the doors,

    sweep the floors,

    mop the floors,

    go to necessary meetings,

    attend required training seminars,

    change light bulbs,

    repair the blinds,

    field phone calls,

    refer citizens to available services,

    notify citizens of upcoming government programs-good and bad,

    shovel the snow,

    put together community programs.

    These are a few of my duties, thanks for asking.

  10. Why not get rid of the cities and just have townships and school districts.

    That would eliminate towns trying to vie to get businesses from relocating from one town to an adjacent town like Walmart did in McHenry moving to Johnsburg.

    Both towns are in McHenry Township.

  11. mikey shorten .

    u should step down as trustee of nunda , charman of nunda also, confict of instrest,

  12. When private sector consolidates, the workers that are left take on more work in order to keep their jobs.

    The govt. should operate the same way.

    If they don’t like it, we can always hire/elect someone who can handle it.

  13. For 3 miles of road for 250K/yr, the Millers should be the First to be ABOLISHED, and that 3 miles be given to someone else.

    My driveway in N.Carolina was about that long and I took care of that for free!

  14. Mike, just like your part time job on the county board, I am an elected official twenty four hours a day.

    But really your question has nothing to do with whether consolidation of townships would save money.

    I’m all about saving money.

    I hope that the consolidation scenarios include the consequences of those consolidations.

    Such as creating a larger work force that will be likely to unionize.

    That will probably save a lot.

    I find it interesting that the county(that is the part you are responsible for) has been decentralizing with a satellite health department, satellite sheriffs office and now a satellite salt depository.

    On the other hand believes consolidating townships (which is centralizing the government) is a good idea.

    Apparently the county believes the services should be closer to the people (unless it’s the township).

    I roar with laughter when I hear that townships keep reinventing themselves to justify their existence.

    Well of course!

    They provide services that the county(the part you are responsible for) didn’t provide and there was a need.

    Didn’t the county reinvent itself when it decided that little kids couldn’t have lemonade stands and every little league field needed a health permit and every church that has a meal has to have a health permit?

    That didn’t used to be the case.

    Did we used to have to have a storm water review and permit to replace culverts under roads?

    Did we need a permit to install new windows or fix our roofs?

    Did we need a permit to put up a fence?

    Well, no!

    The county(the part you are responsible for) reinvented itself and decided there have to be permits and county intervention.

    Oh, I forgot the fees.

    So townships reinvent themselves to serve the citizens.

    The county(the part you are responsible for) reinvents itself to intervene in people lives by regulating everything that moves making it difficult to get anything done and collect fees.

    Thank you, I feel better now.

  15. Oh, and Mike , I really miss the annual chicken dinner at the Alden Methodist Church had for years.

    It was part of the local culture and brought the entire community together once a year.

    The county(the part you are responsible for) won’t allow it any more.

    And I hope to tell you, those Methodist women can make chicken!

    Oh, and the pies were to die for.

    Now I feel even better, but I’m hungry.

  16. Wow. Walkup you are always quick to criticize others… what have you ever actually done for our community except pull full county benefits for a part time job that you rarely show up to?

    Your comments and statements are always full of BS and rarely even close to correct.

    Do something positive for once and save the residents 1/2 a million by getting rid of those unnecessary bennies for part time work from county board members!

    As for Shorten, how irresponsible for you to throw out some unsubstantiated number for “savings” and then turn around an say that “they” can figure it out after it is voted in.

    Sounds more like you are just posturing yourself for your own gain as some kind of election run.

    Let’s not forget folks that Mr. Shorten once thought he should be Governor of Illinois and ran a write in campaign. What was is “shorty” ?

    99 Votes if I remember correctly.

    Don’t take my word for it, look it up yourself.

    His plan is very “Short” sided.

    Consolidating townships could cost far more than it would save and/or eliminate essential local services.

    Lets not forget what financial impact it would have at the county level like the Clerk’s office having to redo all of the election precincts and election info, the P&D and mapping offices, etc.

    Maybe a better plan would be to eliminate all of the little speed traps that pass themselves off as villages. They offer nothing other than a self supporting part time police force.

    We all know who they are… Bull Valley, Prairie Grove, Oakwood Hills, Holiday Hills, just to name a few.

    They offer very little to their residents and their services could be better provided by the Townships.

    After all, their residents still have to pay for the township services anyway.

    The townships are probably cheaper on the tax bill.

    That is what should be consolidated or eliminated.

    Now if you really want to make a difference to our county residents… follow the big tax money!

    School Districts account for 70% of our real estate taxes and have been raising taxes at an alarming rate to get there – even during a recession.

    Do they spend our money wisely… one word comes to mind, “bleachers”!

    Next eliminate HOME RULE from communities so that they have to go back to asking residents before wasting our money and not having a proper control on raising taxes.

    Walkup and Shorten… you should both talk a long WALK off a SHORT pier!

    You are both an embarrassment to our community!

  17. Preston walkup and shorty tryed to get elected in township governorment but on one wanted them. nunda township next meeting should be good. step down shorty

  18. Preston,

    In your laundry list of tasks, two of them have independent purposes (emergency and general assistance) and the two dozen others are merely for the purpose of keeping the township running.

    Isn’t eliminating all of this busy work the most compelling argument yet that we need to get rid of the townships?

  19. I believe that are closer to 66.7 miles of roads.

    There are also 27 miles of non-dedicated roads that the Algonquin Township Road Commissioner takes care of some way or another. Some are being paved this year and will added to the total, according to Road Commissioner Bob Miller.

  20. Karen:

    When public sector entities consolidate, they do not downsize, they unionize!

  21. Fedor: Preston does these things.

    If you consolidate, YOU will pay more in taxes for salaries to have a union employee do these things.

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