Who’s Endorsing Township Consolidation?

Posted on by March 31, 2015

Yesterday, McHenry County Blog ran an article on a group proposing to eliminate about half of McHenry County’s townships.

Here are the ones who have signed up as supporting the idea:

  • Lou Bianchi – McHenry County States Attorney
  • Mike Shorten – Nunda Township Trustee & Nunda Township Republican Chairman
  • Demetri Tsilimigras – Algonquin Township Republican Chairman
  • Mike McCleary – Norwest Township Republican Chairman
  • Jeff Thorsen – Crystal Lake City Councilman & Republican Precinct Committeeman
  • Chris Jenner – McHenry County College Board Member
  • Bob Anderson – Republican Precinct Committeeman
  • Eileen Marhoefer – Republican Precinct Committeeman
  • Ron Salgado – Republican Precinct Committeeman
  • Nancy Gonsiorek – Republican Precinct Committeeman

Comments

Who’s Endorsing Township Consolidation? — 13 Comments

  1. Based on the platform of the Republican party, there is NOT one honest Republican in the group.

    Who is running against Bianchi?

    Time for him to be gone!!

    Why was Donna Kurtz not included in the published list?

    Did she not work up the numbers for Shorten?

  3. Observation: The mainstream media frequently rants about people who call themselves Republicans being anti-union.

    The consolidation proposal is absolute ‘milk and honey’ for union organizers.

    As Preston Rea pointed out in his post on the earlier item about consolidation, he cleans the toilets along with other duties.

    Maybe Lou Bianchi will volunteer for that job? How about Mrs. Marhoefer?

    Better yet, how about Bob Anderson?

    Do you really believe if you consolidate these townships overall costs will go down?

    I can guarantee you they will increase!

    The thing I hear most frequently about Townships in the County is the reference to nepotism.

    IT IS NOT AGAINST THE LAW!!

    If the voters do not approve, they have the right to run for the office and replace those who practice nepotism!

    Obviously the voters in Algonquin have no problem with the Miller family drawing 1/4 million dollars per year from the taxpayers or someone would have run to end the nepotism currently practiced.

    Ladies and gentlemen, this consolidation thing is a red herring which if approved will increase your tax bill.

    Call your board members and demand they ignore this attempt to unionize all township employees.

    As Cal has pointed out before, consolidation of some school boards would increase taxes because consolidation results in the adoption of the HIGHEST pay scale in place due to the consolidation!!

  4. Nepotism, it’s the #1 whine about Twhs, yet we hardly hear about the same practice going on at every other level of gov.

    My advise: start a referendum to stop that practice for all gov agencies.

    I’ll sign it, and then lets have a vote on it.

    The County, State, and Fed dudes sign on ya think? I don’t!

  6. Add me to that list, Cal!!

    Dorr 6 Republican Precinct Committeeman

  8. Anyone can be added to the list by going to the web site and signing up.

  10. The numbers:

    ““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.”

    For the record, in 2013 ALL Townships collected just over 26 million dollars in property taxes for Roads and Bridges and just under 9 million dollars for the Town accounts.

    The County collected just under 79 million in property taxes.

    The Conservation District collected just less than 20 million dollars.

    Schools and Community Colleges collected just less than 542 million dollars.

    So, what is the solution by the McHenry County Republican party?

    Lets consolidate some townships to ENSURE their operating cost will increase!

    There will not be any savings in dollars.

    There will be a concentration of more political power in fewer hands.

    I can see it already: Bob Miller, Road Commisioner for Algonquin / Grafton controlling about twenty percent of total township tax income.

  11. This is a group of folks with whom I agree 99 out of 100 times. This may be that 100th time. Hopefully there will be some public forums in the near future to collectively work out the bugs on this one. I posted the following to their Facebook page:

    This makes great sense for those areas served by an incorporated village or city, but it would be bad for those of us who live in an unincorporated area. I like the fact that I have easy access to my most immediate level of public representation, and I don’t want that watered down by what would inevitably become a larger, more centralized bureaucracy through consolidation. As someone else recently put it, be careful not to throw the baby out with the bathwater as you move forward.

    1) It’s not about time and distance to travel, it’s about accessibility. I am a phone call away from speaking directly with my township supervisor, trustee, road commissioner, etc. That becomes much less practical when you increase the number of citizens these folks represent. Call your congressman, or even your state rep for that matter, and see how long it might take before you can speak directly with them.

    2) Centralization of authority almost always leads to more bureaucracy, more control for special interests and those with connections and/or deep pockets, and a weaker voice for the average Joe.
    Again, cutting out the redundancy of township government for areas already covered by an incorporated municipality is a terrific idea, but we should tread lightly with the unincorporated areas where things are generally operating exactly as they should.

  12. Every time I think there is a glimmer of hope for “the new” GOP they dash it.

    The only thing shocking in this is that somehow Gasbag Gasser is not involved in this.

    The teaparty crazy is for smaller government – he should be championing this.

    He hates all government.

    We like our townships in McHenry County.

  13. Speak for yourself DeFacto.

    There’s a LOT of waste and nepotism in townships.

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