A Barrington Hills resident took offense at former Village President Robert Abboud’s commentary on property taxes under his successor, Martin McLaughlin.
McLaughlin is running for the Republican nomination for retiring State Senator Dan Duffy’s seat.
Here are the results of the research and the accompanying commentary:
Bob Abboud — Lying with Statistics
I have to take exception with former Village President Bob Abboud’s assertion about taxes in Barrington Hills. This is a classic example of lying with statistics.
The “tax rate” is determined by the county, and is NOT something under the control of a village, and the budget is only anticipated/projected expenditures.
The fact of the matter is that Martin McLaughlin has lowered the tax levy and lowered overall spending since his election in 2013.
Bob Abboud refers to the tax rate* having increased, but that number is not something controlled by any individual taxing body.
A tax LEVY is the total amount of property taxes that a village requests to balance its budget, after accounting for all other revenue sources. This is the actual amount that the village requests from the taxpayer. But this is only one component of the calculation of someone’s property tax bill.
The bottom line is that Abboud raised the tax levy in 5 of his 8 years in office.
Since 2013, as village president, Martin McLaughlin lowered the levy, lowered spending, reduced the budget and still managed to increase the village’s cash reserves and increased the average number of miles of roads resurfaced yearly.
= = = = =
*Tax rate is determined by the County = Tax levy (for all taxing bodies) ÷ tax base (total EAV – exemptions)
Even if the tax levy remains the same, assessments can rise or fall. All other things being equal, if assessments grow and a levy is unchanged, the tax rate can drop. Conversely, the levy can drop, but if the assessments also drop, the tax rate can increase.
Adding to the confusion in this is that Barrington Hills is located in four different counties, so a household in one county can see an increased tax rate, while another can see a decreased tax rate in the same year.
MUCH ABBOUD ABOUT NOTHING!
Former prevaricator in Chief, Abboud, while VBH President, with his Save 5 Acre majority Board authorized expenditure of attorney’s fees totaling @$182,000 in taxpayer money in litigation to close a commercial horse boarding operation in VBH as illegal under VBH zoning code.
Then, magically, after about 3 years of litigation and coincidentally 34 days after a campaign donation of $15,0000 from this same horse boarding operator to Abboud’s “Save 5 Acres” political team of Trustee candidates, Messer, Meroni and Selman former Prevaricator in Chief Abboud (after a secret meeting on President’s Day) prepared a letter in the dark of night in the name of VBH building inspector Don Schuman magically stating this same commercial horse boarding operation was legal even in the face of an IL Appellate Court decision paid for with authorization of Abboud and Board with resident tax dollars stating the opposite was true.
Regarding another donor of $30,000 toward Abboud’s political “Save 5 Acres slate” it was learned this donor received more than $10,000 of engineering and surveying fees courtesy of VBH taxpayer during the approximate period of time these two donations of $15,000 each were made to Abboud’s Save 5 Acres political slate.
Shall I continue?
This liberal Democrat once directed ZBA Chairman J. Knight to announce at public meeting that he [Abboud] could not make the ZBA meeting because he was having dinner with Pres. Barack O’Bama.
Like Pres. O’Bama, Abboud has left a legacy in VBH of “corruption”, “waste” and “mismanagement” most of which has been exposed and rectified by current VBH Pres. Martin McLaughlin
Now powerless and left to his basement with nothing except a large bag of cheetos in one hand and pounding his . . . keyboard with the other, this Napolean complexed enraged figure continues to spew prevarications about the very man who defeated him in a landslide in 2013.
The tragedy is Abboud is a lost soul now cast by the author of this blog in the role of “useful idiot” in order to do an injustice to candidate Martin McLaughlin in a feeble attempt to promote a different candidate in this race he supports.
The saying goes,
Well Mr. Abboud, you have shown yourself to be a master of deceit.
Liar, liar👖🔥.
McLaughlin is the right person to represent us in
Springfield…and you can’t recognize or stand the truth.
Clearly.
Martin McLaughlin is the man for this job.
It is time for Barrington Hills to move forward and time for this State to clean house and move forward !
Elect McLaughlin !
Cal:
Thank you very much for publishing my previous letter and the comments of some of your readers. I just wanted to make a quick response to your commenters as a whole, in particular, this anonymous letter writer regarding the financial performance of the Village under President McLaughlin – two points.
First, note in writers own table that 2015 spending has the following qualification: “Spending excludes non-recurring expenditures which wer not in the 2015 Budget (costs related to Cuba Road Bridge reconstruction, 911 Dispatch Consolidation, and Dispatcher stay bonuses)”.
Every budget has a variety of one time expenditures for infrastructure, road work, bridges, etc. Welcome to being a chief executive. The Cuba Road Bridge work has been planned for years since 2011. This is a clear red flag that 2015 spending is way over budget. It is notable that President McLaughlin also claims one time charges to dismantle our police dispatch, and reduce patrol officers and detectives, decreasing the security of the Village
Second and more importantly, McLaughlin states he “lowered property taxes in Barrington Hills”. I take that to mean that our tax bills are lower one year to the next. Mr. McLaughlin claims his home is in McHenry County. Mr. McLaughlin can simply publish his tax bills paid in 2014 and 2015 (the only two years he has affected) and answer this question once and for all. Mr. McLaughlin, show us your lower tax bill in 2015. Those of us in Barrington Hills already know the answer. McLaughlin raised our taxes.
Robert Abboud
Barrington Hills