Jack Franks 25,071 Taxpayer-Financed Newsletter

As mentioned yesterday, State Rep. Jack Franks used taxpayer money to print 25,071 newsletters.

It is no coincidence that it is arriving while he is kicking off his campaign for McHenry County Board Chairman.

Today, let’s look at the biggest part–a letter to “Dear Neighbor”:

State Rep. Jack Franks used the Legislative Printing Unit to print this letter at no cost to his legislative office.

State Rep. Jack Franks used the Legislative Printing Unit to print this letter at no cost to his legislative office.

The letter is not about his leader Mike Madigan having had success in Springfield with his supermajority of Democrats.

I’ll be interested in the comments people have after they read it.

The mailing, incidentally, is supposed to be distributed only in his district. If you live outside and receive one, please let folks know.


Comments

Jack Franks 25,071 Taxpayer-Financed Newsletter — 26 Comments

  1. It’s the GA Newsletter. Are you seriously against an informed public Cal? I would bet nearly all members of the GA do it. Have you been the last 10 years?

  2. It is nothing more than a campaign newsletter. And the dampaign is for his shat at the chair of the county board.

    Call it what you want, but it is clearly a campaign newsletter that is being paid for by the people…. Taxpayer money funding his campaign letter.

    If you want to see the truth about how Jack deals with taxpayer money, here it is in black and white. I find it hard to believe that taxpayers will be happy to see this come to the musing their own money. This speaks volumes about Jack and his “concern” about reducing taxes

  3. Oddly, this actually called “franking”.

    “Madiganing” should also be a word that means ” a spell cast upon government by an evil leprechaun”.

    John,don’t know if these were typos, but “dampaign”( damn-paign) and “shat”(past tense of sh*t.) were a nice touch.

  4. A complete waste of taxpayer money.

    He can simply post it on his website.

    If Jack Franks wanted to save taxpayers money he would have an opt in mailer.

    If people want to opt into a paper mailer they can do so.

    A tried and true school board election gimmick.

    Around the time of school board elections in the mail we frequently see the school district newsletter prominently displaying school board names and faces.

    The school board challengers get no such taxpayer funded visibility.

  5. If It was raining outside and Jack Franks said it was raining, Mark and John would disagree.

  6. Jack Franks says he never voted for a tax hike.

    Jack Franks voted for legislative pension and retiree healthcare benefit hikes, which hike taxes.

  7. If Jack Frank’s says it’s raining then rest assure he’s selling umbrellas.

  8. Are you going to say the same thing about all of them?

    THEY ALL SEND THEM OUT.

  9. If that lying DEMOCRAT Little Jack Franks says it’s raining, the noise you hear is more likely the sound of Jackie pissing on the heads of all the taxpayers who continue like blind sheep to vote for this lying political hack.

    VOTE WALKUP !

  10. I live in State Rep. Barb Wheeler’s and State Senator Pam Althoff’s districts.

    If I received one from either, I published it.

    Haven’t seen any this year.

  11. What a BS response to a BS post.

    You are seriously grabbing for straws this cycle Skinner.

  12. Moderate,

    I don’t trust Franks for anything.

    That is not just opinion, it is based on his statements and actions not being in synch.

    Don’t blame me, it is his words and his actions that are the problem.

    If you want to bury your head in the sand and ignore those facts that is your problem, not mine.

    You may not like it, but far more people than the few on this blog feel that way., including some in my precinct who normally vote dem.

    You are just whining cause Jackie boy got caught.

    Get used to it.

    EVERY time Jackie’s words and his actions are not congruent, we will shine a bright spotlight on it.

  13. What actual tax savings in real $ has Jackie provided to the residents of Illinois, or the residents of McHenry County over his 18 years and 9 terms in office?

    He continues to brag about being a fighter for reduced taxes, where are those reductions?

    What $ and % of our taxes has Jackie reduced?

    We don’t care if he thinks he works very hard at his part time legislator position, we only care about results.

    Show us the money!

    Come on Moderate, you are a big supporter of Jackie, give us the data.

    Don’t send us to some lib website, just give us the info.

  14. ‘Moderate’ is the classic example of: ‘You cannot cure stupid’ and ‘The difference between genius and stupidity is: genius has its limits.’

    Help educate the voters by joining the Walkup,Tirio and Reick campaigns.

    If you think we have a divisive force in D.C. you ‘ain’t seen nothing’ if the little liar is elected to Board chairman.

    How many people know that the Board Chairman has no vote?

    The Board Chairman is a useless position created by the little liar for the little liar by a dumbed down bunch of elected Republicans and ignorant voters.

  15. Moderate, can we see those numbers year by year of Jackie’s 9 term, 18 year career?

    That would be helpful.

  16. I’ll do the research if you agree to bet me $100 on who wins the election: Jack or Walkup

  17. We are praying that Republican Mike Walkup beats tax hiking Democrat Jack Franks who promised he would not run for the position.

    He lied.

  18. Northwest Herald

    June 6, 2014

    Page 8

    Franks: I can promise I’m Not Running For County Chairman

    article continued from page 1

    By Kevin Craver

    “‘I can promise you I am not running for county chairman in 2016.'”

  19. Give us the data on hard real estate tax savings. That is the issue, not the childish betting.

    Do you actually think Jack has done anything that would generate hard $ savings?

    Not tax avoidance by reducing a tax increase to a lower increase.

    That is politicians smoke and mirrors.

    I mean, my real estate taxes were $1,000 last year, and Jacks efforts reduced my real estate tax to something less than $1,000 the next year.

    We should see his results year over year for the duration of his 18 years in office.

  20. John, I think you won’t take my bet because you’ve been unemployed so long and can’t afford it.

  21. Moderate,

    Do you think it is funny to make light of someone who is having difficulty finding a job, and then must deal with the resultant financial difficulties?

    Do you take joy in sharing that so as to embarrass someone and harm their dignity?

    And you choose to do so on a public forum?

    Is there no level so low to which you will not stoop?

    What kind of person does such things?

    No need to respond.

    The readers of this blog can decide for themselves.

    You have given us all we need to know.

  22. Timeline for current State Representative 63rd District Jack Franks

    November 23, 2015 – Files with Illinois State Board of Elections (ISBE) to run as Democrat State Representative 63rd District.

    May 15th, 2016 – announces he will run for McHenry County Board Chair.

    July 7, 2016 – McHenry County Blog reports as of today for the first time (there was a daily checkup reported in a series of articles) the ISBE website lists Jack Franks as having withdrawn from running as State Representative 63rd District, but lists the withdrawn date as November 23, 2015 (which was the incorrect date).

    July 16, 2016 – ISBE website now lists the date Jack Franks withdrew from State Representative 63rd District as July 16, 2016.

    July 19, 2016 – McHenry County Blog reports Jack Franks sent out 25,071 taxpayer financed newsletters.

    July 20, 2016 – McHenry Count Blog posts a copy of the 6 paragraph 1 page newsletter, which lists Jack Franks as State Representative 63rd District and includes a picture of Jack Franks, and reports the newsletter was printed by the Legislative Printing Unit (part of the Illinois General Assembly).

    The Illinois State Board of Elections website does not contain filings for those that run as County Board Chair.

    The McHenry County Board of Elections website lists Jack Franks as a Democrat candidate for County Board Chair vs Republican Mike Walkup, but does not list filing dates.

  23. It’s all about the kids.

    Indebt them in the name of educating them.

    I mean just pour on the bond debt, pension hikes, and retiree healthcare hikes, current salary hikes, and current benefit hikes.

    Don’t teacher them about public sector unfunded pension and retiree healthcare liabilities.

    Don’t even explain to them what a liability is.

    Don’t educate them about bonds.

    Don’t educate them that in a bond referendum, the listed amount is principal only, and does not include interest.

    Don’t explain that during bond referendums, the listed price of $X dollars per year in hiked taxes per $250K of house value, is sometimes just year 1, and in future years, the bond repayment schedule calls for hiked taxes over and above x.

    Definitely do not present the annual bond and interest payment schedule for both the existing bonds and the proposed bonds during a referendum.

    During a referendum, don’t explain to voters it is in their interest to look at all the upcoming obligations for bonds, pensions, and retiree healthcare the voter faces at each taxing district on the property tax bill, and at the state and federal levels.

    Don’t explain when the state balances a budget, it’s not truly balanced, rather includes gimmicks such as pushing off bills due to the next budget year.

    Don’t explain when the teacher union says a pension is a promise, that includes all the legislative pension benefit hikes and local salary hikes even though many of the legislative pension benefit hikes were underfunded or unfunded, and the pension system themselves were unfunded.

    Don’t explain to the kids which communities are hopelessly in debt compared to the amount they can raise in taxes and appear to have no way out other than bankruptcy which is currently not an option.

    Don’t tell the kids the state pensions use a 7.5% expected rate of return on pension fund investments and if that’s not met, the kids get stuck with the IOU.

    Don’t tell the kids that when the union says past performance on the pension fund is 7.5%, well that was not always the case, just depends on the years range chosen, and past performance does not dictate future returns, or explain how economic times have changed and we went through a huge unprecedented economic boom.

    Don’t explain when the teacher union said the teachers have a modest pension of x, the typical teacher recouped their lifetime pension contribution in the first 1 – 2 years of retirement.

    Don’t explain when the teacher union said the teachers earn a modest pension of x, that is not for a full career teacher.

    And when educating kids definitely paint Trump and Rauner in a bad light.

    That way when it comes time for the kids to vote, if all the kids relied on was the education system, the kids should vote for the teacher recommended candidate (which is actually the union recommneded candidate) for school board, State Rep, State Senator, and Governor.

    And the cycle continues.

    Every once in awhile a concerned teacher will at least mention the US debt clock to the kids.

    That is a start.

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