What Park Districts Did to 2018 McHenry County Property Tax Bills

There are not a lot of park districts in the United States.

In fact, I know of none outside of Illinois.

McHenry County has five.

They tend to attract people who think recreation is the biggest “good” in government.

They have the ability to sell bonds without a referendum.

It’s something like a revolving credit card which never really has to be paid off.

Below can be seen the effect of park districts on local tax bills:

Park Districts            
Barrington Hills $60,040 $67,328 12.1% McH Co only $64,749 -3.8%
Cary $4,587,148 $4,643,079 1.2%   $4,710,772 1.5%
Crystal Lake $7,259,385 $7,361,418 1.4%   $7,547,992 2.5%
Huntley $3,620,920 $2,774,959 -23.4% McH Co only $2,275,681 -18.0%
Marengo $492,062 $498,477 1.3%   $515,675 3.5%

Comments

What Park Districts Did to 2018 McHenry County Property Tax Bills — 6 Comments

  1. Wondering when the Forbes Dumbest City’s to Live In list is coming out. Illinois should dominate.

  2. The thing that drives me nuts…I live in LITH but still have pay into Huntley Park district, despite the nearest Huntley supported park being 2 miles from my residence.

    LITH has their own parks and recreation group that runs lean, cares for my local park and runs solid programs at Sunset, ect.

    In essence I am paying for two park districts.

    Why do I even need to pay for Huntley? Cash grab.

  3. I introduced a bill to allow disconnection from park districts in such situations, but I can’t remember if it passed.

    It certainly does seem like double taxation.

  4. Holy crap actually there is something in the Code.

    (70 ILCS 1205/3-6) (from Ch. 105, par. 3-6)
    Sec. 3-6. Any territory, within any park district, which

    (1) is upon the border of the park district, and

    (2) if disconnected from the park district would not separate any part of the park district from any other part, may be disconnected from the park district, in the discretion of its corporate authorities as follows:

    A written petition, signed by the majority of the owners of record of land and the owners of record of more than one-half of the area of land in the territory described in the petition, shall be filed with the secretary of the governing board of the park district, requesting that the specified territory be disconnected from the park district.

    The petition shall be filed at least 30 days before it is considered by the corporate authorities.

    The petition shall be accompanied with the certificate of the proper county clerk, or county clerks as the case may be, showing that all park district assessments due up to the time of presenting the petition are fully paid.

    The corporate authorities may, in their discretion, disconnect the territory from the park district by an ordinance passed by a majority of the members of the governing board.
    (Source: Laws 1957, p. 2271.)

    And a neighborhood in Evanston successfully branched away.

    http://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/skokie/news/ct-skr-skokie-park-board-disconnect-decision-tl-0727-20170724-story.html

  5. Sounds something like the bill I passed in the House, but I thought mine had a referendum.

  6. Crystal Lake residents get taxed for recreation purposes not only from the CL Park District but also from the City as well because the City runs the 3 Oaks Recreation Center.

    Last year, the 3 Oaks Recreation Center recorded a loss of $2.068 million which had to be paid out of City funds.

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