McHenry County has a budget of about $208 million.
Democrats in Washington have passed legislation that allocates over $59 million to McHenry County government.
That’s almost 29% of the current year’s budget.
That’s over half of the cost of the widening of Randall and Algonquin Roads.
How will McHenry County Board members end up spending the money?
One idea that probably will not pop to the top of many heads is a BIG property tax abatement.
The tax levy this year is about $67 million.
If the entire $59.7 million were used to cut real estate taxes, that would cut the total bill by about 88%.
The information was obtained from Open the Books.
This bill is much more about massively expanding government than it is about COVID relief.
According to an article that I read in the Wall Street Journal, there are strings attached to the money.
States cannot use the money for pensions or to cut taxes.
Of course, cash is fungible, so other funds could be redirected towards pensions, but cutting taxes could be difficult.
IDK if the same restrictions apply to local governments.
Cal you better check on how they can spend the money.
I believe in the CARES ACT they had to show justification of how they used that money specifically.
You just can’t spend it on anything you want.
I think under the CARES ACT and this one counties with over 500,000 population get the money and can do whatever they want with it.
Counties under 500,000 they have to keep track and justify how they use that money.
Since many counties over 500,000 tend to be more Democratic the people passing the CARES ACT and this one, don’t realize or maybe they do, tend to be more Democrat and giving a lot of money to them.
Look up the collar counties of what they received last year and this year.
Remember they can spend the money any way they want.