From Gary Rabine, running for the Republican nomination for Governor:
Gary Rabine: Note to Sullivan – California campaign cash not working for Illinois
Woodstock, IL – Gary Rabine, a candidate for Governor, is issuing the following statement on Jesse Sullivan trying to equivocate on why San Francisco is listed as his company’s headquarters.
“The fact that San Francisco, Silicon Valley money is fueling this candidate’s campaign is concerning. Our current governor is a California trust fund Billionaire. California money in Illinois hasn’t worked out too well.
I know my greatest leadership experience has come from my last 20 years of building businesses and building leaders.
“At 58 years old my leadership experience has developed exponentially, and I welcome 37-year-old Jessy Sullivan into the race.
“My focus will not change with the entry of any additional candidates in this race.
“I will focus and fight for abundant job creation, lower property taxes and a great family culture in Illinois.”””
Illinois is an undervalued asset, but ONLY if activist shareholders can shake up the current corrupt management.
Risk venture capitalists recognize the raw value in Illinois, a value which is crammed down due to incestuous corrupt political-class malfeasance.
As one example, Woodstock Illinois is the poster child for what corrupt self-dealing politics does to a local economy over the course of a family’s child-growth lifetime of 20 years:
Home value severely depleted relative to inflation and home prices elsewhere, and 20 years’ household income meant for college funds diverted to pay property taxes.
Woodstock property tax rates have remained in a range around 4% of fair market value for over a decade.
Woodstock D200 and Woodstock City continued to hire more highly paid, defined-benefits-entitled persons even as enrollment fell and EAV (property values) fail to recapture pre-crash (2007) levels. Woodstock City created more TIF to benefit political insiders, at all other taxpayers’ expense.
Woodstock median household income families ($65,000) in a median value home ($200,000) pay ~10% of household income in property taxes!
BLS puts mean and median in America at around 3.5%!
That is: PEOPLE IN AMERICA MUST ONLY SPEND 3.5% OF HH INCOME ON PROPERTY TAXES, WHILE WOODSTOCK FAMILIES MUST SPEND 10%!
Consider that one metric and how it affects local economy:
families must go woituhout college savings funds, or pets, or eating out or buying from local businesses.
6.5% of hh income is a huge number to have diverted to an expenditure of zero value (property taxes).
Woodstock hasn’t seen any contributory growth since 2006.
Why would any right thinking investor risk building in a 4% property tax rate environment without deep subsidies/grants/TIF?
Property tax rates in Illinois are 3% in collar counties, below 2% in Chicago area, and ~1% in almost all of America.
Woodstock property values have remained severely depressed.
Why?
Cost of carry = 3% MORE annually than similar real estate investment in almost everywhere else on Earth.
(Also, Woodstock D200 has incurred public debt in excess of Statutory limit of 13.8% of EAV, that is a symptom of the same local disease).
But the severe property value discount, while warranted due to the seemingly intractable corrupt sociopathic predators who seemingly can never lose their grip on local power…that discount would disappear in a NY minute if the disease infestation of local grifters were to be cured.
McHenry County property could double in value, p-tax rates would be cut in half, and taxing bodies would collect just as must from homeowners if only a white-hat investor would come save us from our current predatory board.
Is that you, Rabine?
Or are you just looking to replace with current regime with an equally corrupt predatory regime?
I want Bob & Dodo to adopt me.
✌️😎
Good post Susan.
Since Gary isn’t a trust fund baby I’m thinking he is not against us.
Playing in the construction / paving industry in IL makes him questionable because we know how that works.
I get that.
Look at Palumbo.
He will get my vote at this point.
I just hope he’s got some Trump smarts.
He’s in the game, sees how it is played and wants to do the right thing.
The VC guy is slime.
If Gary is another Bull Valley RINO I would be surprised but at my age nothing surprises me anymore.
We have to get rid of the cheat machines if we are to have a true and fair election where your and my vote actually counts.
What can a governor realistically do about a predatory local government?
Woodstock enjoys electing and re-electing people you despise and they’re even a home rule community now which gives the officials more power.
Recent Texas activity illustrates the power of creating a “neighborhood watch” of financially incentivized watchdogs.
Illinois could do the same.
Bounty rewards for evidence of political malfeasance, with civil litigation the recoupment method.
Great: Americans turning on fellow Americans.
That’s the optimal solution Russia, China and North Korea are waiting for.
They won’t need to fire one bullet or launch one cyber-attack.
Let’s further clog the courts and fund more lawyers with frivolous suits.
Al Zielinski,the people sure turned on you as reflected in the last election. Quit crying.
Not crying at all.
Just stating the obvious that seems to escape most people on this blog.
The prime enemies are outside, not inside, our borders.
The economic impact of local political corruption on individual lives is greater than the impact of national politics or international economic policy.
People have lost generations of family economic security by living in a 4% property tax rate region with its attendant business climate stagnation.
Al, why do you always resort to calling people North Koreans? It’s unoriginal, paranoid, and dumb.
Susan is probably like the most level-headed, facts based, non-conspiratorial person on this blog, or certainly one of them, but you just call anybody who disagrees with you and is critical of the status quo here in McHenry County a foreign agent.
It’s so lame.
Reporting someone for ripping off taxpayers and filing lawsuits for malfeasance isn’t “turning on fellow Americans.”
If that’s what you honestly believe then it’s easy to understand why you lost so badly in the last election.
Most people don’t want officials who think they can do anything, with zero regard for taxpayers, and not be held accountable.
Weren’t you in a two way race and your opponent got like 90 percent of the vote?
And rather than reflecting on your failure, you double down on the “nothing to see here” attitude…
Al, she’s talking about COSTS hence the wording “economic impact of local corruption.”
She’s saying through stagnated home values and exorbitant property taxes, local officials are costing you a lot of money, even more than policies at higher levels.
She didn’t say local government is PHYSICALLY more dangerous to people than a foreign army.
(Although, I’ll say that lol.)
I assume you’re purposely misleading people, but if not read the comments a little more carefully.
Al Z is so right. Ever notice how the crazies hate township government, the government closest to the people?
The crazies want bigger and bigger government.
Sad.
I’m not calling anyone “North Korean.”
My reference to other countries was in no way related to Susan or any poster here unless they’re located in North Korea, Russia or mainland China.
I’m clueless how anyone could reach that conclusion.
Perhaps “Correcting” should “read the comments a little more carefully.”
My comment also had nothing to do with township government.
Its intent was to draw attention to the fact our enemies are other countries who want us to fail not our fellow citizens with whom we disagree.
Al, you said
“Great: Americans turning on fellow Americans.
That’s the optimal solution Russia, China and North Korea are waiting for.”
after Susan commented.
How else does one interpret that comment?
You also brought up lawsuits in your comment which is what Susan suggested, so you must have been responding to her and not the article itself.
Why are you implying that people wanting accountable government and fiscally conservative government are playing into the hands of North Koreans?
I’ve seen you bring up Russians, Chinese, and North Koreans in several posts.
You think it’s a clever way to shut down people who don’t agree with you, but it only shows what a nincompoop you are and reinforces why you lost so badly.
If Gary Rabine becomes governor, will he ban California cash in Illinois campaigns? 🤔😁🔔
Al Z: you are a fraud and scam artist with no life.
Buzz off
Two possibilities:
(1) the complicated theory posed by “Correcting” or
(2) “Its intent was to draw attention to the fact our enemies are other countries who want us to fail not our fellow citizens with whom we disagree.”
I type plain, direct English.
Please interpret it as such.
Yeah, Al, some commissar or military brass of a hostile nation is sitting across the ocean rubbing their hands at the thought of a township or municipal official in McHenry County, Illinois being taken to court. /s/
It just seems like a reach, that’s all.
Eddie, I don’t think they can do that.
Such a law (which the legislature would not agree to in the first place) would almost certainly be struck down in court on First Amendment grounds.
Maybe the legal dork crew could confirm or deny.