McHenry County Blog

A press release from State Rep.

Rep. Wheeler Looks to Protect Consumers

Springfield, IL… With the 98th General Assembly about to swing into full gear, State Rep. Barbara Wheeler (R-Crystal Lake) is looking towards consumer protection with her first ever piece of legislation aimed at credit card user fees.

“There are certainly signs that the economy is moving again; however, families are still weary of fee increases,” Wheeler stated.

Ten states now prohibit surcharges on credit cards. Barb Wheeler would make Illinois number 11.

“Even small savings can go a long way, and now is not the time to begin burdening families with increased fees, regardless of their size.”

The measure, HB 977, seeks to make it unlawful for merchants to impose a surcharge on a consumer who elects to pay with a credit card.

In July, an antitrust settlement between the major credit companies, Visa and MasterCard, and merchants will now allow retailers to charge a higher price for consumers who choose the “credit” option as opposed to the “debit” option when making purchases beginning on January 27 of this year.

Prior to the settlement, merchants were only allowed to offer discounts to non-credit card purchases, not to charge a higher price to those paying with credit.

This bill marks the first piece of legislation introduced by Rep. Wheeler and is already receiving support from many of her constituents.

Area business owner Pete Kalantzis, owner of Marzano’s Wood Fired Italian Restaurant in McHenry, has already vowed not to charge customers.

“Me personally, I will not charge my customers,” Kalantzis stated.

“Credit cards are a part of our cost of doing business. We are providing a service and we shouldn’t be penalizing our customers for using credit cards.”

“This is exactly why Rep. Wheeler will be an asset to the people of McHenry County,” said Ed Donahue of the Law Office of Donahue and Walsh.

“This is a common sense approach to an issue that affects everyone. I am the owner of a small business and credit card surcharges have always been a cost of doing business.

“I am also a consumer and this is a bill that protects the consumer.”

Remember the 1,500-foot broadcast town which was to bring McHenry County College $6 million?

McHenry County Blog broke the story March 1, 2008, that the MCC board was being approached by BMB Communications Management’s John Maguire to build a broadcast tower.

That was the meeting during which former MCC President Walt Packard to keep me from taking more pictures through the wire mesh safety windows of the board room. They wrapped the room in plastic.

The MCC Board also broke the Open Meetings Law by forcing taxpayers and media out of the building before it was over.

Eleven months later (Feb. 2, 2008), BMB issued a press release announcing it wanted to build a 1,500-foot tower on college property, MCC would get $6 million for 3.6 acres, the release said. (Note, the college did not issue the press release; the company wanting to lease the land did.)

How high is 1,500 feet?

Taller that the Sears, oops, Willis Tower, which tops out at 1,450 feet. You can see the height of the Eiffel Tower and the existing 300-foot FM aerial superimposed above on Chicago’s skyline.

Tonight at the MCC board meeting, after suggesting the board might want to go into secret session to discuss real estate, the board, in open meeting, heard that local BMB attorney Tom Zanck had called with regard to that broadcast tower.

Zanck conveyed the information that BMB’s tower experts had determined that the FAA would likely not approve of what BMB had proposed.

Similar information has reached my ears from local pilots.

“It is likely, according to their experts, that the FAA would not approve the tower as proposed.”

The attorney said the board could use due diligence to ask BMB’s experts to provide greater clarification.

“If you do nothing, Zanck can exercise (a clause to get out of the deal.”

“We knew going into this (was unlikely to be approved),” board member Barbara Walter said. “There is no sense in going on. I’d just let them out.”

When she added,

she drew laughter in the room.

“Let them do their thing and let them out of it,” Board President George Lowe added.

Later in the hall, Lowe said that the tower he had seen in Oklahoma had three television broadcast towers. Previously, Maguire had only talked about one.