McHenry County Blog

Four township officials, including all the full-timers, attended the Grafton Township meeting at Faith Community Church on Algonquin Road, but the four part-timers boycotted it.

Of the members of the township board, only Supervisor Linda Moore attended.

Barbara Murphy, Robert LaPort, Betty Zirk and Gerry McMahon were absent.

Township Clerk Dina Frigo, Road Commissioner Jack Freund and Assessor Bill Ottley attended the meeting.

Without a quorum of three out of five members of the township board, Moore adjourned the meeting.

To read what the township trustees did not want to discuss, click here.

After the Grafton Township meeting, Township Assessor Bill Ottley came over and asked why I cared about the proposed Town Hall.

After all, I don’t live in Grafton Township. (We live right on the Algonquin-Grafton Township line. Appropriately, it is called “Meridian Street.”)

He told me the township board did not need a referendum to borrow the month.

Frankly, that would not surprise me.

My Algonquin Township added onto its Route 14 building without referendum approval.

Somehow I missed that in all the state representative business of the time.

I told Ottley that non-referendum borrowing to buy Lakewood’s golf course (Red Tail) had cost me $500 a year for the better part of the 1990’s and that’s why I was such a strong supporter of the Tax Cap and holding referendums when local governments borrow large sums of money.

He explained to me that the cost would amount to about $7 a year per household.

I was willing to grant him whatever figure he came up with.

He is a finance guy, after all.

He said it would raise taxes.

There I interjected that, while financing a new township building and garage might not raise tax bills from where they are not, if the new building were not constructed, township taxes could be reduced by $7 (or whatever the figure is) a year.

That’s when I got the answer to the question in this article’s headline.

Ottley told me if the township ever asked for less than it was getting, it could never get it back.

I pointed out that it could, if a referendum could be passed.

He suggested that—passage of a township tax hike referendum—was unlikely to occur.

He is probably correct.

Much of the opposition to the $3.5 million (plus over $1.5 million in interest) Grafton Township office complex and garage is based on opposition to township government’s very existence.

Few would argue with a straight face that township supervisors should be paid what they earn.

I was reminded to write this story by Brian Slupski’s Northwest Herald story on the failure of the Dorr Township electors to approve the purchase of land for a new town hall at its annual town meeting.

Here’s a clue that fits into Ottley’s revelation:

“(Dorr Township) had set aside about $2 million for the project in the township fund and about $750,000 in the highway district’s road fund.”

That brought about an

I don’t know the size of the Woodstock-based township’s town fund, but, if someone looked, he or she might conclude that a $2 million surplus is hard to justify.

But just as with Grafton Township, if Dorr Township asked for less money than the maximum it is allowed to collect under the Tax Cap law, it would then end up with a lower base for the next year’s request.

That would result in less money every year thereafter.

Downsizing government is pretty much against all the laws of political nature, of course.

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Grafton Township Assessor Bill Ottley is seen addressing the April 14, 2009, Annual Town Meeting. The Town Meeting photo shows the current township trustees voting to continue with the new town hall building project.

I remember when I was following the quality of real estate assessments more closely that a margin of error of 10% for an assessor in Illinois was excellent.

Algonquin Township Assessor Bob Kunz, first elected in 1977, consistently did that well.

Even with a margin of error of 10%, however, people’s assessments could vary enough that would result in loud disagreements at the checkout counter if sales taxes were administered the same way.

Think of a sales tax rate of 5%. (I know that’s history, but the number for the example work better than with Crystal Lake Mayor Aaron Shepley’s 75% city sales tax hike included.)

If there were a margin of error of 10% that means three people standing in line buying $100 worth of stuff could pay sales taxes of

4.5%
5.0% or
5.5%

That would be OK with the tax man because he would get $15, the same he would if everyone paid 5%.

Let’s play the same game with a $1,000 property tax bill. (Does anyone have one that “low” today?)

With a 10% margin of error and people with the same valued home, the first would pay $900, the second $1,000 and the third $1,100.

That’s how bad a good assessor distributes the property tax burden.

While Algonquin Township’s long-time Assessor Bob Kunz is still in the 10% range (10.24% margin or error in the latest year–2006–for which statistics are available), I see two others did a better job.

Bill Ottley, Grafton Township Assessor, had the lowest margin of error in McHenry County—6.84%.

Behind was Dorr Township Assessor Kelli Myers was at 9.82%.

The margins of error of the other township assessors were all under 17%.

Quite an improvement over what I remember from the 1970’s.

You may think that McHenry County’s average margin of error of 11.14% is too high, but how would you like to live in a county with a margin of error over 40%?

You could if you lived in the following counties:

• Clay – 46%
• Fayette – 40%
• Franklin – 43%
• Greene – 48%
• Hardin – 101%
• Lawrence – 42%
• Marshall – 53%
• Montgomery – 43%
• Pope – 54%
• Scott – 44%
• Wayne – 43%
• White – 46%

I remember when I was following the quality of real estate assessments more closely that a margin of error of 10% for an assessor in Illinois was excellent.

Algonquin Township Assessor Bob Kunz, first elected in 1977, consistently did that well.

Even with a margin of error of 10%, however, people’s assessments could vary enough that would result in loud disagreements at the checkout counter if sales taxes were administered the same way.

Think of a sales tax rate of 5%. (I know that’s history, but the number for the example work better than with Crystal Lake Mayor Aaron Shepley’s 75% city sales tax hike included.)

If there were a margin of error of 10% that means three people standing in line buying $100 worth of stuff could pay sales taxes of

4.5%
5.0% or
5.5%

That would be OK with the tax man because he would get $15, the same he would if everyone paid 5%.

Let’s play the same game with a $1,000 property tax bill. (Does anyone have one that “low” today?)

With a 10% margin of error and people with the same valued home, the first would pay $900, the second $1,000 and the third $1,100.

That’s how bad a good assessor distributes the property tax burden.

While Algonquin Township’s long-time Assessor Bob Kunz is still in the 10% range (10.24% margin or error in the latest year–2006–for which statistics are available), I see two others did a better job.

Bill Ottley, Grafton Township Assessor, had the lowest margin of error in McHenry County—6.84%.

Behind was Dorr Township Assessor Kelli Myers was at 9.82%.

The margins of error of the other township assessors were all under 17%.

Quite an improvement over what I remember from the 1970’s.

You may think that McHenry County’s average margin of error of 11.14% is too high, but how would you like to live in a county with a margin of error over 40%?

You could if you lived in the following counties:

• Clay – 46%
• Fayette – 40%
• Franklin – 43%
• Greene – 48%
• Hardin – 101%
• Lawrence – 42%
• Marshall – 53%
• Montgomery – 43%
• Pope – 54%
• Scott – 44%
• Wayne – 43%
• White – 46%

Looks like I was wrong.

The Grafton Township Republican office holders have decided to seek re-nomination in a primary election, rather than in a township caucus, as I thought after reading a couple of emails announcing the central committee meeting.

This is the first time Grafton Township will have had a township primary election.

I think it is a wise decision, even if it does make the incumbents nervous.

In the political landscape that is Grafton Township the incumbents would have put themselves at unnecessary risk by having themselves re-nominated in a party caucus.

A smart Democratic Party operative could have crafted campaign literature that would have painted the GOP incumbents as part of the good ol’ boys they attacked in the fall general election campaign.

And don’t think I’m making this up.

Take a look at how the Democrats used the “Good Old Boy” refrain in their McHenry County Monopoly mailing.

Now, if the Democrats decide to nominate by caucus, Republicans can go on the offensive.

Democrats can be labeled as the smoke filled back room guys and gals.

And, the Grafton Township Republican incumbents can brag about the outstanding bus service that Supervisor John Rossi has put together, the food pantry the township sponsors, the most equitable real estate assessments in McHenry County that Township Assessor Bill Ottley has consistently and verifiably made and the excellent township roads that Road Commission Jack Freund has maintained.

It’ll be tough to mount a credible campaign against the Republican incumbents, if they actively merchandise their record over the last four years.

Looks like I was wrong.

The Grafton Township Republican office holders have decided to seek re-nomination in a primary election, rather than in a township caucus, as I thought after reading a couple of emails announcing the central committee meeting.

This is the first time Grafton Township will have had a township primary election.

I think it is a wise decision, even if it does make the incumbents nervous.

In the political landscape that is Grafton Township the incumbents would have put themselves at unnecessary risk by having themselves re-nominated in a party caucus.

A smart Democratic Party operative could have crafted campaign literature that would have painted the GOP incumbents as part of the good ol’ boys they attacked in the fall general election campaign.

And don’t think I’m making this up.

Take a look at how the Democrats used the “Good Old Boy” refrain in their McHenry County Monopoly mailing.

Now, if the Democrats decide to nominate by caucus, Republicans can go on the offensive.

Democrats can be labeled as the smoke filled back room guys and gals.

And, the Grafton Township Republican incumbents can brag about the outstanding bus service that Supervisor John Rossi has put together, the food pantry the township sponsors, the most equitable real estate assessments in McHenry County that Township Assessor Bill Ottley has consistently and verifiably made and the excellent township roads that Road Commission Jack Freund has maintained.

It’ll be tough to mount a credible campaign against the Republican incumbents, if they actively merchandise their record over the last four years.