McHenry County Blog

With McHenry County Board Chairman Ken Koehler so in favor of the expansion of the gambling passed with the help of McHenry County State Representatives Mike Tryon and Mark Beaubien, with the help of State Senator Pam Althoff, I was surprised when I looked at the agenda of the County Board’s Liquor and License Committee.

You will remember DuPage County made big news by banning slots (which most proponents call video poker).

There’s an ordinance to prohibit video gaming on the agenda of the 9:30 meeting in Woodstock.

You can see it below:

ORDINANCE PROHIBITING VIDEO GAMING WITHIN
UNINCORPORATED AREAS OF MCHENRY COUNTY

WHEREAS, the Video Gaming Act (230 ILCS 40/1 et seq.; PA 96-0034) became law July 13, 2009 and allows licensed retail establishments to conduct video gambling; and

WHEREAS, recognizing that some Illinois local jurisdictions would desire to opt out of video gambling, Section 27 of the Video Gaming Act permits counties and municipalities to prohibit video gaming by ordinance within their respective corporate limits or unincorporated areas; and

WHEREAS, states such as Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina have abandoned experiments with the legalization of video poker because of regulatory difficulties, corruption, and the high social costs associated with this form of gambling; and

WHEREAS, electronic gaming is designed to entice people to play longer, faster, and at higher rates of wagering, according to a study by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; and

WHEREAS, the McHenry County Board and the McHenry County Liquor and License committee agrees that legalized video poker would present a variety of adverse impacts on residents of McHenry County including the potential for corruption, impact on the costs of law enforcement, regulatory difficulties, and high social costs; and

WHEREAS, the legalization of video poker within McHenry County is not consistent with our desire to maintain a family friendly environment for citizens and their children; and

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT ORDAINED that the McHenry County Board hereby exercises its right under Section 27 of the Illinois Video Gaming Act (230 ILCS 40/1 et seq.) to prohibit video gaming from unincorporated areas of McHenry County effective
immediately.

A pollster for Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob Schillerstrom called yesterday afternoon.

Schillerstrom is DuPage County Board Chairman.

The pollster wanted to know if I would vote for Schillerstrom for governor.

I told her, “No.”

She didn’t ask why, but, if she had I had an answer.

I would have told her that I was really disturbed that he balanced his DuPage County budget by getting most of his county’s state senators to vote to triple my RTA sales tax.

The bill that eventually passed, after an amendment (allowing collar county board’s to use the quarter of a percent sales tax offer of free road money for collar county boards to be diverted to public safety purposes) was added.

That allowed Schillerstrom to forego an already-on-the ballot countywide referendum to raise sales taxes one-quarter of one percentage point for law enforcement to fill his budget hole. (Winnebago County passed such a referendum in 2002.)

Schillerstrom’s intervention was so egregious that he was taken to the wood shed by Illinois Republican Party Chairman Andy McKenna at the Decatur state convention last June.

That made Schillerstrom hopping mad.

It stung so much most DuPage County Republicans walked off the convention floor.

Later my wife and I got a letter from Schillerstrom about it.

Schillerstrom let his state senators take the heat.

He got “free money.”

How ironic that one of them, Kirk Dillard is also running for the Republican nomination for governor.

But, the pollster was onto her next question. No time for an explanation on my part.

She asked if I would be more likely to vote for Schillerstrom if I knew I knew he had lowered property taxes seven ten years in 10 years.

I told her, “Yes.”

Would I be more likely to vote for Schillerstrom if I knew he had cut $200 million in wasteful spending?

I told her, “Yes.”

The final question was whether I would be more likely to vote for Schillerstrom if I knew DuPage County had passed “comprehensive ethics reform.”

I told her, “Yes.”

Do you see television and radio ads coming out of this survey?

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The photo of DuPage County Board Chairman Robert Schillerstrom comes from the Young Republican Candidates’ Bar-B-Que held in Barrington Saturday, August 11, 2009.

The Chicago Tribune is reporting that the DuPage County Board has voted without dissent to ban video poker (read “slot machines”) in unincorporated liquor license holders’ establishments.

The annual estimated loss of income is $300,000.

DuPage County Board Chairman Bob Schillerstrom, who is running for governor, made the ban a central part of his campaign, as you can see from the front page of his web site that I have captured.

Yesterday, I held forth on how the Chicago Tribune’s bad, bad advice for more Republicans to vote for the RTA sales tax bill (Senate Bill 656) would further decimate suburban Republicans in the legislature.

Today, I turn to the root cause of the problem:

DuPage County’s rapacious county officials.

You know, the ones who never have enough money and–in the worst way–do not want to have to ask their constituents for permission to raise their taxes.

It’s as if this black cloud sweeping over Chicago has reversed course and headed due West.

The cloud of high taxes, heavier tax burdens.

In the State Senate, three DuPage County Republicans took a dive for DuPage County Board Chairman Bob Schillerstrom and voted for the CTA/RTA bailout:

• Dan Cronin
• Kirk Dillard and
• John Millner

This fall, how will any of these suburban Republicans explain why railroad commuter fares soared, even though RTA sales taxes only increased 25% in Cook County,while tripling in DuPage County? (And, yes, I know the county folks are going to take half of the increase.)

Maybe the senators are not up for election.

In an article by Meg Dedolph, the Naperville Sun reports the blowback that Schillerstrom is getting from

• State Rep. Joe Dunn of Naperville,
• State Sen. Randy Hultgren of Wheaton and
• State Rep. Jim Meyer of Bolingbrook

And, Schillerstrom should be taking grief.

“All” he has to do is pass a February 5th referendum to impose a quarter cent county sales tax and the legislation would not be needed.

Winnebago County did it by referendum.

Why can’t DuPage, if it is really needed and the “will of people?”

But local officials like Schillerstrom, of course, simply don’t trust the will of his people?

Local officials always want state legislators to take the heat for raising local taxes.

My belief is that those who spend tax dollars should take the responsibility for raising them…or at least proposing raising them. If they can convince a majority of the electorate to approve a referendum, they should feel free to pass the blame.

Undoubtedly there will be consequences.

The obvious one will be to give a boost to Democrats in DuPage County.

Let me tell you a consequence that may be unintended, but one which could affect national politics.

After misreading the Senate roll call on SB 656, I wrote an article about how State Senator Debbie Halvorson’s “Yes” vote could hurt her in her attempt to win Jerry Weller’s congressional seat. I have apologized elsewhere for my mistake, but I do so again.

Nevertheless, the three DuPage County Republican state senators who cast “Yes” votes allowed Halvorson to skate. She is recorded as not voting.

Now, if her vote had been required and cast, the chain of logic I laid out in my article showing how Republicans could benefit would be in play.

If Halvorson wins the seat for the Democrats, fingers ought to be pointed at Schillerstrom and these three state senators for helping allow it to happen.

Of course, she still might be required to vote “Yes,” if the DuPage County senators change their minds and vote “No” on the amendatory veto. One is the GOP county chairman and another is immediate past chairman. Too bad they haven’t shown their concern for the GOP’s future in their RTA votes.

But, they have another chance to help undo the damage they have inflicted on the Republican Party’s anti-tax brand.

Schillerstrom is following in the footsteps of DuPage County Republicans in the 1980’s. Then the biggest legislative goal of DuPage County officials was to get their legislators to raise local taxes without a referendum.

They succeeded. Think DuPage County Airport’s and Water Commission’s, not to mention the school and park districts’ borrowing without asking voters. I once had a study done by the Legislative Research Council that found about 90% of the outstanding debt in DuPage County resulted from non-referendum bonds.

No wonder there was a revolt.

DuPage County successful hiking of taxes without referendums led to Governor Jim Edgar’s property tax cap proposal.

I guess we outside of DuPage County should thank its taxpayers for allowing us to have the protection that they did not have when they needed it.

Yesterday, I held forth on how the Chicago Tribune’s bad, bad advice for more Republicans to vote for the RTA sales tax bill (Senate Bill 656) would further decimate suburban Republicans in the legislature.

Today, I turn to the root cause of the problem:

DuPage County’s rapacious county officials.

You know, the ones who never have enough money and–in the worst way–do not want to have to ask their constituents for permission to raise their taxes.

It’s as if this black cloud sweeping over Chicago has reversed course and headed due West.

The cloud of high taxes, heavier tax burdens.

In the State Senate, three DuPage County Republicans took a dive for DuPage County Board Chairman Bob Schillerstrom and voted for the CTA/RTA bailout:

• Dan Cronin
• Kirk Dillard and
• John Millner

This fall, how will any of these suburban Republicans explain why railroad commuter fares soared, even though RTA sales taxes only increased 25% in Cook County,while tripling in DuPage County? (And, yes, I know the county folks are going to take half of the increase.)

Maybe the senators are not up for election.

In an article by Meg Dedolph, the Naperville Sun reports the blowback that Schillerstrom is getting from

• State Rep. Joe Dunn of Naperville,
• State Sen. Randy Hultgren of Wheaton and
• State Rep. Jim Meyer of Bolingbrook

And, Schillerstrom should be taking grief.

“All” he has to do is pass a February 5th referendum to impose a quarter cent county sales tax and the legislation would not be needed.

Winnebago County did it by referendum.

Why can’t DuPage, if it is really needed and the “will of people?”

But local officials like Schillerstrom, of course, simply don’t trust the will of his people?

Local officials always want state legislators to take the heat for raising local taxes.

My belief is that those who spend tax dollars should take the responsibility for raising them…or at least proposing raising them. If they can convince a majority of the electorate to approve a referendum, they should feel free to pass the blame.

Undoubtedly there will be consequences.

The obvious one will be to give a boost to Democrats in DuPage County.

Let me tell you a consequence that may be unintended, but one which could affect national politics.

After misreading the Senate roll call on SB 656, I wrote an article about how State Senator Debbie Halvorson’s “Yes” vote could hurt her in her attempt to win Jerry Weller’s congressional seat. I have apologized elsewhere for my mistake, but I do so again.

Nevertheless, the three DuPage County Republican state senators who cast “Yes” votes allowed Halvorson to skate. She is recorded as not voting.

Now, if her vote had been required and cast, the chain of logic I laid out in my article showing how Republicans could benefit would be in play.

If Halvorson wins the seat for the Democrats, fingers ought to be pointed at Schillerstrom and these three state senators for helping allow it to happen.

Of course, she still might be required to vote “Yes,” if the DuPage County senators change their minds and vote “No” on the amendatory veto. One is the GOP county chairman and another is immediate past chairman. Too bad they haven’t shown their concern for the GOP’s future in their RTA votes.

But, they have another chance to help undo the damage they have inflicted on the Republican Party’s anti-tax brand.

Schillerstrom is following in the footsteps of DuPage County Republicans in the 1980’s. Then the biggest legislative goal of DuPage County officials was to get their legislators to raise local taxes without a referendum.

They succeeded. Think DuPage County Airport’s and Water Commission’s, not to mention the school and park districts’ borrowing without asking voters. I once had a study done by the Legislative Research Council that found about 90% of the outstanding debt in DuPage County resulted from non-referendum bonds.

No wonder there was a revolt.

DuPage County successful hiking of taxes without referendums led to Governor Jim Edgar’s property tax cap proposal.

I guess we outside of DuPage County should thank its taxpayers for allowing us to have the protection that they did not have when they needed it.

McHenry County Blog ran an article in early December pointing out that real estate assessments are based on a three-year average price.

Because asking prices of homes have decreased and new home sales are down, a lot of people under a subsequent Northwest Herald article on the same subject showed they did not understand this technical definition of property value.
Saturday’s main article in the Business section contained a couple of sentences that should make it even clearer why assessments of homes have not dropped.

“The statewide average home sale price in November was $253,131, up 1.3% from $249,799 a year ago. The average home sale price in the Chicago area was $323,458, up 4.4 percent from $309,832 in November 2006.”

So, home prices were up 4.4% for the last twelve months.

Since real estate assessments are based on fair market value, they should still be increasing, even if they were based on the most recent year’s sale prices.

But, most of the increase seems to have been in Cook County. Elgin’s Daily Courier News reports that the median home sale price in McHenry County was up 0.2 percent.

Don’t expect assessments to go down next year. There would have to be two years’ of property value declines in a row for that to happen.

We haven’t had one year of decreased property values yet.

DuPage County, on the other hand, saw prices go down 4.3% this past year. Kane went up 2.6%.

= = = = =
The photo is of the Skinner home, still presumably appreciating on Christmas eve.

McHenry County Blog ran an article in early December pointing out that real estate assessments are based on a three-year average price.

Because asking prices of homes have decreased and new home sales are down, a lot of people under a subsequent Northwest Herald article on the same subject showed they did not understand this technical definition of property value.
Saturday’s main article in the Business section contained a couple of sentences that should make it even clearer why assessments of homes have not dropped.

“The statewide average home sale price in November was $253,131, up 1.3% from $249,799 a year ago. The average home sale price in the Chicago area was $323,458, up 4.4 percent from $309,832 in November 2006.”

So, home prices were up 4.4% for the last twelve months.

Since real estate assessments are based on fair market value, they should still be increasing, even if they were based on the most recent year’s sale prices.

But, most of the increase seems to have been in Cook County. Elgin’s Daily Courier News reports that the median home sale price in McHenry County was up 0.2 percent.

Don’t expect assessments to go down next year. There would have to be two years’ of property value declines in a row for that to happen.

We haven’t had one year of decreased property values yet.

DuPage County, on the other hand, saw prices go down 4.3% this past year. Kane went up 2.6%.

= = = = =
The photo is of the Skinner home, still presumably appreciating on Christmas eve.