McHenry County Blog

The first one I saw was near Pizza Hut.

What was it?

It looked like it belonged in a cemetery.

Friday, I learned city officials actually call them “monuments.”

On the monuments is the Crystal Lake City emblem or symbol: a “CL” with sailboat like sails filling in the “C” and the “L.”

So where does the money come from?

Let me quote the Chicago Sun-Times from August 16, 2009:

“TIFs re-direct taxes away from schools, parks and other local government agencies bankrolled by property taxes. Property taxes within a TIF district are frozen at existing levels for 23 years.”

And how much will it cost residents of McHenry County (because TIF districts export what’s spend to taxpayer in all overlapping tax districts and Crystal Lake, of course, is in McHenry County, the Conservation District, the Crystal Lake Park District, School Districts 155 and 47, etc.).

So, what’s the cost?

Mayor Aaron Shepley didn’t know when I asked Friday, but pointed me to someone in the City Engineering Department who would.

= = = = = =

What I heard over the phone was $60,000.  The real cost was $16,091, City Finance Director Mark Nannini called something after 10 AM to tell me.  Guess I misunderstood an answer to my question of “$16,000.”

I have revised the article and headline to reflect that cost.

= = = = =

The answer  (drum roll) is

$16,000 for each one.

There are four.

So, when a local tax districts tells you it can’t afford something that costs $64,000, remember the found monuments on Route 14.

That’s where the money went.

At least the city council members did not insist that their names be placed on the monuments.

Most public officials with an edifice complex do.

Related articles:

• Message of the Day – Waste (10-6-11)
• Message of the Day – Waste (10-7-11)
• Is Another Crystal Lake TIF District in the Offing? (10-4-11)
• Message of the Day – Still More Crystal Lake TIF Waste on Route 14 (11-3-11)
• Ribbon Cutting on Virginia Street TIF Project (11-4-11)

The petitions for re-election are being circulated for Crystal Lake Mayor Aaron Shepley and Council members Cathy Ferguson, Ellen Brady Mueller and Brett Hopkins.

And, just in time for the campaign, there is an election kick-off party that required the of spending well over $10 million. $14.37 million, according to the Northwest Herald.

As pointed out in 2005, there was a cheaper way, at least for Crystal Lake area residents.

There was no need for a Tax Increment Financing District to pay for turning Vulcan Lakes into Three Oaks Recreation Area.

Indeed the announcement that a TIF would be formed to finance the project was what stimulated me to start McHenry County Blog. $115 million would be available, said the city’s consultant. Bill Cellini’s group won the contract from the council to do the development, but backed away from it after his name coming up in the Tony Rezko trial.

TIFs are just a way to force everyone (yes, everyone in any overlapping tax district, and because of McHenry County government and the McHenry County Conservation District, that means all county resident) not living in the TIF to pay for it.

It’s a tax increase that the city council voted on all of us.

Oh, wait. That isn’t the way it’s being financed.

With the recession and the decimation of the commercial strip on the Vulcan Lake side of Route 14, the city couldn’t sell bonds to pay for the enormous cost of TORA.

Instead, a majority of the council (Jeff Thorsen being the exception) decided to
raise the city sales tax 75%. Part of the excuse was that the extra tax money was
needed to finance the development of Vulcan Lakes.

The TIF option just didn’t work out.

The huge tax hike was passed right after the RTA Sales Tax was hiked even a higher percentage.

From a political viewpoint, there have been little or no negative repercussions.

The Crystal Lake City Council decided to use this second way to export part of the cost of developing Vulcan Lakes to those who don’t live, but shop in Crystal Lake.

Now, Crystal Lake is in the recreation business.

And, so is the Park District.

There are probably other such illogical arrangements, but the one I have seen over the decades is in Springfield.

There the reason is patronage jobs. I don’t know if that is the motivation here or not.

There was another way to finance the project, although it certainly would not have been as lavish as the city council has allowed this to become.

MCCD undoubtedly would not have spent, how much, hundreds of thousands of dollars on fancy street lights for a facility that closes at sunset.

That way was to convince the McHenry County Conservation District to take it over.

Had the council done so, our area would have finally gotten back some of the tens of millions of our tax dollars that has been redistributed north, northwest and west, like a kid slinging a bucket of water. The pockets of those in District 47 have ended up as empty as the bucket, another victim of Illinois’ having way too many local governmental units.

But control of the facility was the primary goal of city officials.

And maybe their names on a plaque. The edifice complex in action.

Bragging rights they have achieved include

• having been instrumental in constructing the facility and
• like Barack Obama, forcing the payment for it on their grandchildren.

Not to mention the ability to feature on their campaign literature what a great accomplishment opening the facility has been.

I couldn’t get close enough to take photos of the council members taking credit for the project without paying $5 for parking.

Not worth the price, so I’ll just run photos of the six council members who voted to raise the city sales tax 75%. There won’t be the same backdrop, but credit will go where it is due.

Shepley, Ferguson, Hopkins and Brady Mueller are up for election next spring. Expect to see TORA on their campaign literature…assuming they even have an opponent requiring them to print any.

At last Thursday night’s meeting of the Grafton Township Board, Township Administrator Pam Fender presented a real estate listing for the old R & R Metal Craft Building at 11012 N. Blakley Street in Huntley. (Near the library and village hall, for those of you not from Huntley.)

When I asked her later if anyone had encouraged her to look for potential office space, she told me it was her idea.

Last November 9th it was listed for $1.15 million.  Fender told me it could be re-modeled for township use for about a half a million dollars.

So, something over $ 2 million, plus any interest on borrowed money.

And today, wrapping up the suit successfully filed to stop the $5 million (including interest) building of a new township hall on Haligus Road, the township’s attorney was very concerned that Judge Michael Caldwell include a line in the permanent injunction would allow the Township to pursue the issue of a new building at the forthcoming meeting of Township Electors on April 13.

The township trustees apparently are not willing to let the voters decide at the fall election whether they shall have new offices.

They want to allow only those who show up at the Annual Town Meeting to make the decision.

So, expect a vote to buy a building to serve as a new township hall a month from now at the Huntley High School Auditorium.  Whether it will be the Blakley Street building or another one remains to be seen.

A floor plan of the building can be found below: