McHenry County Blog

Let’s go through the townships in alphabetical order to see how the Real Estate Tax cap affects how much money they can collect.

This information, as with previous articles about the Tax Cap, comes from the McHenry County Clerk’s web site, Tax Rate page.

Alden Township

The township has a maximum tax rate of 24 cents per $100 of assessed valuation in the Town Fund.

While 3% increase is allowed in the Tax Cap allowed next year, Alden Township will only be able to get about half that amount because it is so close to the 25 cent limit right now–24.639.

In fact, when taking into account that overall assessments will be down 9%, as ordered by the Illinois Department of Revenue, Alden may be getting much less than expect.

There is no maximum limit for Public Assistance, so it remains not subject to the Tax Cap.

The Road District, which is a separate taxing entity, can get 3% more because its rates are so far under the statutory maximum.

Algonquin Township

The Town Fund is well below the maximum rate of 25 cents per hundred.

The Public Assistance Fund is not capped.

As in Alden Township, the Road District in Algonquin Township is well under its maximum tax rates on Tax Capped funds.

For a story about what happened when the levies were passed, click here.

Burton Township

McHenry County’s smallest township in area is no where near its maximum rate in the Town Fund.

The Road District is so far under the statutory limits that taxpayers cannot expect the Tax Cap to give less than a 3% increase, if it is requested by the Road Commissioner.

Chemung Township

The township that covers most of Harvard, Chemung Township, also does not have tax rates that are close to the statutory maximum.

The same goes for the Road District’s Road and Bridge Fund.

The Permanent Road Fund is different, however. It is so close to its 25 cents per hundred dollars of assessed valuation, that the Road Commissioner will be able to get less than 1.5% increase, instead of the full 3% that the Tax Cap law would allow.

Coral Township

The township which contains the Village of Union, Coral, is also well under its maximum limit for the Town Fund.

The Road Commissioner’s funds are, too.

Dorr Township

Most of Woodstock is in Dorr Township.

Dorr is well below the maximum rates in all funds under the control of both the Supervisor and the Road Commissioner.

Dunham Township

The southern part of Harvard is in Dunham Township.

The Town Fund is at 22.9 cents per hundred–close to the 25 cent maximum, but not close enough to limit a 3% increase, if requested by the Town Board.

However, once the 9% lower assessed valuation for the county as a whole works its way through the tax rate setting system, the Town Fund may well bump up against the limit set by law, resulting in next year’s tax take to being about the same as this year’s.

Of the three funds overseen by the Road Commissioner, only the 16.5 cent Road and Bridge Fund is at its maximum.  Again the “9% factor” may come into play.

The Permanent Road Fund and the Equipment & Building Fund are not.

3% Tax Cap allowed increases will be the least of the worries for Dunham Township taxpayers, however.

Last fall a bond referendum to finance road building passed 63-37, so taxes will go up.

Grafton Township

Grafton Township is also well below the maximum rates set by State Statute in the funds administered by the Supervisor.

The same is not true of the Township Road Commissioner’s Road and Bridge Fund. It cannot be increase by 3% next year.  About as much will be collected next year as was this year.

The Permanent Road Fund, on the other hand, has room for a lot of upside movement.

Greenwood Township

The township that runs from northern Woodstock on the South to Wonder Lake on the Northeast, is in no danger of reaching the 25 cent Town Fund maximum rate.

The capped funds in the Road District aren’t either.

Hartland Township

Northwest of Woodstock running up toward Harvard is Hartland Township.

The Town Fund is about 4 cents short of the maximum set by law and will be able to get an extra 3%, if the Township Board levies it, even if assessments go down 9%.

In the Road District, the Road and Bridge Fund is at its maximum, but the Permanent Road and Building & Equipments Funds are not.

Hebron Township

North of Greenwood Township is Hebron Township.

Its Town Fund is in pretty much the same shape as Hartland’s–almost four cents of growth left before State law steps in and stops it.  The year after next might be considered a problem from the Road Commissioner’s point of view.

The Road and Bridge Fund is very close to its limit, but, again, the Permanent Road and Building & Equipments Funds are not.

Marengo Township

Not even close to the maximum Town Fund tax rate is Marengo Township.

With two 3% cost-of-living increases, the Marengo Township Road and Bridge Fund will top out and taxpayers will see some relief.

The Permanent Road Fund is well under its 25 cents per $100 of AV limit

McHenry Township

The second largest township in McHenry County–McHenry Township–is at about half it maximum tax rate in the Town Fund.

The concentration of commercial and industrial assessed valuation allows the Road District funds to operate well under their maximums as well.

Nunda Township

Running from Crystal Lake Avenue north to southern McHenry, Nunda Township’s Town Fund rate is just over one-third of what it could be under State law.

The same goes for the funds under the Road Commissioner.

Richmond Township

To the west of tiny Burton Township lies Richmond Township.

The Town Fund tax rate is well under the minimum, as are the Road District rates.

Riley Township

In the southwestern corner of McHenry County is Riley Township. That part of McHenry County through which the Illinois Tollway goes is all in Riley Township.

Rural, except for the southern part of the City of Marengo, but poised for explosive growth if there is ever a Tollway interchange built at Route 23.

The Town Fund in Riley is in similar shape to those in Hartland and Hebron Townships.

The funds in the Road District are well under their maximums.

Seneca Township

The western part of Woodstock is in Seneca Township.

It’s where one of my ancestors settled in the 1830′s before deciding to more east to Ypsilanti, Michigan.

Its Town Fund is at a rate that will take a long time to reach the 25 cent maximum.

Its Road District funds are well below their maximums, too.

A friend of McHenry County Blog has forwarded an invitation to Democrat State Rep. Jack Franks’ September 29th fundraising breakfast at Donley’s Wild West Town.

The Jesse White Tumblers will perform.

As usual Franks provides a list of those who have agreed to be on his Host Committee.

Unlike last year, GOP Sheriff Keith Nygren is not on the list.

But Woodstock Mayor Brain Sager still is.

He’s there with Chicago Democratic Party Ward Committeeman and Alderman Ed Burke.

Last year, such sponsorship was less significant than this year.

Then, Sager was only a minor cog in the McHenry County Republican Party, a Precinct Committeeman from Greenwood Township Precinct 6.

The mayoral post is non-partisan.

Sure, I’ve written that I believe he wishes to run for Franks’ seat when Franks runs for something else, but his official role is that a GOP Precinct Committeeman.

This year, Sager

• was recruited to run as an Alternative Delegate by State Treasurer Dan Rutherford,
• was elected and
• is just returning from the National Republican Convention.

Looking for Republican County Board member candidates, I see far fewer than last year.

Randy Donley, who is retiring this year is listed.

There is a listing for “Bob & Judi Martens.”  I do not know if that is the District 4 candidate listed on the ballot as “Robert Martens Sr.”

Want to see who was on the Host Committee last year? Click away below:

• Part 1
• Part 2
• Part 3
• Part 4
• Part 5
• Part 6
• Part 7
• Part 8
• Part 9
• Part 10
• Part 11

As I start formatting this information from the McHenry County Clerk’s Office about who filed for Republican Precinct Committeeman in what parts of the county, my first impression is that “No candidate filed” will control the GOP Central Committee after the March 20, 2012, primary election.

After doing the count, I see that I was correct…barely.

108 of 212 precincts have no GOP candidate.  51% empty.

Only 49% of the county’s precincts have enough people wanting to serve as precinct committeemen that they passed a petition and presumably got the required ten signatures.  Nothing must be at stake, since no petitions were challenge.   With no challenges, people could have filed a petition with just their own signature and made the ballot and, hence, membership on the Republican Central Committee.

Here’s a summary of the percentages of precincts in which Committeeman candidates filed in each Township:

Alden – 100% (1 of 1)

Dunham – 100% (1 of 1)

Hartland – 100% (2 of 2)

Hebron – 100% (2 of 2)

Riley – 100% (1 of 1)

Seneca – 100% (2 of 2)

Richmond – 75% (3 of 4)

Greenwood – 71% (5 of 7)

McHenry – 57% (20 of 35)

Dorr – 50% (7 of 14)

Algonquin – 43% (29 of 68)

Nunda – 41% (12 of 29)

Chemung – 40% (2 of 5)

Grafton – 34% (11 of 31)

Burton – 33% (1 of 3)

Coral – 33% (1 of 3)

Marengo – 25% (1 of 4)

There exceptions in Marengo, Coral and Chemung Townships, but the numbers are so small in each of those townships that one more candidate would have put them above the county average of 49%.

You may note that the most sparely populated townships, those in County Board District 6 generally have the highest interest in the Republican Party’s Central Committee infrastructure.

Of the four largest townships, Algonquin, McHenry, Grafton and Nunda, only McHenry Township has more than half of the precincts filled with those willing to be on the ballot.

A couple of weeks ago news media unloaded the latest attack on township government.

They were working from a Better Government Association report.

Most of the attention was aimed at Cook County townships. That’s where most of the land is incorporated. Only about 2% of the population lives in unincorporated areas.

McHenry County was mentioned in the Chicago Sun-Times article in the last paragraph of its November 9, 2010, article.

It concentrated on the road district part of township government and based its figures on 2010 expenditures reported in an IDOT report.

It was in a cost per mile comparison for the six Chicago-area counties:

• Cook – $80,509
• Lake – $63,164
• DuPage – $42,515
• Will – 32,174
• Kane – 30,048
• McHenry – 27,399

I found the Illinois Department of Transportation 2009 study and extracted the following information about McHenry County Townships:

Doing the math yields the following cost per mile figures:

• 

  Townships in McHenry County with incorporated areas shown.

  Alden – $7,240

• Algonquin – $77,945
• Burton – $7,565
• Chemung – $13,729
• Coral – $8,163
• Dorr – $59,278
• Dunham – $7,986
• Grafton – $63,886
• Greenwood – $25,788
• Hartland – $8,726
• Hebron – $7,351
• Marengo – $15,000
• McHenry -$40,701
• Nunda – $40,719
• Richmond – $17,055
• Riley – $5,737
• Seneca – $9,794

Obviously there are great variances with more urbanized townships spending more to maintain roads than more rural townships.

Today let’s look at the cost of maintaining township roads.

As you can see, the cost varies a lot,.

So do the number of miles of roads for which the various township road commissioners are responsible for maintaining.

The townships with the most miles of streets and roads are the largest three, Nunda, McHenry and Algonquin.

The reason is the large number of unincorporated subdivisions in McHenry County.

A ranking of the road miles follows:

• Nunda – 98
• McHenry – 95
• Algonquin – 58
• Coral – 56
• Riley – 47
• Greenwood – 46
• Dunham – 43
• Hartland – 43
• Hebron – 40
• Seneca – 40
• Alden – 37
• Dorr – 38
• Marengo – 36
• Chemung – 33
• Richmond – 33
• Grafton – 27
• Burton – 13

The amount each township road commissioner spends per mile of road maintained follows:

Dorr Township Garage

• Algonquin -$67,681
• McHenry – $35,862
• Nunda – $33,413
• Dorr – $30,743
• Grafton – $27,134
• Greenwood – $21,582
• Richmond – $14,117
• Marengo – $13,569
• Chemung – $12,135
• Burton – $11,547
• Dunham – $8,745
• Seneca – $6,521
• Hartland – 5,906
• Hebron – $5,488
• Coral – $4,799
• Alden – $4,178
• Riley – $2,889

Today McHenry County Blog looks at the cost of township government in McHenry County.

The cost per person is the column that I find most interesting.  Below you will see them listed from lowest cost to highest cost for the non-road commissioner part of the bill:

The Dorr Township Hall in Woodstock.

• Chemung – $18
• Algonquin – $20
• Grafton – $20
• Burton – $24
• Greenwood – $29
• Nunda – $29
• Coral – $31
• Dorr – $31
• Richmond – $38


Grafton Township Hall

• McHenry – $39
• Marengo – $40
• Dunham – $58
• Hebron – $58
• Seneca – $58
• Riley – $67
• Hartland – $98
• Alden – $99

With the exception of Chemung, Burton and Coral Townships, the low cost townships tend to be those with the largest populations.

Conversely, those townships with the highest cost per person tend to be the smallest townships.

Townships, of course, can be minimalist in nature or take on tasks which are clearly optional.

The cost of township roads on Monday.

Moving alphabetically down the list of 17 townships in McHenry County, we take a look at vacancies in Greenwood, Hartland, Hebron and McHenry Townships today.
Greenwood and Hartland have one apiece.

Marengo has none and McHenry has two.

Just because one sees the name of a precinct committeeman does not necessarily mean they have been elected to the post.  They may have been appointed and not live in the precinct.

Maps of the townships appear below:

If you are interested in helping out, drop me an email or email Republican Party Chairman Mike Tryon directly.

The 2010 assessed valuation has been totaled for McHenry County and it’s down almost 10%.

That’s what a comparison of raw figures from the McHenry County Supervisor of Assessments Office indicate.

McHenry County real estate taxes this year will be based on assessed value of $10,132,926,407 unless the State Department of Revenue decides that figure does not reflect one-third of a three-year average  of assessed value to market value.

$10.1 billion reflects a significant drop from last year’s total of $11,210,739,442.

Grafton, Chemung (Harvard) and Marengo Townships led the devaluation race. Grafton property decreased in value over 17%, Chemung over 13% and Marengo over 3%.

Because tax districts overlap the Grafton-Algonquin Township lines, it is conceivable there ill be significant shifts of tax burden in such tax districts as Lake in the Hills, the Huntley School District and the Village of Lakewood.  Those on the Grafton Township side of the line may end up paying much less taxes to the overlapping districts than those on the Algonquin Township side of the line.
With assessed values down throughout McHenry County, one might think that tax bills will decrease.

My prediction is the same as the first year home prices started sinking.

Your tax bill will most likely increase.

That’s because virtually every tax district (include schools here) asked for the maximum amount they could get under the Tax Cap law.

That maximum is the amount the Consumer Price Index increased.  This year that means +2.7%, as I read this Illinois Revenue Department chart.

As long as assessed valuation was growing rapidly, tax district officials bragged about how their tax rates were less than the year before.

What complete dribble!

The way the Tax Cap (PRELL are the initials of the law’s title) works, if a district’s tax assessment base increases more than the increase in the cost of living, the tax rate must be cut so the district’s tax take will not exceed the increase in the cost of living.

Conversely, if last year’s tax rate multiplied times the new assessed value does not bring in last year’s property tax revenue, plus the increase in the CPI almost universally requested by tax district board members, the tax rate goes up.

That’s what happened last year.

It’s what I predicted over three years ago.

So, don’t think that a lower assessment figure will necessarily mean you will get a lower tax bill.

It could have meant that if tax district officials had not been greedy enough to request the maximum they could receive this year.

I have written about two districts where one board member tried to ratchet back the tax request for this year.

Grafton Township Supervisor Linda Moore made the suggestion, but lost the vote. A second vote was taken. This article has Rob LaPorta’s explanation. LaPorta notes that it will cost “11 cents per $100,000 home value.”

LaPorta is correct that township government takes relatively little of the total real estate taxes people pay.

But when every (or virtually every) tax district takes the 2.7% maximum amount allowed by state law, don’t be surprised if your tax bill is 2.7% higher than last year.

A similar request was made by John O’Neill at the levy meeting of the McHenry Grade School Board. I wrote about the unsuccessful effort in this article:

The Primal Urge of Government: Take As Much As It Can Get

A comment under that article leads me to believe that Aileen Seedorf made a similar unsuccessful suggestion to the Huntley School District 158 Board with similar results.

Pete Gonigam’s First Electric Newspaper reported it first, but he didn’t have the map you see below.

What you see in orange is the new area within McHenry County designated by the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Development as “Targeted Employment Area under the Alien Entrepreneur Visa Program.”

The yellow sections on the map are already so designated.

So, what does it mean?

Under the irreverently coined “buy a visa” program, foreigners with $1 million to invest in an approved job creation enterprise may obtain entry to the United States of America.

However, if the economic development occurs within a “Targeted Employment Area,” the required investment decreases to $500,000.

As you can see two townships—Riley and Chemung—previously were eligible for the smaller “entry fee.”

With the expansion of the Woodstock Greenwood Township section, whose northern edge is Ware Road (the street between the McHenry County Jail and the Administrative Building), to include the rural part of Dorr Township, Lakewood gains a potential source of investment for its part of the intersection of Routes 47 and 176. So does Woodstock as it expands southward toward Route 176.

The rural Dorr Township area was eligible because the census tract had an unemployment rate of 14.2% is 153% of the national average of 9.3%. (An area must be at least at the 150% level.)

Note that the connection is at a point. Only the edges of the census tracts touch. (See black mark on map.)

A January 6th letter from Lakewood Village President to Warren Ribley, Executive Director of the DCCA, states that “the proposed project” will employee “800 temporary and 400 permanent individuals.”

It references a January 7th letter to Village Manager Catherine Peterson from New York City attorney Stephen Yale-Loehr.

He delivers an affirmative answer as to whether the census tract can be designated a “Targeted Employment Area for EB-5 (the name of the “buy a visa” program) purposes.”

He points out his co-authorship of “Immigration Law and Procedure, the leading 20-volume immigration law treatise,” plus his teaching immigration law at Cornell Law School.

He has been a member or in a leadership position in the American Immigration Lawyers Association EB-5 Investors Committee since 1996.

And he says why this particular census tract, which contains the area proposed for the SportsPlex is eligible for a Targeted Employment Area designation.

DCCA apparently agreed with Yale-Loehr’s logic. That’s what DCCA Research Manager Edwin R. Taft’s February 16th letter indicates.

Democrats made a determined effort to win all of the big money offices in Greenwood Township.

Since the township is not large enough for Republicans and Democrats to run on their own party labels, all the candidates were listed as independents.

Nevertheless, Democratic Party State Rep. Jack Franks sent out a letter endorsing Ed Riley for township supervisor.

He was defeated by current Township Clerk Barbara Klasen 61%-39%, a 335-vote margin (prior to the folding in of absentee and early votes).

The Democrats candidate for the well-paying road commissioner post was Tom Ganka.

The pay really must be good, because four men were scrapping for the job.

Don Goad, the candidate endorsed by road commissioners, current and retired, in most of the populated townships won the 4-way race. He got almost 43% of the vote. That was 705 votes.

His closest challenger was Tom Wyse, who received over 26% or 438 votes. Depending on whom you talk to, Wyse was either let go by Greenwood Road Commissioner Roger May for financial reasons or because he was getting ready to run for road commissioner. May endorsed Goad.

Democrat Tom Ganka came in third, getting only 223 votes (with maybe more to come from absentee and early voting).

There was a vigorous write-in campaign by Tom Borta. At maximum, he got 282 votes.

The closest challenge came from the most experience Democratic Party candidate, Kerry Julian. Julian ran as a Democrat for McHenry County Auditor and did better than any other countywide Democrat.

Julian received 42% of the vote in his challenge to incumbent Pam Palmer.

Julian got over 46% of the vote for township clerk, but Kendra Rishling was victorious.

Undoubtedly, Julian will be a candidate for another office, perhaps county board.

Unlike in Nunda and Algonquin Townships, the Democrats did not file any township trustee candidates in Greenwood Township.