McHenry County Blog

With the primary election coming up in about five weeks, active citizens are starting to think more seriously about narrowing down their choices for contested offices.

At Zane Seipler’s fund raiser Wednesday night, for example, one person concluded that Andy McKenna was the most likely to be able to win the November election. Not a perfect candidate, but considering one needs three elements to win a campaign—issues, money and a candidate—his opponents don’t seem likely to put it together as well.

Now, National Taxpayers United of Illinois’ campaign arm, Tax Accountability, has put out its recommendations, I listed the ones that will be on area ballots.

U.S. Senate

• John Arrington – R
• Robert Marshall – D

U.S. Congress

• 8th District (McHenry, Lake and Cook) – Joe Walsh
• 14th District (Kane, DuPage and points west) – Randy Hultgren

Governor

• Adam Andrzejewski

Lt. Governor

• Dennis Cook – R
• Jason Plummer – R
• Randy White – R

State Senate

• Chris Lauzen – R (Northern Kane County)

State Representative

• Tim Schmirtz – R (Northern Kane County)
• John O’Neill – R (Jack Franks’ district)

McHenry County State Rep. Jack Franks is the only Democrat who made the “Taxpayer Friends” list of National Taxpayers United of Illinois.

He scored 69% on NTU’s Tax Survey, tying with Republicans Sandy Cole, Bill Mitchell,  Ruth Munson, Dennis Reboletti, David Reis, Keith Sommer and Jill Tracy.

The rankings were based on 2007-2008 legislative votes.

Two GOP state senators got the same score:  Gary Dahl and John O. Jones.

The brainchild of founder Jim Tobin, who used to give Governor Jim Thompson fits, the rating of legislators is regularly used in political campaigns.  And, in the interest of full disclosure, Tobin was my lieutenant governor candidate when I ran for governor on the Libertarian Party ticket against Rod Blagojevich and Jim Ryan in 2002.  We also worked together to kill Lee Daniels’ and Pate Philip’s 1993 bill to allow tax districts to sell bonds without a referendum.  We won in the first time, but lost when Daniels became House Speaker.

[Trivia question:  What 2002 gubernatorial candidate's fund raiser(s) has still not been convicted--or even charged--with a Federal felony?

[Hint:  It's not one of the power party candidate's.]

This year, National Taxpayers United of Illinois has selected thirteen bills on which to judge state senators.  I’ll list below, just in case you want to look them up here (the descriptions provided are from NTU; if not provided, you’ll have to look up the bill for yourself):

• House Bill 664, a property tax cut increasing tax exemptions for seniors, vets, the disabled, etc.
• SJR Constitutional Amendment 92, graduated income tax



• House Bill 656, doubling CTA (I usually call it the RTA) sales tax hike, but as the Sun-Times headline clearly shows, Tobin is correct
• House Bill 656 with amendatory veto to provide free rides for seniors
• House Bill 405, allowing increase in park district taxes for aquarium, park and museum maintenance with referendum
• Senate Bill 345 allows counties to raise sales taxes for public safety and roads (Senate sponsor Bill Peterson)
• House Bill 1562 allows school boards to raise taxes without a referendum to pay lawyers
• House Bill 1921 imposes a 25 cent tax on every disposable lighter (Jack Franks co-sponsor)
• House Bill 556 increases the cigarette tax by 75 cents a pack
• Senate Bill 837 doubles Chicago’s 911 tax
• Senate Bill 835 allows 101 counties to raise local sales taxes to pay for school construction and maintenance, referendum required
• Senate Bill 835, veto override vote
• House Bill 3866, legislative pay raise

In the House, the legislation used to judge state representatives was the same as the senate with these two exceptions:

• HJR Constitutional Amendment 42, a 100% income tax hike that would have doubled the personal income tax on those with over $250,000 in income
• House Resolution 402, which condemned the Gross Receipts Tax

So,if Franks received a 69% rating, how did the other local legislators stack up?

State Senator Pam Althoff got a 54% score.

Senate colleague Dan Duffy is not ranked because the ratings only considered 2007-2008 bills, but the man he replaced Republican Bill Peterson came out with 46%.

State Rep. Mike Tryon received a 54% rating, the same as his state senator.

State Rep. Mark Beaubien got 31%.

= = = = =
Local legislators ranked are seen above.  Jack Franks is on the top of the story.

Grouped together at the bottom are State Senator Pam Althoff, State Rep. Mark Beaubien and State Rep. Mike Tryon.

I’m pretty amazed that the issue I stressed when I ran for governor against Rod Blagojevich and Jim Ryan in 2002 is getting attention during this year when the media is pushing reform:

When my Libertarian Party running mate Jim Tobin and I kicked off our campaign in his National Taxpayers United of Illinois office in the South Loop, the sign we held up is the one you see below.

The sign went everywhere in the campaign and might have gotten some real play had Blagojevich and Ryan not conspired to skip the Illinois League of Women Voters gubernatorial debate after I managed to reach the 5% threshold in the Daily Southtown’s 1,000 person survey. (That was the largest in the entire campaign, by the way.)

It seemed perfectly obvious to me that legislative leaders should not be leaders for life.

Except for two years after Republican Lee Daniels managed to elect a Republican majority in 1994—the year that the GOP’s Contract with America clicked on the national level—Mike Madigan has been speaker since George Ryan held the office in the early 1980’s.

Pate Philip stopped all sorts of bad legislation in his leadership of the state senate during the 1990’s, but it still seems to me that there ought to be turnover.

While the old guy/gal may pick the new guy/gal, at least the newbies would have different friends.

When Daniels got deposed during a staff-campaign-work-on-state-time scandal initiated by Rich Means–part of which took place in McHenry County–successor Tom Cross won votes by promising not to try to follow Daniels’ example of being Republican leader as long as he could.

Cross promised term limits.

In 2008, that 2002 promise went bye-bye.

And, of course, nothing will happen on the issue because Madigan is not willing to see an end to his regime…even if it were ten years from now.

The Daily Herald has polled suburban legislators on how they stand on various reform proposals and how the term limits for leaders issue shakes out can be seen below.

First House members:

• Susanne Bassi – Favors
• Mark Beaubien (Republican representing eastern part of McHenry County) – Favors
• Bob Biggins – Favors
• Linda Chapa-LaVia – Favors
• Franco Coladipietro – Favors
• Sandy Cole – Favors
• Michael Connelly – Favors
• Tom Cross – Opposed (Big surprise there.)
• Keith Farnham – Opposes
• Mike Fortner – Favors
• Jack Franks – (Democrat representing northern & western McHenry County) Favors
• Paul Froehlich – Opposes
• Kay Hatcher – Favors
• Emily Klunk-McAsey – Did not respond to Daily Herald
• Sidney Mathias – Favors
• Rosemary Mulligan – Favors
• Elaine Nekritz – Favors
• JoAnn Osmond – Favors
• Sandra Pihos – Favors



• Randy Ramey – Opposes (Step-father is Pate Philip.)
• Dennis Reboletti – Favors
• Kathleen Ryg – Favors
• Skip Saviano – Favors
• Tim Schmitz – Favors
• Darlene Senger – Favors
• Ed Sullivan – Favors
• Mike Tryon – (Representing southeastern McHenry County) Opposes
• Mark Walker – Opposes
• Eddie Washington – Favors

= = = = =
The top sign is the one used in the 2002 campaign. The bottom one was the first version. I concluded that 8 years as leader was better than 6, hence the change in toll free phone numbers.

Jim Tobin, President of National Taxpayers United of Illinois, issued the following press release today. I thought it was worth sharing.

$11.5 BILLION FEDERAL STIMULUS PACKAGE ELIMINATES NEED FOR STATE INCOME TAX HIKE

The purported $9 billion deficit in state revenues will be wiped out without raising the state income tax, according to Jim Tobin, President of National Taxpayers United of Illinois (NTUI).

Tobin cited the massive funds Illinois will receive from the federal government’s “stimulus” package.

“The purported gap in state funds of $9 billion is projected through June 30, 2011,” said Tobin. “However, State Senator Chris Lauzen (R-25, Aurora) has confirmed to me that the state will receive $9.4 billion for its general operating expenses over the next 20 months from the federal government’s ‘stimulus’ package.

“Furthermore, the federal government also will be giving an additional $2.1 billion to the state for capital expenditures.”

“The stimulus package will more than offset the so-called ‘gap’ of $9 billion. In fact, if state expenditures are reduced, the state income tax can actually be cut, which will attract businesses and create jobs.”

“A good place to start is to eliminate totally useless state functions, such as the State Police (other than the crime lab) and the Dept. of Commerce and Community Affairs. Taxpayers will see no cut in state services, and the savings will be enormous.”

It is relevant that State Senator Chris Lauzen is a Certified Public Accountant. The fund raising pitch which came in the envelope shown arrived in January.

Since Rod Blagojevich beat me for governor is 2002 (I got 2% as the Libertarian Party candidate) and Jim Tobin for Lt. Governor, Tobin has been sending out fund raising appeals warning that the income tax was about to pass.

During Blagojevich’s impeachment trial, this envelop arrived with first class postage.

It says,

This time he might be right.

Channel Two’s Mike Flannery, who said he went to school with Quinn, is predicting that Quinn will tell Illinois residents that the state is $4 billion in debt after he takes office.

Isn’t that special?

Rod Blagojevich was telling voters in 2002 that George Ryan had put the state in debt $5 billion. I figured it would take two years to work our way out that problem.

But Blagojevich and his Democratic Party friends spent an extra billion dollars a year expanding health care, putting more money into state aid to education, etc.

So, Illinois–at the end of six years of Democratic Party rule–is still broke.

And, naturally, the Democrats answer is higher taxes…always higher taxes.
Read this story about what Pat Quinn has advocated in 2004.

That makes Tobin’s letter so very, very topical.

Tobin starts his January 26th with this quote,

“It’s a demanding time when we might all have to make sacrifices.”

“Grab your wallet with both hands and hold tight, because unless we move really fast, your state income tax probably will be raised 33% and maybe as high as 67% in the next few weeks.”

While not defending Blagojevich, Tobin stresses,

“The real reason Chicago machine boss and House Speaker Michael Madigan wants to replace Gov. Blagojevich with Lt. Gov. Patrick Quinn is to have a governor who supports raising the state income tax.

“What really galls the Illinois political establishment is that Gov. Blagojevich has kept his promise to oppose any increase in the state income tax. That’s why they are so eager to replace him with Lt. Gov. Quinn, who has stated his enthusiasm for a big state income tax hike.”

Tobin’s phone number is 312-427-5128. The email address is ntui@ntui.org. The web site is http://www.ntui.org. NTU’s address is 407 S. Dearborn, Suite 1170, Chicago, IL 60605.

Since Rod Blagojevich beat me for governor is 2002 (I got 2% as the Libertarian Party candidate) and Jim Tobin for Lt. Governor, Tobin has been sending out fund raising appeals warning that the income tax was about to pass.

During Blagojevich’s impeachment trial, this envelop arrived with first class postage.

It says,

This time he might be right.

Channel Two’s Mike Flannery, who said he went to school with Quinn, is predicting that Quinn will tell Illinois residents that the state is $4 billion in debt after he takes office.

Isn’t that special?

Rod Blagojevich was telling voters in 2002 that George Ryan had put the state in debt $5 billion. I figured it would take two years to work our way out that problem.

But Blagojevich and his Democratic Party friends spent an extra billion dollars a year expanding health care, putting more money into state aid to education, etc.

So, Illinois–at the end of six years of Democratic Party rule–is still broke.

And, naturally, the Democrats answer is higher taxes…always higher taxes.
Read this story about what Pat Quinn has advocated in 2004.

That makes Tobin’s letter so very, very topical.

Tobin starts his January 26th with this quote,

“It’s a demanding time when we might all have to make sacrifices.”

“Grab your wallet with both hands and hold tight, because unless we move really fast, your state income tax probably will be raised 33% and maybe as high as 67% in the next few weeks.”

While not defending Blagojevich, Tobin stresses,

“The real reason Chicago machine boss and House Speaker Michael Madigan wants to replace Gov. Blagojevich with Lt. Gov. Patrick Quinn is to have a governor who supports raising the state income tax.

“What really galls the Illinois political establishment is that Gov. Blagojevich has kept his promise to oppose any increase in the state income tax. That’s why they are so eager to replace him with Lt. Gov. Quinn, who has stated his enthusiasm for a big state income tax hike.”

Tobin’s phone number is 312-427-5128. The email address is ntui@ntui.org. The web site is http://www.ntui.org. NTU’s address is 407 S. Dearborn, Suite 1170, Chicago, IL 60605.

It used to be that a village or a city couldn’t force you to annex unless it surrounded your property.

No more.

As I have learned working on the campaign to stop forcible annexation of two farms on Ridge Road, a village like Bull Valley can find six property owners abutting, but not close to surrounding much larger parcels of property and force them into a municipality.

Boy, that Illinois Municipal League is a power force in Springfield.

The only recourse the unwilling property owners have is to pass petitions to allow voters to make the final decision.

Last spring I was asked to pass such a petition.

Because of a Federal Appellate Court decision brought about by 1998 Libertarian Party gubernatorial candidate Jim Tobin, even though I didn’t live in the village, the ruling allowed me to seek signatures of 10% of the people who voted in the last village election.

21 were needed; I got about 35. (To run for village board only 11 are needed, but, if you want to run, get 20 so you can withstand any election challenge. The ruling clique is litiginous.)

When attorney Bob Wagner, a former Crystal Lake mayor, tried to file the referendum petition, he found no one would accept the petition.

As he puts it,

“Bull Valley is no Mayberry.”

The police chief would not accept the petitions. The village office was closed. The scheduled village board meeting was canceled.

At Village Clerk Phyllis Keinz’ home, no one would answer the door multiple times, even though someone put out the garbage can and was on the phone, indications the home was not empty.

Wagner finally had to get a court order to force Bull Valley’s lawyers to accept the annexation referendum petitions.

Now, the campaign is in full swing, as anyone driving into or out of Bull Valley can see.

What residents of Bull Valley cannot see are the mailings that residents are receiving.

And the web site: www.BullValley-RoadsorLawyers.com/.

They point out that, going back to 2001, Bull Valley has spent many, many times more money on paying lawyers than paving roads.

Over $500,000 for lawyers since 2001—not counting the $5,000 a month and more that the attorney who enforces the traffic tickets gets paid—and only $47,000 for road repaving.

The road program since then has consisted of patching potholes.

Above you see part of Bull Valley Road in the middle of the village. It is the worst road I have ever seen in McHenry County. Pothole patching on top of pothole patching.

How much has the village spent on road repaving since 2001?

As sworn under oath on February 9, 2007, the Licensed Professional Engineer says zilch. (Well, he didn’t exactly use that word.)

How much should be spent each year?

$367,300 in 2006 dollars is what his above memo of March 21, 2006 says. (Click to enlarge the print.)

You don’t need my master’s degree in public administration to figure out that this is a village with whacky priorities.

If you haven’t driven through Bull Valley recently, take a look at Shadow Lane in Shadowood, south of the west side of Wonder Lake.

Shadowood is a subdivision in which the village engineer says needed $231,000 for repaving in 2006—before oil prices zoomed.

This street is so bad that I could see tire marks in dust.

Rubble best describes large parts of this unmaintained street in Shadowood Subdivision. It is lined with bigger homes than are in my part of Lakewood. This is the subdivision’s entrance road.

Shadowood residents sought annexation to Bull Valley to prevent gravel trucks from using Thompson Road to get to Route 120.

Mission accomplished there, but membership has not only privileges, it has counterbalancing disadvantages. Had the subdivision remained unincorporated, the township would have probably repaved the road by now.

Take a look at this subdivision, which lies to the west of Shadowood and is being courted by Bull Valley residents to annex to the village. It’s called Thoroughbred Estates and it lies just west of Greenwood Road. Its roads have just been repaved by the Greenwood Township Road Commissioner.

“Never” comes close to predicting when the Village of Bull Valley will be able to afford to make Shadow Lane in Shadowood whole again.

Beyond the land of never, if legal fees continue to consume the 10 times the budget for repaving, as they have since 2001.

The Bull Valley board’s answer?

Let’s annex more roads.

On May 22, 2006, the village’s Licensed Professional Engineer recommended against annexation one of the 120-acre farms when the estate which owns it asked for 40 homes. (Click to enlarge this or any other image.) The homes would be clustered toward the center of the property with 80-acres of open space around the edges. Horse trails, which lifetime resident Ann Kaiser allowed people to use would be continued.

But that wasn’t good enough for Bull Valley officials, who refuse to talk to those seeking rezoning.

Of course, Bull Valley prides itself on its 5-acre zoning.

But people in Pine Ridge Estates, the subdivision to the west of the farms forcibly annexed, currently live on 3-acre lots Residents there comprise most of the six petitioners in the hostile takeover attempt of their neighbor’s property. Their neighborhood looks nice, but they certainly do not meet the 5-acre zoning that the village board wants to impose on the Ann Kaiser farm, now owned by the many beneficiaries of her estate.

And Bull Valley has just allowed giant Inland Real Estate similar 3-acre zoning at the intersection of Queen Ann and Bull Valley Roads.

That’s pretty much the Woodstock gateway to Bull Valley.

McAndrews Glen, on the eastern edge of Bull Valley near the corner of Bull Valley and Draper Roads started out as a 90-acre parcel upon which permission was sought and granted for 30 homes. You see the clustered subdivision part above.

They are on half-acre lots around vast closely cropped lawns.

So, 3-acre zoning to the farm’s west, at the Woodstock entrance to Bull Valley and at its eastern edge on Bull Valley Road is good enough for the village board, but clustered 3-acre zoning is not good enough for Ann Kaiser’s farm at far northeastern edge of the village at the corner of Ridge and Valley Hill Roads.

Across Ridge Road is 1-acre zoning in the City of McHenry. Since both McHenry and Bull Valley have agreed that Ridge Road will be their boundary, there is no chance that the farm could be annexed to the neighboring city.

Annexation to Bull Valley will mean that Ridge and Valley Hill Roads will shift from the responsibility of the township road commissioner, who had adequate money to repave them quite recently, to the Village of Bull Valley, which as a solid track record of allowing its roads to deteriorate.

You can see the difference between township maintenance and Bull Valley village maintenance on the photo of Ridge Road here. It’s just before Ridge runs into Bull Valley Road. In the foreground is the township road; down the hill is the Bull Valley-maintained road.

Then there is Crystal Springs Road.

Nunda Township Highway Commissioner Don Kopsell just repaved it for the second time in 11 years. (Remember the Bull Valley Professional Engineer recommended repaving Bull Valley’s roads every 15 years and nothing has been done for the last 8 years.)

Look at the road above.

It’s part of Crystal Springs Road maintained by the township.

Below is a part near Colonel Holcomb Estates, which is not in the village. This part of Crystal Springs Road is maintained by the village because the farm across the street was annexed.

It is going to pot, so to speak.

There many other examples.

It used to be that a village or a city couldn’t force you to annex unless it surrounded your property.

No more.

As I have learned working on the campaign to stop forcible annexation of two farms on Ridge Road, a village like Bull Valley can find six property owners abutting, but not close to surrounding much larger parcels of property and force them into a municipality.

Boy, that Illinois Municipal League is a power force in Springfield.

The only recourse the unwilling property owners have is to pass petitions to allow voters to make the final decision.

Last spring I was asked to pass such a petition.

Because of a Federal Appellate Court decision brought about by 1998 Libertarian Party gubernatorial candidate Jim Tobin, even though I didn’t live in the village, the ruling allowed me to seek signatures of 10% of the people who voted in the last village election.

21 were needed; I got about 35. (To run for village board only 11 are needed, but, if you want to run, get 20 so you can withstand any election challenge. The ruling clique is litiginous.)

When attorney Bob Wagner, a former Crystal Lake mayor, tried to file the referendum petition, he found no one would accept the petition.

As he puts it,

“Bull Valley is no Mayberry.”

The police chief would not accept the petitions. The village office was closed. The scheduled village board meeting was canceled.

At Village Clerk Phyllis Keinz’ home, no one would answer the door multiple times, even though someone put out the garbage can and was on the phone, indications the home was not empty.

Wagner finally had to get a court order to force Bull Valley’s lawyers to accept the annexation referendum petitions.

Now, the campaign is in full swing, as anyone driving into or out of Bull Valley can see.

What residents of Bull Valley cannot see are the mailings that residents are receiving.

And the web site: www.BullValley-RoadsorLawyers.com/.

They point out that, going back to 2001, Bull Valley has spent many, many times more money on paying lawyers than paving roads.

Over $500,000 for lawyers since 2001—not counting the $5,000 a month and more that the attorney who enforces the traffic tickets gets paid—and only $47,000 for road repaving.

The road program since then has consisted of patching potholes.

Above you see part of Bull Valley Road in the middle of the village. It is the worst road I have ever seen in McHenry County. Pothole patching on top of pothole patching.

How much has the village spent on road repaving since 2001?

As sworn under oath on February 9, 2007, the Licensed Professional Engineer says zilch. (Well, he didn’t exactly use that word.)

How much should be spent each year?

$367,300 in 2006 dollars is what his above memo of March 21, 2006 says. (Click to enlarge the print.)

You don’t need my master’s degree in public administration to figure out that this is a village with whacky priorities.

If you haven’t driven through Bull Valley recently, take a look at Shadow Lane in Shadowood, south of the west side of Wonder Lake.

Shadowood is a subdivision in which the village engineer says needed $231,000 for repaving in 2006—before oil prices zoomed.

This street is so bad that I could see tire marks in dust.

Rubble best describes large parts of this unmaintained street in Shadowood Subdivision. It is lined with bigger homes than are in my part of Lakewood. This is the subdivision’s entrance road.

Shadowood residents sought annexation to Bull Valley to prevent gravel trucks from using Thompson Road to get to Route 120.

Mission accomplished there, but membership has not only privileges, it has counterbalancing disadvantages. Had the subdivision remained unincorporated, the township would have probably repaved the road by now.

Take a look at this subdivision, which lies to the west of Shadowood and is being courted by Bull Valley residents to annex to the village. It’s called Thoroughbred Estates and it lies just west of Greenwood Road. Its roads have just been repaved by the Greenwood Township Road Commissioner.

“Never” comes close to predicting when the Village of Bull Valley will be able to afford to make Shadow Lane in Shadowood whole again.

Beyond the land of never, if legal fees continue to consume the 10 times the budget for repaving, as they have since 2001.

The Bull Valley board’s answer?

Let’s annex more roads.

On May 22, 2006, the village’s Licensed Professional Engineer recommended against annexation one of the 120-acre farms when the estate which owns it asked for 40 homes. (Click to enlarge this or any other image.) The homes would be clustered toward the center of the property with 80-acres of open space around the edges. Horse trails, which lifetime resident Ann Kaiser allowed people to use would be continued.

But that wasn’t good enough for Bull Valley officials, who refuse to talk to those seeking rezoning.

Of course, Bull Valley prides itself on its 5-acre zoning.

But people in Pine Ridge Estates, the subdivision to the west of the farms forcibly annexed, currently live on 3-acre lots Residents there comprise most of the six petitioners in the hostile takeover attempt of their neighbor’s property. Their neighborhood looks nice, but they certainly do not meet the 5-acre zoning that the village board wants to impose on the Ann Kaiser farm, now owned by the many beneficiaries of her estate.

And Bull Valley has just allowed giant Inland Real Estate similar 3-acre zoning at the intersection of Queen Ann and Bull Valley Roads.

That’s pretty much the Woodstock gateway to Bull Valley.

McAndrews Glen, on the eastern edge of Bull Valley near the corner of Bull Valley and Draper Roads started out as a 90-acre parcel upon which permission was sought and granted for 30 homes. You see the clustered subdivision part above.

They are on half-acre lots around vast closely cropped lawns.

So, 3-acre zoning to the farm’s west, at the Woodstock entrance to Bull Valley and at its eastern edge on Bull Valley Road is good enough for the village board, but clustered 3-acre zoning is not good enough for Ann Kaiser’s farm at far northeastern edge of the village at the corner of Ridge and Valley Hill Roads.

Across Ridge Road is 1-acre zoning in the City of McHenry. Since both McHenry and Bull Valley have agreed that Ridge Road will be their boundary, there is no chance that the farm could be annexed to the neighboring city.

Annexation to Bull Valley will mean that Ridge and Valley Hill Roads will shift from the responsibility of the township road commissioner, who had adequate money to repave them quite recently, to the Village of Bull Valley, which as a solid track record of allowing its roads to deteriorate.

You can see the difference between township maintenance and Bull Valley village maintenance on the photo of Ridge Road here. It’s just before Ridge runs into Bull Valley Road. In the foreground is the township road; down the hill is the Bull Valley-maintained road.

Then there is Crystal Springs Road.

Nunda Township Highway Commissioner Don Kopsell just repaved it for the second time in 11 years. (Remember the Bull Valley Professional Engineer recommended repaving Bull Valley’s roads every 15 years and nothing has been done for the last 8 years.)

Look at the road above.

It’s part of Crystal Springs Road maintained by the township.

Below is a part near Colonel Holcomb Estates, which is not in the village. This part of Crystal Springs Road is maintained by the village because the farm across the street was annexed.

It is going to pot, so to speak.

There many other examples.

Community Reinvestment Act Blamed for Bailout Crisis

The following press release was received from Jim Tobin, president of Taxpayers United of America:

WALL STREET BAILOUT DEFEAT IN HOUSE A BIG WIN FOR U.S. TAXPAYERS

The defeat in the U.S. House of Representatives of the $700 billion
bailout for Wall Street and big banks is a big win for U.S. taxpayers,
said the President of Taxpayers United of America (TUA).

“The federal government helped create this mess with its incompetent
regulatory intervention in the banking industry,” said Jim Tobin, TUA
President. “The passage of the Community Reinvestment Act, which
literally forced financial institutions to give loans to applicants who
had no hope paying the loans back, was a major factor in crippling the
banks.”

“The members of the U.S. House showed courage and good judgment when
they voted against this obscene bailout. Now the market will take over
and you will see healthy banks taking over insolvent banks rather than
saddling taxpayers with an additional, back-breaking debt of $700 billion.”

“Executives who make dumb decisions should pay dearly for their
incompetence. Our economic system is the most dynamic on earth because
it rewards success and punishes failure. This failed bailout bill would
have rewarded incompetence on the backs of U.S. taxpayers.”

“The consequences of this bailout bill very likely would have been
worse than the dire events predicted by its sponsors. The U.S. economy
is basically healthy, and can handle these bank failures and liquidity
problems without any more incompetent intervention by politicians and
bank lobbyists.”

According to Tobin, the law was originally passed in 1977 under President Jimmy Carter. It was strengthened under President Bill Clinton in the late 1990’s. Of course, in the late 1990’s Republicans controlled Congress.

Community Reinvestment Act Blamed for Bailout Crisis

The following press release was received from Jim Tobin, president of Taxpayers United of America:

WALL STREET BAILOUT DEFEAT IN HOUSE A BIG WIN FOR U.S. TAXPAYERS

The defeat in the U.S. House of Representatives of the $700 billion
bailout for Wall Street and big banks is a big win for U.S. taxpayers,
said the President of Taxpayers United of America (TUA).

“The federal government helped create this mess with its incompetent
regulatory intervention in the banking industry,” said Jim Tobin, TUA
President. “The passage of the Community Reinvestment Act, which
literally forced financial institutions to give loans to applicants who
had no hope paying the loans back, was a major factor in crippling the
banks.”

“The members of the U.S. House showed courage and good judgment when
they voted against this obscene bailout. Now the market will take over
and you will see healthy banks taking over insolvent banks rather than
saddling taxpayers with an additional, back-breaking debt of $700 billion.”

“Executives who make dumb decisions should pay dearly for their
incompetence. Our economic system is the most dynamic on earth because
it rewards success and punishes failure. This failed bailout bill would
have rewarded incompetence on the backs of U.S. taxpayers.”

“The consequences of this bailout bill very likely would have been
worse than the dire events predicted by its sponsors. The U.S. economy
is basically healthy, and can handle these bank failures and liquidity
problems without any more incompetent intervention by politicians and
bank lobbyists.”

According to Tobin, the law was originally passed in 1977 under President Jimmy Carter. It was strengthened under President Bill Clinton in the late 1990’s. Of course, in the late 1990’s Republicans controlled Congress.