Archive for the ‘Keely’
Message of the Day – A Watch Cat
Keely cat sits on the landing guarding the upstairs.

Keely Cat says, “You know I do a better job than that rabbit that never moves.”
.
Message of the Day – A Cat and a Christmas Tree

“OK,” I’ll pose, says Keely Cat. But no more than six flashes.”
I dedicate this post to the memory of my friend Larry Snow, who loved it when I posted pictures of our cat.
Keely Cat’s 5th Birthday
The fuzzy cat that can’t get enough of scratching under his chin is five years old.
Naturally, there had to be pictures.

"I had been hiding in the basement. I tricked Cat Mom into lookling upstairs. I'm thinking, 'This better be good.'"
Math Impairment Diminishes among Newspaper Folks
First the question was whether Pat Quinn’s proposal was two percent or 67 percent.
When he, Mike Madigan and John Cullerton upped the stakes to 75%, most newspaper folk got the picture. Even they pay taxes and have a personal interest.
Now that the law has been signed lickety-split newspaper people can’t agree on whether it is a 66 percent or a 67 percent increase.
The Chicago Sun-Times, which managed to keep the income tax hike off its front page (appropriate, I guess, since it has favored all income tax increases), says it’s a 66 percent increase.

66% is shown on the newspaper of this cartoon in the State Journal-Register. The cat in question is not Keely Cat, who remains quite laid back. He knows that the reduction in the Sociai Security tax rate of 2 percentage points will offset the 2 percentage point inccrease in the individual income tax rate in Illinois.
So does the cartoonist at the State Journal-Register in Springfield.
Only the Chicago Tribune has it right.

Keely Cat doesn't seem as perturbed as the one in the cartoon. Perhaps it is just that, as with many of the younger generation, he doesn't read newspapers.
67 percent is the increase it headlines on the Chicago Tribune’s front page in the article that tells people how to figure how much more Democrats are forcing them to pay in state income taxes.
The Northwest Herald reports that the increase is 66 percent. Perhaps the figure was taken from this Associated Press story.
I don’t know what you learned about the rounding of fractions to a whole number, but I was taught that if the fraction was more than half to round up.
Three out of four news sources I read today rounded down.
How would convert 66 2/3 into a whole number?
Cat Tax on Its Second Life
Imagine my surprise to see that the McHenry County Health Department is again floating the McHenry County Republican Cat Tax in its FY2011 “Goals.”
Don’t believe me?
Take a look at the 2011 Draft Budget, a link for which can be found on this page.
Search for page 246 in the 425 page document.
Naturally, the Board of Health did not emphasize its Cat Tax proposal, but it is the departments third goal. Higher ones have to do with internet submission of of private sewage and well permit applications and computerized food inspection and record storage system with web access. The top two priorities, plus most of the others in the list of ten priorities cost money, as you can see below. The Cat Tax is the only proposal that seems to raise cash.

Click to enlarge the ten goals listed by the Health Department in the preliminary 2011 budget posted on the internet.
Besides wondering why the final budget has not been posted, I wonder what part of “No” that the Board of Health doesn’t understand.
You may remember that District 2 County Board Member Lyn Orphal blind-sided Board Chairman Ken Koehler in February of 2007 when she advanced a motion to remove the all references from about the Cat Tax.
But Orphal didn’t win re-nomination. She was replaced by Donna Kurtz and I don’t remember if she had taken a position on the Republican Cat Tax or not.
Looking at the people up for election who supported the Cat Tax, I see all won election. One of the opponents, Democrat Jim Kennedy lost to John Jung, who voted for the tax before he was defeated in 2008 by Democrat Paula Yensen.
Dan Ryan and Yvonne Barnes, both opponents of the Cat Tax, also did not win re-nomination. They were replaced by Diane Evertsen and Robert Novak, neither of whose stands on the issue, if any, I know.
Both Ed Dvorak, who is retiring this year, and Nick Provenzano, who took his place, voted against the Cat Tax.
Maybe the word has been passed to the Board of Health that it’s OK to ask the County Board to impose this tax a second time now that the elections are over and two Cat Tax opponents will not be serving for the next two years.
The vote three years ago was 12-10. Apparently two people were absent.
But twelve votes would have killed the tax hike, if all had voted against Tina Hill’s motion to approve the amendatory ordinance. Ties fail, you see.
It’s unlikely that Koehler has zeroed in on this issue, however.

Keely, the McHenry County Republican Watchcat, hasn't gotten too worried about the 22-2 Republican majority's sending out the Republican Cat Tax Collectors yet.
Keeley Cat isn’t too bothered yet. He doubts many County Board members have even noticed that the Board of Health is planning another assault on the kitties.
= = = = =
Thanks to Gus Philpott, who writes “Woodstock Advocate,” for letting me know of what was in the Health Department’s Goals.















