McHenry County Blog

Here’s a campaign technique I have seen no other candidate be bold enough to merchandise except through word of mouth.

Running against the Northwest Herald.

I have written previously about what Mary Alger is doing in relationship with her sign saying, “Not endorsed by the Northwest Herald.”

Now she is sending out a postcard with that same message:

While I was delivering campaign literature for all the District 2 County Board candidates in my precinct Sunday, I noticed all sorts of Northwest Heralds in plastic bags at the end of driveways.

In the other article, I pointed out that under one-third of the households in McHenry County subscribe to the Northwest Herald. I think sample copies were in more than one-third of the driveways of the homes I visited Sunday.

In any event, it’s an interesting approach. It would probably work if the McHenry County Board were elected on a proportional representation basis, but without the opportunity to cast the type of weighted vote allowed in a proportional representation election, I decline to make a prediction.

The address side of the post card follows:

Here is her web site.

Guess my

• article about the motivation for Democrat Jack Franks’ Real Estate Tax Cap bill and
• the one about his Senate sponsor’s outright rejection of the idea and
• the posting of the email from Crystal Lake Grade School District 47 bemoaning the House passage of Senate Bill 2073

must have caught the attention of someone at the paper of record in McHenry County.

There were three paragraphs in the article resulting from the interview with Brett Rowlan:

“One local political observer dismissed Franks’ bill as being just for show.

“’It’s a [media] headline bill,’ said Cal Skinner, a former state legislator and local blogger. ‘It has no chance of passage.’

“He suggested it might be an election year stunt by Democrats to distract voters from last year’s income tax increase. Nonetheless, Skinner said the bill ‘certainly catches the mood of the taxpayers.’”

My little part made the first page of the internet edition, but not on the print edition, where the story was top right on the page.

But there was no link to McHenry County Blog.

District 2 McHenry County Board candidate Mary Alger has come up with three new ideas during her campaign.

First, she designed a Tea Party elephant to symbolize Tea Party Republicans.

Then, when opponents started tearing down her signs, she printed and posted signs saying,

“Stop Tearing Down Mary Alger’s Signs.”

And now, Alger is trying to turn what most people would consider a negative–not being endorsed by the Northwest Herald–into a positive with the sign you see below:

When one considers that there are over 100,000 households in McHenry County and the Northwest Herald has weekday circulation of 31,000+and Sunday circulation of 34,000, that means about least two-thirds of households do not get the paper.

So, maybe Alger is making a better bet than some people might think.

I wonder if she will drive home the point in a mailing.

McHenry County Blog read one set of soggy tea leaves correctly.

Now, I’ve read some wrong and I’ll fess up that when time allows, but on February 4th, the Northwest Herald passed up an opportunity to mention State Rep. Kent Gaffney’s name favorably.

He called to abolish of the State of Illinois Air Force, oops, Executive Fleet.

Actually, we budget types think alike.

When I served on a cost-containment task force for Governor Jim Thompson, I suggested pretty much the same thing.

It went nowhere, of course, because state Directors, Statewide Officials and General Assembly biggies don’t like to drive to and from Springfield.

It’s a real drag.

In any event, there was an editorial, which you can withdraw from the NWH’s news bank for $2.95, which praised the idea, but didn’t mention Gaffney.

Uh-oh, I thought.

Could this mean the Northwest Herald would not endorse Gaffney?

And, when I got an email from Dave McSweeney’s campaign, here was what was on top:

Northwest Herald Endorses McSweeney

Of the three candidates in the Republican primary race for the 52nd District representative, David McSweeney is the best option to provide taxpayers with a strong, independent voice for fiscal reform.

Danielle Rowe is the third candidate in the race.

Maybe it’s not tea leaves.

Maybe it’s newspaper clippings to which I should allude.

In any event, the first two McHenry County Board endorsement editorials got me thinking.

McHenry County’s paper of record has suggested dumping

• Board Chairman Ken Koehler in District 2 and
• incumbent Nick Provenzano in District 3.

There is one commonality and that is their having taken part in the secret meeting about district lines that the Illinois Attorney General rules violated the Open Meetings Act.

The two were on opposing sides on the tax hike issue with Koehler leading the majority, while Provenzano vote against levying the maximum amount possible.

That brings me to my first thought.

Five members took part in that secret remap meeting.

One, Marc Munaretto, is not running for re-election.

The other two are on the ballot, however:

• Tina Hill
• John Jung

Both are in District 5.

There are five people running in District 5′s Republican primary election.

Listed in ballot order, they are:

• John Jung, Jr.
• Tina R. Hill
• Virginia D. Peschke
• Michael Rein
• Michael Skala

Will the Northwest Herald refuse to endorse both Jung and Hill?

No more reason to endorse four people for the four spots than there is to vote for four candidates, if only one, two or three turn you on.

Both Hill and Jung also voted to raise tax bills as much as the law allows, as you can see in the article linked to below.  Hill switched her vote to help  break a tie vote on a motion to keep taxes constant.

Will its editorial board say, “We can only recommend three”?

And that brings me to my second reading of the tea leaves.

By not endorsing strong incumbents in District 2 (Koehler) and District 3 (Provenzano) and, maybe only three Republicans in District 5, could the folks at the NWH be setting the stage for endorsing at least one Democrat in Districts 2, 3 and 5?

There are, of course, already Democrats in District 3 and 5,

• Kathy Bergan Schmidt
• Paul Yensen

Yensen was on the side of the taxpayers on the levy vote.   Schmidt wasn’t.

In District 2, there are two Democrats running.  The first is Jim Kennedy, who was defeated by John Jung in District 5 two years after Yensen defeated Jung.

The second is Ridgefield businessman (The Framery) and almost lifetime resident Jim Roden, who seems poised to run as the “anti-Koehler.”

I’m leaving out District 4, the one that has northern McHenry Township, plus Richmond and Burton Townships in the northeast corner of McHenry County.

A hard-charging Democrat has filed, Mary Margaret Maule.

There are GOP six candidates running there.  None were involved in the secret meeting.

The only one who voted for the tax hike who is running for re-election is Sue Draftcorn.

= = = = =

See “Who Voted to Raise Your County Taxes?“

I’d be willing to give you good odds that the Northwest Herald editorial writing calling for the elimination of State government’s air force (maybe “fleet” would better describe the planes and helicopters) found about State Rep. Bill Mitchell’s bill to ground it from a press release from State Rep. Kent Gaffney.

Gaffney Aims Spear at General Assembly Leadership & Friends, Plus Statewide Elected Officials

It isn’t just I who reached the conclusion that this could be an early indicator that the NWH is not going to endorse Gaffney in the coming primary election.

Why do you think the Herald ignored the fact that Gaffney is the chief co-sponsor of the bill.

The folks telling reporters what to look for when tax districts pass their tax levies for next year know what the target is.

As readers of McHenry County Blog should know by now, any school or other tax district that increases its levy (the amount of money it would like us to pay in this coming year’s tax bill) above what was collected last year is pretty much automatically going to force you and me to pay more money in our next real estate tax bill than we paid this year.

The reason is that while real estate inflation was increasing more that the Cost of Living over the life of the Property Tax Cap (the insiders call it PTELL), the tax cap forced tax rates set by state statute below their maximums.

The tax cap allows tax districts to collect what they got the previous year, plus whatever the CPI has increased.

It’s last year’s “extension” (pretty much what was collected last year), plus the CPI. That’s the maximum that can be extracted from our checkbooks.

The increase in the CPI means the limit for next year is what was collected last year, plus 1.5%.

So asking for at least 1.5% more than last year allows tax districts to get the maximum amount possible until they bump up against the statutory tax rate maximums.

There is, however, unfortunately a parenthesis.

Tax districts are allowed to capture all of the assessment from new construction.

Most would consider that OK.

So, most tax districts decide to “balloon” levy (up 1.5% this year, plus some more) to make darn certain they get every dime from us current property owners, plus the new construction to which they are allowed to get under the Tax Cap.

What their districts do for mankind, the logic goes, is more important that your deciding how to spend that “little bit” of money.

The “however” almost always results in increasing the tax bills for current property owners.

In the NWH’s story on the Fox River Grove Fire Protection District, reporter Katie Anderson goes right to the heart of the matter:

“Representatives of the Fox River Grove Fire Protection District voted recently on a 2011 tax levy that is 0.07 percent higher than last year’s extension.

“Under the tax cap law, the district could have levied up to 1.5 percent – the rate of inflation over last year.”

Bravo!

Not to mention kudos to Mike Kunz and his fellow FPD Trustees for not taxing to the max.

Besides focusing on what really matters in taxes this time of year, the NW Herald has placed the subject first on its questionnaire to McHenry County Board candidates.

Here’s the question:

“The County Board recently voted to increase its tax levy, thereby raising property taxes for county residents.

“Do/did you support that decision? Explain.”

If you would like to refresh your memory as to the Board members who voted to tax you as much as the law allows, you might want to read this article:

Who Voted to Raise Your County Taxes?

When I got a newspaper delivered to my driveway a little while ago, there was a 75% discount.

This past Monday I was in Colonial Cafe waiting for someone and took a look at one of the Northwest Herald left for customers.

I discovered that the discount advertised in an insert was only 67%. $1.50 per week…up 50% from the 75% off offer the Thursday before.

Tonight while finishing leaf raking for the fall, I noticed something in a plastic sleeve at the end of our driveway.

Unwrapping it, I found that it was a solicitation from the Northwest Herald, along with a copy of the paper.

Above the fold were articles about ex-Governor Rod Blajojevich’s 14-year sentence and the rejection of both Centegra’s and Mercy’s applications for new hospitals.

Somehow, the summitry of the two stories appealed to me.

After all, it was Stuart Levine’s insistence on his favorite construction firm to build Mercy’s Crystal Lake hospital that started the unraveling of the Blagojevich corruption.

But, back to the NWH’s offer.

Just $1 a week.

75% off the “regular home delivery price!”

“Hurry…Offer expires 12/31/11.”

Strange.

I have had multiple calls this year offering the same deal.

The pitch must have worked, because, unlike all sorts of other newspapers, the NW Herald’s circulation has been holding constant on weekdays and is up a bit on Sunday.

Somehow the NW Herald does not seem willing to match its penny for six months subscription offered at a Crystal Lake Business Expo several years ago.

That was too good a deal to pass up.

“Editor and Publisher magazine awarded NWHerald.com the EPpy Award as the best daily newspaper site with fewer than 250,000 monthly visitors.”

That’s what the Northwest Herald reports today.

It made me wonder how many hits McHenry County Blog gets, so I looked.

Last month it was 49,798.

The Northwest Herald did not include its number of hits, but says they now exceed 250,000 per day. [I didn't read the whole article previously when I wrote the paper got less than 250,000 hits per day. Thanks to an observant reader for pointing out my mistake.]

It sells about 920,000 papers in a 30-day month.