Yesterday State Senate candidate Karen McConnaughay issued a press release which I characterized as “pounding” her opponent Cliff Surges on not having paid property taxes on time. I asked for a reply and here is what Surges sent: “This is … Continue reading
Category Archives: Property Tax
A press release from State Senate candidate Karen McConnaughay about her opponent Cliff Surges: Karen McConnaughay Congratulates Opponent for Rare On-Time Tax Payment Cliff Surges meets property tax payment deadline for first time since 2006 St. Charles, Illinois—State Senate candidate … Continue reading
You may remember that Kevin Craver’s Northwest Herald article about District 2 McHenry County Board candidates focused on the vote to increase the property tax levy by the maximum of 1.5% Cost-of-Living increase allowed by the Real Estate Tax Cap. … Continue reading
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 … Continue reading
Yesterday, McHenry County Blog noted that State Rep. Jack Franks’ bill was “headline” bill, that is one, that was put up to garner local press, but never intended to be enacted. In fact, I quoted a state legislator close to … Continue reading
A email has been sent this morning soliciting parental opposition to State Rep. Jack Franks’ bill to prohibit the collection of more property tax dollars when assessments go down. Apparently Superintendent Donn Mendoza and School Board President Jeff Mason were … Continue reading
Here’s how much the Democrats teacher pension payment shifting plan will cost McHenry County taxpayers: Nippersink School District 2 $6,426,544.26 Fox River Grove CSD 3 2,957,690.47 Johnsburg CUSD 12 12,905,616.00 McHenry CCSD 15 21,799,110.51 Riley CCSD 18 … Continue reading
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 … Continue reading
I cut my political teeth while McHenry County Treasurer in 1959-70 by challenging real estate assessments before the McHenry County Board of Review (a fool’s errand in those days) and, then, appealing them to the newly-former Illinois Property Tax Appeals … Continue reading
As I mentioned in my short article Saturday, the records of incumbent County Board members and the positions of challengers on holding real estate taxes constant or even lowering them could become the issue of the March 20th Republican primary … Continue reading
Under the Real Estate Tax Cap (PTELL to the technocrats), tax districts are limited to the increase in the Cost of Living as to how much they can receive out of our wallets. This coming year, tax district officials were … Continue reading
The table above shows the seventeen townships in McHenry County, the number of appeals for this tax year (2011 assessments, taxes to be collected in 2012), the total number of real estate parcels, plus the percentage of appeals from each … Continue reading
Read the following press release carefully and you will see that McHenry County College’s Board voted to leave no pocket unpicked as it instructed the McHenry County Clerk to maximize its tax take. The maximum increase the Property Tax Cap … Continue reading
The Tax Foundation has some remarkable work comparing property tax burdens across the United States. Want to know what part of the country to look at for retirement, if cutting your property taxes is one of your goals? Take a … Continue reading
Giving the public more information was the idea behind the heavy black bordered ads placed by tax districts who are increasing their levies by more than 5%. This decade, “transparency” is the word. The ads were a campaign gimmick by … Continue reading
Real estate assessments will be published in the Northwest Herald Wednesday. I don’t know what the news stand price is, but the price for the insert is $2.50 after Wednesday, as I understand it. There’s about a month in which … Continue reading
An email from State Rep. Mike Tryon: Our second week of veto session has ended, and while typically this would signify the end of the fall veto session, legislators are being called back to Springfield on Tuesday, November 29 to … Continue reading
A press release from State Rep. Kent Gaffney reveals that State Rep. Jack Franks’ bill to rein in the taxeaters when down in flames today in the Illinois House. So much for my predictive ability from 200 miles away. I … Continue reading
That’s “firework.” Singular. In order to give cover to House Democrats who voted to hike state income taxes by 67%, House Speaker Mike Madigan is going to allow Jack Franks to have the spotlight one day this week. One bill. … Continue reading
There is widespread misunderstanding about the tax process. Today, we won’t look at the assessment part. Instead we will examine what tax districts do to pry more money out of our pockets. News stories talk about levies this time of … Continue reading