McHenry County Blog

Dave McSweeney

State Rep. David McSweeney passed his House Bill 383 yesterday by a vote of  101-6-2.

Here’s the amended version of the bill:

Amends the Local Government Debt Reform Act.

In a Section concerning alternate bonds, provides that, in governmental units with fewer than 500,000 inhabitants, the petition for a backdoor referendum must be filed with the clerk or secretary within 45 days of publication of the authorizing ordinance and notice.

Provides that, in governmental units with fewer than 500,000 inhabitants, the petition must be signed by the lesser of

1. 5% of the registered voters or 5,000 registered voters in a governmental unit with more than 4,000 registered voters, and
2. 15% of the registered voters or 200 registered voters in a governmental unit with 4,000 or fewer registered voters.

5,000 signatures or 5%, if that is a lower number, is way too high, but in the Illinois General Assembly sometimes one must take baby steps.

Increasing the time period from 30 to 45 days is a step in the right direction.

In any event, after the upheaval on the McHenry County College Board, taxpayers don’t have to worry the reconstituted MCC Board will try to shove a huge bond issue down residents’ throats.

The anti-tax wave that the Tea Party movement capitalized on has not run its course in McHenry County.

With 64 of 212 precincts reporting, it is obvious that the referendum to add $9 million to the property tax bill in McHenry County has failed.

The margin is wide enough to predict the referendum will fail.

The proposal would have increased real estate taxes by $30 per $100,000 of actual value.

The extra money would have gone to aid agencies that provide services to the Developmentally Disabled.

The in-person results for the 377 Developmentally Disabled tax hike referendum showed more than two people voting against it for every one person in favor.

The results for Algonquin 7 and 19 precincts, both of which vote in the Crystal Lake Main Beach House follow:

The in-person election day results for the 377 Board tax hike in Algonquin 7 were 78-34.

In Algonquin 19, those voting in person went 58-27 against the tax hike.

Andrew Gasser

Andrew Gasser, a Republican Precinct Committeeman from Fox River Grove has been active in his opposition to the referendum to hike taxes $60-$90 a year (the cost for $200-300,000 homes).

He was even interviewed by the Chicago Tribune for its article last Sunday. Maybe that’s why his web site was shut down by an 20,000 hits in fifteen minutes.

In any event, Gasser called me today to tell me he was opposed to the referendum to raise $9 million more in real estate taxes to help the Developmentally Disabled.

I have weighed in on the reasons for my opposition, as recently as yesterday.

That’s when I learned from the Tribune that the 708 Board is only giving 10% of its $13 million a year to DD services. (In that article I explain that when I was McHenry County Treasurer in the late 1960′s I delivered the first checks. My memory tells me I took $25,000 to Pioneer Center and $25,000 to Family Services. A 50-50 split, in other words.)

In any event, here is Gasser’s telephone message:

“Hi, this is Andrew Gasser, a concerned neighbor, calling to ask you to vote NO tomorrow on a ballot Proposition to increase your property taxes.

“We live in the 29th most expensive county… in the nation, yet the political class wants more.

“Why should we continue to tighten our belts to live within our means while they use our homes as personal ATM machines?

“Join me tomorrow and vote NO.

“Thank you.

“This call was paid for by Citizens of McHenry County Against Higher Property Taxes. (708) 320-1073.”

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Editor’s note: I’m leaving this story near the top because I am so infuriated at the misleading recorded telephone call I received Friday night asking me to vote for the 10 cent per $100 of assessed valuation tax increase. I don’t mind emotional pitches, but saying voting for a tax will save us money is too, too outrageous to let pass unnoticed.

Since writing this, Fox River Grove Republican Precinct Committeeman has published the table you see below on his blog.

Look near the bottom and, then, the right hand column.

You will see residents in McHenry County are the 25th highest taxed in the whole country when taxes are compared to income.  We have the 29th highest property taxes.

McHenry County homes are the 26th highest in the country.

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Written Thursday night, April 4th-

Even as I was listening to the 377 Board tax hike robo-call, I couldn’t believe my ears.

Misleading at best and deliberately deceitful at worst, I concluded.

I dealt with the frustrations of parents with developmentally disabled children the entire sixteen years I served as State Representative, eight years in the 1970′s and eight years in the 1990′s.

“Vote No, Tax Referendum,” reads the generic sign.

I know that the state employees union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), does everything it can to protect state employee’s jobs.

Even if it means housing DD individuals in state facilities which cost $100,000 a year per person, as the robo-caller said.

Cost-benefit analysis does not make any difference to such unions.

It certainly is cheaper, but, more importantly, more humane, to house those who cannot fully take care of themselves in neighborhood locations.

Whether it costs the small amount (which I did not jot down, but seemed low to me ) asserted in the robo-call is true or not, I do not know.

I do know it is not the job of taxpayers in McHenry County to pay for services State government should be providing.

The admonition of the robo-caller to “keep tax dollars right her in McHenry County rather than send[ing] them off to Springfield” is made of the stuff that used to be below my grandmother’s outhouse in Crumpton, Maryland.

No one is going to reduce State taxes on McHenry County residents if people vote to raise their property taxes by ten cents for every $100 of assessed valuation.

And our real estate taxes don’t get sent to Springfield.

The quoted assertion above would never hold up in an open forum.

It is too ridiculous.

It is meant to delude the–what do the pundits call them?–low information voters.

If people vote “Yes” on the 377 Board referendum, State taxes will not be cut for us.

But that is what the robo-caller wants people to believe.

Passage of the referendum will mean property taxes will be increased $9 million next year, with more to come every year thereafter.

$60 for a $200,000 home to start; $90 for a $300,000 home.

More if the real estate market increases the value of your home.

My memory of sixteen years in the Illinois General Assembly tells me that raising taxes in McHenry County for the 708 Mental Health Board encouraged Springfield decision makers to send us less than our fair share.

That’s because State bureaucrats perceived that other parts of the state without local funding needed the state subsidies more.

So, by increasing our property taxes still more for purposes for which the 708 Board funding was created, we will probably be contributing to our getting even less than comes now.

Let me give another reminder of the pushers of this tax hike with memories that do not go back to the late 1960′s when the Mental Health Board was created by referendum.

It was supported by both those seeking mental health funding and those seeking funding for those who were then called “retarded.”

As McHenry County Treasurer, when tax anticipation warrants were issued after the first tax levy was passed, I personally took $25,000 checks to both Pioneer Center, then housed in the old Terra Cotta School, and to Family Services, headquarted down the street toward the Fox River from McHenry East High School’s campus.

The 708 Board got about $15 million last year.

If half of it did not got for DD services, why did the McHenry County Board approve its budget?

The Board members certainly did not have to.

And, if this referendum fails, as I hope it will, the County Board can tell the 708 Board what type of a budget it will approve and what will be unacceptable.

By the way, I fought to shift money from such DD state institutions to community care, finally seeing Governor George Ryan’s Mental Health and DD Department Director Ann Patla, a former head of Pioneer Center, submit such a budget.

That’s the fight proponents of this referendum should be fighting…rather than trying to pry money out of our pockets.

While in Galena this past week, I noticed a sign like none other I have seen.

Actually, there were two of them.

Two candidates each for the local school board.

Above was the slogan,

No Means NO

The candidates on this sign are Laura Edmonds and Tom Long, two of four”No means NO” candidates.

Asking what it meant at the antique mall near Galena Territory, I learned that last November a large bond issue had been defeated. The man said it was for $36 million and the alternative to building a new high school was $9 million to repair it.

Not a tough choice, he indicated.

Looking into it before writing this, I found that the referendum was for $24 million. (You can find what was on the ballot here.)

Two other candidates. Katie Wienen and Milan Blaho are the other two candidates saying, “No Means NO.” They promise “a NEW Galena School Board.”

And now four candidates seem to be running on the platform on not putting that bond referendum on the ballot again.

When there were so, so many tax hike referendums, Libertyville’s Jack Martin had these generic signs printed.

I guess progress is being made.

The Northwest Herald did not endorse the creation of a 337 tax district to funnel $9 million more dollars into carrying for the developmentally disabled in McHenry County. (The 337 designation is from the number of the section in the Illinois statutes that authorizes the referendum to approve the tax.)

There was a time when every tax increase proposal seemed to automatically receive the NWH stamp of approval.

But the paper’s editorial board could not bring itself to recommend a “No” vote.

I can.  You can read why in these articles:

• 11-9-12 McHenry County Board Resolution for 377 Board Tax Hike Referendum Seems to Endorse It
• 3-8-13 Tax Hike Referendum Set for April 8th
• 3-22-13 Campaign Against 377 Board Referendum

I guess taxpayers should be grateful passage of a referendum is required before this ten cents per $100 of assessed valuation tax is imposed.

The majority on the current McHenry County College Board seem bent on borrowing over $40 million to build a health & fitness club, plus almost double the size devoted to classrooms and labs without allowing a public vote.

Not only does the McHenry area have a ten cents per $100 of assessed value referendum on the ballot to create a new countywide taxing district the $9 million proceeds (first year’s estimate tax take) of which will go to help developmentally disadvantaged individuals, but there’s a $2.2 million bond issue, too.

Here’s the referendum question that McHenry High School District voters will face.

In its February newsletter, the District explains,

“This opportunity would provide the district the ability to reinvest $2.2 million in interest savings. The savings generated will be spent on technology and necessary capital improvements, in particular, additional safety and security measures.”

Further,

“None of the money will be used for school administrator or teacher salaries. All of the money generated will be used for technology and capital improvements which include safety and security.

“If the question is unsuccessful, taxpayers who own a $200,000 home will see an average refund of $14.00 per year in the bond and interest portion of their tax bill over the next eight‐year payback period.

“If the question is successful, taxpayers will see no increase in the bond and interest portion of their tax bill.”

Details on planned expenditures can be found here.

The top of the Jan. 30th Tribune article.

David McSweeney knows how to pick ‘em.

And Jack Franks has been a master of gaining publicity for virtually his entire 14-year legislative career.

McSweeney came up with the idea to reform the alternative revenue bond process and had a bill drafted.

The changes he proposes and Franks buys into would give the taxpayer s of McHenry County College a change at defeating ill-conceived projects like the minor league baseball stadium and the proposed health club at the ballot box, rather than paying higher taxes for a couple of decades if the revenue stream identified to pay off non-referendum bonds turns into a trickle.

For those who don’t dip into McHenry County Blog that often, alternative bonds are a method approved by a previous state legislature that allow government entities, such as Lakewood with its early 1990′s golf course purchase, to borrow money for projects without going to referendum.

The premise in Lakewood’s case was that golf course revenues would pay off the bonds.

And who came up with the projections?

It was a golf course management company with no skin in the game.

I feel so personally involved because I and other Lakewood homeowners paid 53% of the cost of an amenity which I have never used.

The alternative bond document forced subsequent village trustees to flay repayments off the hides of us taxpayers.

McHenry County College is now trying to do this in order to build a health club and classrooms.

That addition space will cost a lot more than the now-re-named RedTail Golf Course, although the price per homeowner, if muscled through by the MCC Board and the revenue projected by the health club operator company Power Wellness don’t pan out, would probably be far less than the $500 a year that I remember paying.

There is currently a way that taxpayers can force a referendum when a taxing district like McHenry County College decides to borrow money without asking voters for permission, but the number of signatures needed on a petition is virtually impossible to gather.

In MCC’s case, state law now says that signatures of 7.5% of the registered voters must sign the petition.

That’s 7.5% of 182,766 voters.

Multiply that out.

My hand multiplication tells me that’s 13,709 signatures.

A bit more than the 500 that Jack Franks had to gather to put the County Executive referendum on the ballot, so he can certainly understand the statutory hurdle of those wishing to stop their tax bill from going up because of alternative revenue bonds.

The McSweeney-Franks bill would lower the petition signature number to 5% of the voters or 500 signatures, whichever is less.

The legislative proposal would also increase the length of time to gather those signatures from 30 to 90 days.

That would at least give the taxpayers a chance if the junior college decides it wants to borrow over $40 million without asking voters’ permission.

Besides the Tribune article on Wednesday and mine on Tuesday, the Northwest Herald has one today.

While the Tribune did not make the McHenry County College connection, the NWH did in its first sentence:

“Legislation filed this week in Springfield could make it harder for McHenry County College to fund its proposed expansion.”

And, the sub-headline reads, “The locally sponsored legislation could affect MCC plans.”

The article even mentions RedTail Golf Course.

The Crystal Lake Park District regularly sells bonds without a referendum. That’s how the West Beach House was financed. There are two seats on the Park Board which have no candidates. Two write-ins could win, but candidates have to register their intention to run. Email me if you are interested.

And a commenter under the article “Patrick F” of Cary points out that the Cary Park District was planning to buy a golf course (its second) with bonds not approved by voters.  (I believe he is mixing up the power that all park districts and other local tax districts that had non-referendum bonding in 1994–may be a year off.  State legislation I actively opposed allowed those with unpaid non-referendum bonds to forever use the amount being paid back in the year in question to finance new borrowing without voter approval.  That is how the Crystal Lake Park District is financing its new West Beach House.)

See articles summary of Tribune articles about what happened to Lakewood homeowners here:

• Lakewood Red(Ink)Tail Golf Club Alternative Revenue Bond Failure Featured in Chicago Tribune – Part 1
• Lakewood Red(Ink)Tail Golf Club Alternative Revenue Bond Failure Featured in Chicago Tribune – Part 2

Tuesday’s McHenry County Blog article (“McSweeney and Franks Send Shot Across McHenry County College’s Bow) about newly-introduced House Bill 983 can be found here.

Moraine Valley Community College sold alternative revenue bonds a year ago to finance a health club and other structures.

I’m looking at the alternative revenue bond statement approved by bond counsel Chapman and Cutler.

How does the document say they will be paid off?

“…payable from

1. the construction/infrastructure improvement fee imposed upon students of the District (the “Improvement Fee”), wellness center membership fees and other lawfully available funds of the District (the “Pledged Revenues”); and
2. ad valorem property taxes levied upon all of the taxable property in the District without limitation as to rate or amount (the “Pledged Taxes” and together with the Pledged Revenues, the “Pledged Moneys”), and all taxable property in the District is subject to the levy of such taxes…

That’s pretty much what Power Wellness’ so-called feasibility study is pointing toward for McHenry County College’s $45 million health club and other additions.

Page 6 of the document puts it this way:

If student fees and health club fees are not enough to pay back the bonds, money will come out of the education fund. That means repayment of the alternative revenue bonds at Moraine Valley Community College would come before paying faculty.

Of course, Moraine Valley only borrowed $5.4 million, not the $45 million that McHenry County College officials are banding about..

No need to ask for voter permission for these alternative revenue bonds.

And the team in charge of the MCC Board won’t.

And that means that if the project is NOT self-supporting, then the current MCC board has to cut funds available for operating purposes — including teacher salaries — for the next 30 years!