McHenry County Blog

The 40-year old program to subsidize low-income senior citizens’ property taxes and rent equivalents was axed by Governor Pat Quinn and the Illinois General Assembly this year.

The law is still on the books, but, as they say in the movies, the contents are on the cutting room floor.

The bill was originally passed using money from the new 2 1/2% income tax by Governor Richard Ogilvie.

As I was running for State Representative for the first time in 1972, I could recognize a good program and a good issue when I saw one.

In his campaign, Ogilvie was running ad of a senior couple getting into a Model T Ford.

As they drove off, one could see an Ogilvie re-election sticker on the metal bumper.

After taking office, I noted that the Circuit Breaker has been budgeted $28 million and all of it had not been spent.  I assume lots of seniors and disable persons did not know about the program, so did not apply for benefits.

The Advisory Committee on Intergovernmental Relations, a U.S. government agency since abolished, figured out what percentage of people’s income in each state went for property taxes.

I believe it was 2 1/2% for Illinois homeowners.

I thought that a fair benchmark.

Seniors were complaining about being taxed out of their homes.  This was a means-tested program that, with enough funding, could make retired folks pay the same percentage of their incomes as those still on the payroll.

I did an analysis and calculated how much the benefit levels could be increased using just the originally-budgeted $28 million.

The bill passed the House.

Undoubtedly House Speaker W. Robert Blair wanted to keep what he considered an independent reformer happy.

When we got to the Senate Committee Terrel Clarke was Chairman of the Senate Revenue Committee.

I handed out the report which documented why we could afford to increase benefits without budgeting more money.

Clarke said he had never seen such a presentation and the bill flew out of the Republican-controlled committee.

It subsequently passed and was signed into law by Governor Dan Walker.

In Dave McKinney’s Saturday Chicago Sun-Times story, he points out that only $24 million was going for property tax relief last year.

Now, it is zero thanks to Governor Pat Quinn and those legislators who voted for the budget this year.

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At some point renters were included in the program.  Rational I guess, because rent most assuredly includes property taxes.

During the first term of Governor Jim Thompson, I managed to pass another bill to increase benefits because participation remained lower than projected.

The Circuit Breaker got hijacked by the Democrats and turned into a senior citizen prescription drug subsidy program.

I guess they figured that subsidizing drugs was more politically beneficial than subsidizing property taxes.

National Taxpayers United of Illinois has sent out a press release on the Democrats effort to hike state income taxes. It gives a perspective that others do not.

The increase in the income tax that has been most widely discussed is a hike from 3% to 5.25%, a 75% increase by my math.

Tobin relies on a WLS-TV story from yesterday for his 82% figure.

SPRINGFIELD GOP KEY TO KILLING 82% STATE INCOME TAX INCREASE

Republican legislators State Senator Pam Althoff and State Representative Mike Tryon ask for people's opinions on the proposed tax hike.

Led by House Speaker and Chicago machine boss Michael Madigan and Gov. Patrick Quinn, Illinois Democrats are about to commit political suicide by voting for a gargantuan 82% state income tax increase.

Unless the Republicans learn from their own mistakes, Illinois taxpayers will likely find themselves subject to a state income tax increase that will further damage Illinois’ depressed economy.

The largest tax increases in the history of Illinois were the work of Springfield Republicans, not Democrats, and the repercussions were profound for both the GOP and Illinois taxpayers.

“Now is the chance for Republicans in the General Assembly to make up for the crippling tax increases pushed through by notorious Republican tax-raisers in previous years,”

said Jim Tobin, President of National Taxpayers United of Illinois (NTUI).

Jack Franks' sign says he opposes Quinn's tax hike.

The 1969 General Election left Republicans in control of the Illinois House (95 to 82) and the Illinois Senate by a lopsided lead of 38 to 20.

In April 1969, Gov. Richard Ogilvie (R), in his proposed budget to the General Assembly, called for the creation of a state income tax, and the person he asked to sponsor and shepherd the proposal through the Senate was power broker W. Russell Arrington, the Republican legislative leader. The income tax passed the Illinois Senate 35 to 22.

On June 30, 1969, the new income tax passed the Illinois House by a vote of 91 to 73, supported by 69 Republicans and 22 Democrats.

The political fallout was disastrous for the Republicans. Ogilvie confided, “I am now the most unpopular person in Illinois.”

The Republican hold on Illinois politics, including their reign in the State Senate, would soon come to an end.

Illinois Republicans found raising state taxes a hard habit to break.

June 30, 1989, was the day of the “Illinois Tax Massacre,” the day the Illinois General Assembly passed the largest state tax increases in the nation under the aegis of Republican Gov. James R. “Big Jim” Thompson.

This assault on taxpayers’ wallets included a 20% increase in the state income tax, a 46% increase in the gasoline tax, a 50% increase in the cigarette tax, and a new 6.25% sales tax on software.

To reward themselves for their efforts, the legislators voted themselves a raise.

“Illinois Republican politicians have not been kind to Illinois taxpayers,” said Tobin, “They have been bludgeoning Illinois taxpayers for 39 years (1969-2008). Now is their chance to prove themselves to the taxpayers of Illinois by voting ‘No’ on Quinn’s astronomical 82% income tax hike.”

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Take a look at the differences in billboard communication between our Republican and Democratic Party legislators.  Please share your comments below.

If you want to contact a legislator by phone, the switchboard’s number is 217-782-2000.

Rep. Jack Franks supported and endorsed Governor Quinn’s primary opponent Comptroller Dan Hynes.

Quinn wasn’t enough of the organization Democrat he goes fishing with in Canada, I guess.

Too unpredictable.

So, it shouldn’t be a big surprise that Franks is not a political fan of Quinn.

But Quinn heads the Democrat ticket. A kick at Quinn doesn’t help the undercard of Dem candidates.

Franks is wildly trying to get any publicity to show he isn’t the liberal Democrat that he really is.

On Sunday morning’s Fox channel television show Franks decided to give Quinn a huge political kick to make himself sound unlike one of the Dems that drove Illinois broke.

Franks outright said Quinn wasn’t competent. To make sure no one can misunderstand Franks, he said:

“He’s frankly not been competent.”

This is after saying this about Quinn:

“He is an honest Governor.”

Franks later tries to pull the wool over viewers’ eyes with this one:

“What’s the difference with the parties in the State of Illinois. I can’t tell the difference.”

On difference is that Republican candidates for the legislature are not running away from their gubernatorial candidate.

Why denounce Quinn, but not Rod Blagojevich in 2002 ans 2006?

That’s a pregnant question, isn’t it?

What Franks doesn’t want voters to get is how the Democrats have held all of the political power in Illinois for eight years and this is their mess.

Franks included.

If Quinn is so honest, then why did his chief of staff who just resign?  Engaging in political activities while on the job may meet Franks’ interpretation of “honest.”

Franks is trying to position himself for the next election, possibly running for U.S. Congressman representing all of McHenry County in a newly-drawn district.

If he has to give Quinn a kick in the political not-competent groin, he couldn’t care.

He’s trying to build an image with voters as not being part of the last twelve years as a Dem State Rep driving Illinois broke.

He’s betting image will trump facts.

A lesson learned from Blago.

Franks is trying to win big in this election and somehow prove he is different than all of the other Dems across Illinois.

You can hear Franks’ not competent remark at about 4 minutes into playing this link.

Dems who stand near Jack Franks need to watch out for being thrown under the nearest moving bus.

Why do local Democrats need enemies when they can have a friend like Franks?

It’s possible if Democrats get severely trounced that Franks may make the argument he can do a better job of leading his party in Springfield.

Quinn, Madigan, does anybody think Franks cares about who he throws under the bus?

A real team Dem, oops, me kind of guy.

It says a lot about how much trust anybody beyond immediate family should put into Franks.

For anyone watching Franks’ attack on Quinn, Franks didn’t back up his opinion with any facts.

He went for the jugular with an immediate here’s your-throat-is-sliced conclusion.

Will Franks now follow the example of Democratic Party Sheriff Art Tyrell and become Chairman of Democrats for Bill Brady? Tyrell, elected in 1970, was Chairman of Democrats for Dick Ogilvie for Governor in 1972 when I first ran for state representative.

Article announcing Govenor Pat Quinn plans to propose taking away 30% of the amount of income tax revenue sharing now provided cities and villages.

When city leaders read this Tribune article saying that Pat Quinn expects them to “share the pain,” there will be gnashing of teeth.

Apparently Quinn has decided to cut the $1 billion a year income tax revenue sharing by 30%. That will save $300 million, of course.

The cities got a cut of the income tax when the deal was put together by Republican Governor Richard Ogilvie way back in 1969.

It never made sense to me.

Why should local officials get a pot of money without taking any heat for hiking taxes?

10% of the total amount collected?

Better to take any heat little that comes with raising taxes, e.g., the 75% Crystal Lake city sales tax hike that Mayor Aaron Shepley and six of his city council members (all but Jeff Throsen) supported.

The first part of my father’s multi-part biography ran yesterday. Today, Father’s Day, we’ll

Dad graduated debt free from college in three and a half years.

Somehow I have gotten the impression that he was something of a lady’s man. I don’t know how he had time.

He had to take off one semester to work the farm while he father was sick, which I didn’t know until I read my sister Jan Patel’s memories.

Dad’s goal in life was to become a county ag agent.

One of his part-time jobs was candling eggs at a market in Washington, D.C. The Southeast District of Columbia market still exists and I believe it is now an upscale shopping area.

(Later, during the Richard Ogilvie administration, the McHenry County Republican Party sent out a list of jobs that were open. Dad had been elected Algonquin Township Precinct Committeeman in 1966, when I ran for McHenry County Treasurer, and served until 1988. He had been head of the local Nixon citizens committee in 1960. He lost a GOP primary race for County Auditor in 1964 to Harley Mackeben, McHenry County Board Chairman and Grafton Township Supervisor.

(In any event, “egg candler” was one of the jobs and Dad guessed rightly that no one else would have relevant experience. Don’t know where the job was located, but he didn’t get it. Of course, he didn’t really want it.)

Mom was teaching in Elkridge, Maryland. It’s on the Western Shore. Her first year, she coached her girls basketball team to second place in the state tournament.

My mother and father were married on July 31, 1938, in Wilmington, Delaware. The fancy marriage certificate says it was by a Methodist Episcopal minister named Wingate Daniel Short.

Mother lived in Barclay at the time; Dad in Sudlersville, both in Maryland. Helen Roe Stevens and Addie Louise Skinner were the witnesses.

After college, my father taught agriculture in Cordova, Talbot County, Maryland, but discovered it didn’t pay well enough to support a wife.

Then, he took a job with the Federal Land Bank in Baltimore. The two lived in an upstairs apartment in a row house.

As an appraiser, he worked with farmers who held loans with the Land Bank when the Pennsylvania Tollway right-of-way was being purchased, among others.

In 1941,he took a job as assistant to the Tri-State (Maryland, Delaware and New Jersey) Packers Association in Easton, Maryland, with the prospect of becoming its Executive Secretary when the man who hired him retired. I think his name was Frank Shook. They lived in half a house until I was born in 1942.

My September, 1941, conception occurred before Pearl Harbor and for some reason that kept Dad from being drafted. Dad also worked for what the government considered an essential industry–food production. That may have contributed to his deferment later in World War II.

I found a Red Cross Volunteer arm patch, which I assume was Dad’s.

I know he told me that he did serve as a lookout along the shore to see if German submarines were within site.

I’m not sure where, but the coastal areas were worried that a submarine would land spies or saboteurs, I guess.

Our home county of Talbot has more miles of waterfront than any other in the country. (And, the British did bombard St. Michaels during the War of 1812. And, the Nazis patrolled the Eastern Seaboard looking for Allied ships.)

Tomorrow – More of Cal Skinner, Sr.’s biography.

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Links to all the articles can be found below:

Biography of Calvin L Skinner – Part 1 – Second Son, School Years

Biography of Calvin L. Skinner – Part 2 – College, Marriage, First Jobs

Biography of Cal Skinner, Sr. – Part 3 – First House, Elected President of the Easton, Maryland, Town Council

Biography of Cal Skinner, Sr. – Part 4 – Storm Sewer Grates, Miles River Yacht Club, Slot Machines, Chesapeake Bay Bridge

Biography of Cal Skinner, Sr. – Part 5 – Switching Parties, Moving to Salt Lake City, Middletown and Crystal Lake

Biography of Cal L Skinner – Part 6 – The Early Crystal Lake Days, Dipping Feet Slowly into Political Arena

Biography of Cal Skinner, Sr. – Part 7 – Running for County Auditor, Precinct Committeeman, Calling the Meeting that Led to McHenry County College

Biography of Cal Skinner – Part 8 – The Star Reporter, Daughter Ellen Bored in High School, Prohibited from Attending MCC Classes

Biography of Cal L Skinner – Part 9 – Responsible Republicans’ Slate, County Board Reapportionment

Biography of Cal Skinner, Sr. – Part 10 – Unsuccessful County Clerk Try, County Airport Fight, Wife’s Death

The Associated Press highlighted the well-funded Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund yesterday.

You know why it has enough resources to pay the pensions local government employees have earned?

One reason is that forty-some years ago, it required participating governments like McHenry County to sign an agreement to agree over the next forty-year period to put enough money into the IMRF to enable the pension fund to have enough money to, as they say, “fully fund” the pensions of its participants.

It happened in the late 1960′s when I was McHenry County Treasurer, not that I had anything to do with the agreement, except signing the checks.

So, the IMRF has 100% of the money it needs to pay the obligations that have been incurred.

The five state pensions are funded at 63%.

Guess who gets to make up the difference.

You’ve got it.

It’s Illinois taxpayers.

And, lest I seem ungrateful, thank you for paying the taxes to pay my pension.

Recently, the Chicago Sun-Times pointed out that former State Senator Carol Ronan had used a loophole in the legislative pension plan to increase her pension by $38,000 a year for eight weeks work for Governor Rod Blagojevich at the annual salary rate of $102,000.

Ronan wasn’t the first to do that.

I remember that after State Senator John Friedland (R-Elgin) he took a lobbyist job with the Elgin Sanitary District for a couple of months at about the same salary and similarly jumped his pension.

Legislators appointed sanitary district trustees, myself among them during the 1970′s. We who were not from Elgin deferred to the recommendations made by Friedland, however. So, the people Friedland appointed gave him the job.

Earlier in his career, Friedland earned a figurative “Badge of Honor” for standing up to Governor Richard Ogilvie. Friedland refused to vote for the income tax Ogilvie proposed. Ogivie decided to make an example of Friedland, but, fortunately, for the concept of separation of powers, failed.

Blagojevich is merely following in the foot steps of former Secretary of State George Ryan, who allowed former Republican State Rep. Roger Stanley (R-Streamwood) a little work job that similarly boosted his pension.

Stanley admitted to various felonies and served time in federal prison. Among his admitted misdeeds was a postal fraud charge in which Stanley fronted for Lee Daniels’ House Republican Campaign Fund and created a fake organization that mailed out the hit piece reprinting the then-Northwest Herald’s Amy Mack’s reporting of my ex-wife Robin Meridith Geist’s false divorce court charges.

And, speaking of hiking legislative pensions, in the summer of 1999, Daniels chief of staff Mike Tristano asked me at Daniels’ DuPage County office if I would like to be assistant Auditor General. The salary would have been over $100,000, with a massive pension boost to follow.

In return for the appointment I would have to agree not to run in 2000.

I told Tristano if the offer were to be Auditor General, I would think about it, but not the assistant’s job.

I was later told that Daniels got to decide who filled that job in the deal to make Bill Holland Auditor General. I was told Daniels even put his former travel agent in the post. When she found out she would have to go to work, she decided she didn’t want the job, the story went.

After I lost the 2000 primary election to Rosemary Kurtz, another offer was made via Tristano. It was to be assistant director of the department where my former state legislative colleague Jack Schaffer had been director during Jim Edgar’s terms. The pay was about $96,000, with understood subsequent pension boost.

I decided to retire instead.

The Associated Press highlighted the well-funded Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund yesterday.

You know why it has enough resources to pay the pensions local government employees have earned?

One reason is that forty-some years ago, it required participating governments like McHenry County to sign an agreement to agree over the next forty-year period to put enough money into the IMRF to enable the pension fund to have enough money to, as they say, “fully fund” the pensions of its participants.

It happened in the late 1960′s when I was McHenry County Treasurer, not that I had anything to do with the agreement, except signing the checks.

So, the IMRF has 100% of the money it needs to pay the obligations that have been incurred.

The five state pensions are funded at 63%.

Guess who gets to make up the difference.

You’ve got it.

It’s Illinois taxpayers.

And, lest I seem ungrateful, thank you for paying the taxes to pay my pension.

Recently, the Chicago Sun-Times pointed out that former State Senator Carol Ronan had used a loophole in the legislative pension plan to increase her pension by $38,000 a year for eight weeks work for Governor Rod Blagojevich at the annual salary rate of $102,000.

Ronan wasn’t the first to do that.

I remember that after State Senator John Friedland (R-Elgin) he took a lobbyist job with the Elgin Sanitary District for a couple of months at about the same salary and similarly jumped his pension.

Legislators appointed sanitary district trustees, myself among them during the 1970′s. We who were not from Elgin deferred to the recommendations made by Friedland, however. So, the people Friedland appointed gave him the job.

Earlier in his career, Friedland earned a figurative “Badge of Honor” for standing up to Governor Richard Ogilvie. Friedland refused to vote for the income tax Ogilvie proposed. Ogivie decided to make an example of Friedland, but, fortunately, for the concept of separation of powers, failed.

Blagojevich is merely following in the foot steps of former Secretary of State George Ryan, who allowed former Republican State Rep. Roger Stanley (R-Streamwood) a little work job that similarly boosted his pension.

Stanley admitted to various felonies and served time in federal prison. Among his admitted misdeeds was a postal fraud charge in which Stanley fronted for Lee Daniels’ House Republican Campaign Fund and created a fake organization that mailed out the hit piece reprinting the then-Northwest Herald’s Amy Mack’s reporting of my ex-wife Robin Meridith Geist’s false divorce court charges.

And, speaking of hiking legislative pensions, in the summer of 1999, Daniels chief of staff Mike Tristano asked me at Daniels’ DuPage County office if I would like to be assistant Auditor General. The salary would have been over $100,000, with a massive pension boost to follow.

In return for the appointment I would have to agree not to run in 2000.

I told Tristano if the offer were to be Auditor General, I would think about it, but not the assistant’s job.

I was later told that Daniels got to decide who filled that job in the deal to make Bill Holland Auditor General. I was told Daniels even put his former travel agent in the post. When she found out she would have to go to work, she decided she didn’t want the job, the story went.

After I lost the 2000 primary election to Rosemary Kurtz, another offer was made via Tristano. It was to be assistant director of the department where my former state legislative colleague Jack Schaffer had been director during Jim Edgar’s terms. The pay was about $96,000, with understood subsequent pension boost.

I decided to retire instead.

Former State Senator Mark Rhoads, who served in the 1970’s and now resides in the Washington, D.C., area, made some comments on my story posted on Illinois Review about Jeff Ladd’s grant of immunity from prosecution by the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Ladd was a Con-con delegate.

“It is really amazing how many of these names I recognize as wannabe power brokers from 30 years ago.

“Bill Cellini, of course, was more than a wannabe even then.

“Wasn’t Jeff Ladd an associate of George Lindbergh, our first comptroller? George had a very good reputation as I recall it.

“Here is the biggest disappointment to me of a generation of Republican leaders that started out together in the 1970s.

“There came a point when the pursuit of influence and money for some became an end in itself without regard to any public good that might happen as a result of efforts to gain public office.

“We learn and forget lessons over and over again that should teach us that people whose only goal is to fill public jobs for the good it will do them will wind up in major trouble sooner or later.

“You and I have known idealistic and honest legislators over the years but they too often get discouraged and do not stay long enough in office to overcome the mischief of the long-term professional political class.

“Far too few donors contribute to political campaigns just because they want to see good government. They want and get a return on their investment in the form of government contracts.

“It has been that way in Illinois in both parties since the 1920s when “Republican” Mayor Big Bill Thompson and “Republican” Gov. Len Small worked hand in glove with their Democratic co-conspirators from the First Ward, Bathouse John Coughlin and Hinky Dink Kenna to give away the store.

“Here and there a reformer makes some waves.

“Paul Simon wrote an article (in Atlantic Monthly) that led to legislators being investigated. John Paul Stevens work with the Greenberg Commission forced the resignation of two Illinois Supreme Court Justices.

“Republican senators Terrel Clarke and Frank Ozinga turned over some rocks that led to an investigation of bribes connected to the weight of cement trucks on Illinois highways. But unfortunately, the reform efforts don’t last that long either.”

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Bill Cellini is seen leaving the Crystal Lake City Council meeting after winning the right to be the developer for the Vulcan Lakes Tax Increment Financing district. George Lindberg’s yard sign is from 1966.

Former State Senator Mark Rhoads, who served in the 1970’s and now resides in the Washington, D.C., area, made some comments on my story posted on Illinois Review about Jeff Ladd’s grant of immunity from prosecution by the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Ladd was a Con-con delegate.

“It is really amazing how many of these names I recognize as wannabe power brokers from 30 years ago.

“Bill Cellini, of course, was more than a wannabe even then.

“Wasn’t Jeff Ladd an associate of George Lindbergh, our first comptroller? George had a very good reputation as I recall it.

“Here is the biggest disappointment to me of a generation of Republican leaders that started out together in the 1970s.

“There came a point when the pursuit of influence and money for some became an end in itself without regard to any public good that might happen as a result of efforts to gain public office.

“We learn and forget lessons over and over again that should teach us that people whose only goal is to fill public jobs for the good it will do them will wind up in major trouble sooner or later.

“You and I have known idealistic and honest legislators over the years but they too often get discouraged and do not stay long enough in office to overcome the mischief of the long-term professional political class.

“Far too few donors contribute to political campaigns just because they want to see good government. They want and get a return on their investment in the form of government contracts.

“It has been that way in Illinois in both parties since the 1920s when “Republican” Mayor Big Bill Thompson and “Republican” Gov. Len Small worked hand in glove with their Democratic co-conspirators from the First Ward, Bathouse John Coughlin and Hinky Dink Kenna to give away the store.

“Here and there a reformer makes some waves.

“Paul Simon wrote an article (in Atlantic Monthly) that led to legislators being investigated. John Paul Stevens work with the Greenberg Commission forced the resignation of two Illinois Supreme Court Justices.

“Republican senators Terrel Clarke and Frank Ozinga turned over some rocks that led to an investigation of bribes connected to the weight of cement trucks on Illinois highways. But unfortunately, the reform efforts don’t last that long either.”

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Bill Cellini is seen leaving the Crystal Lake City Council meeting after winning the right to be the developer for the Vulcan Lakes Tax Increment Financing district. George Lindberg’s yard sign is from 1966.

The headline in the Chicago Sun-Times about the opening of the extension of the I-355 tollway says,

Not for motorists driving on the rest of the tollway system.

It’s opening and the diversion of tolls from the other highways to pay off its bonds means that tolls will be around, well, forever.

Maybe that’s what inspired House Speaker Mike Madigan to suggest the Crosstown Expressway be a tollway.

It wasn’t always that way.

In 1973 State Rep. Harold Katz had a bill I got in trouble for co-sponsoring. It would have required any new tollway to pay its own way.

Katz had seen how Governor Richard Ogilvie’s East-West Tollway toward the Quad Cities was draining tolls from the other tollways.

That bill was signed into law by Governor Dan Walker and not repealed until DuPage County Republicans decided they wanted I-355.

So, get ready to pay the toll tax for the rest of your lives, toll tax slaves.

But know that you are allowing developers in Will County to breathe a sigh of relief.

And don’t ask for whom the bell tolls.

It tolls for you…forever.

Thanks to Governor Rod Blagojevich.

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The Blagojevich sign over a tollway is not over the new one.