McHenry County Blog

Let’s go through the townships in alphabetical order to see how the Real Estate Tax cap affects how much money they can collect.

This information, as with previous articles about the Tax Cap, comes from the McHenry County Clerk’s web site, Tax Rate page.

Alden Township

The township has a maximum tax rate of 24 cents per $100 of assessed valuation in the Town Fund.

While 3% increase is allowed in the Tax Cap allowed next year, Alden Township will only be able to get about half that amount because it is so close to the 25 cent limit right now–24.639.

In fact, when taking into account that overall assessments will be down 9%, as ordered by the Illinois Department of Revenue, Alden may be getting much less than expect.

There is no maximum limit for Public Assistance, so it remains not subject to the Tax Cap.

The Road District, which is a separate taxing entity, can get 3% more because its rates are so far under the statutory maximum.

Algonquin Township

The Town Fund is well below the maximum rate of 25 cents per hundred.

The Public Assistance Fund is not capped.

As in Alden Township, the Road District in Algonquin Township is well under its maximum tax rates on Tax Capped funds.

For a story about what happened when the levies were passed, click here.

Burton Township

McHenry County’s smallest township in area is no where near its maximum rate in the Town Fund.

The Road District is so far under the statutory limits that taxpayers cannot expect the Tax Cap to give less than a 3% increase, if it is requested by the Road Commissioner.

Chemung Township

The township that covers most of Harvard, Chemung Township, also does not have tax rates that are close to the statutory maximum.

The same goes for the Road District’s Road and Bridge Fund.

The Permanent Road Fund is different, however. It is so close to its 25 cents per hundred dollars of assessed valuation, that the Road Commissioner will be able to get less than 1.5% increase, instead of the full 3% that the Tax Cap law would allow.

Coral Township

The township which contains the Village of Union, Coral, is also well under its maximum limit for the Town Fund.

The Road Commissioner’s funds are, too.

Dorr Township

Most of Woodstock is in Dorr Township.

Dorr is well below the maximum rates in all funds under the control of both the Supervisor and the Road Commissioner.

Dunham Township

The southern part of Harvard is in Dunham Township.

The Town Fund is at 22.9 cents per hundred–close to the 25 cent maximum, but not close enough to limit a 3% increase, if requested by the Town Board.

However, once the 9% lower assessed valuation for the county as a whole works its way through the tax rate setting system, the Town Fund may well bump up against the limit set by law, resulting in next year’s tax take to being about the same as this year’s.

Of the three funds overseen by the Road Commissioner, only the 16.5 cent Road and Bridge Fund is at its maximum.  Again the “9% factor” may come into play.

The Permanent Road Fund and the Equipment & Building Fund are not.

3% Tax Cap allowed increases will be the least of the worries for Dunham Township taxpayers, however.

Last fall a bond referendum to finance road building passed 63-37, so taxes will go up.

Grafton Township

Grafton Township is also well below the maximum rates set by State Statute in the funds administered by the Supervisor.

The same is not true of the Township Road Commissioner’s Road and Bridge Fund. It cannot be increase by 3% next year.  About as much will be collected next year as was this year.

The Permanent Road Fund, on the other hand, has room for a lot of upside movement.

Greenwood Township

The township that runs from northern Woodstock on the South to Wonder Lake on the Northeast, is in no danger of reaching the 25 cent Town Fund maximum rate.

The capped funds in the Road District aren’t either.

Hartland Township

Northwest of Woodstock running up toward Harvard is Hartland Township.

The Town Fund is about 4 cents short of the maximum set by law and will be able to get an extra 3%, if the Township Board levies it, even if assessments go down 9%.

In the Road District, the Road and Bridge Fund is at its maximum, but the Permanent Road and Building & Equipments Funds are not.

Hebron Township

North of Greenwood Township is Hebron Township.

Its Town Fund is in pretty much the same shape as Hartland’s–almost four cents of growth left before State law steps in and stops it.  The year after next might be considered a problem from the Road Commissioner’s point of view.

The Road and Bridge Fund is very close to its limit, but, again, the Permanent Road and Building & Equipments Funds are not.

Marengo Township

Not even close to the maximum Town Fund tax rate is Marengo Township.

With two 3% cost-of-living increases, the Marengo Township Road and Bridge Fund will top out and taxpayers will see some relief.

The Permanent Road Fund is well under its 25 cents per $100 of AV limit

McHenry Township

The second largest township in McHenry County–McHenry Township–is at about half it maximum tax rate in the Town Fund.

The concentration of commercial and industrial assessed valuation allows the Road District funds to operate well under their maximums as well.

Nunda Township

Running from Crystal Lake Avenue north to southern McHenry, Nunda Township’s Town Fund rate is just over one-third of what it could be under State law.

The same goes for the funds under the Road Commissioner.

Richmond Township

To the west of tiny Burton Township lies Richmond Township.

The Town Fund tax rate is well under the minimum, as are the Road District rates.

Riley Township

In the southwestern corner of McHenry County is Riley Township. That part of McHenry County through which the Illinois Tollway goes is all in Riley Township.

Rural, except for the southern part of the City of Marengo, but poised for explosive growth if there is ever a Tollway interchange built at Route 23.

The Town Fund in Riley is in similar shape to those in Hartland and Hebron Townships.

The funds in the Road District are well under their maximums.

Seneca Township

The western part of Woodstock is in Seneca Township.

It’s where one of my ancestors settled in the 1830′s before deciding to more east to Ypsilanti, Michigan.

Its Town Fund is at a rate that will take a long time to reach the 25 cent maximum.

Its Road District funds are well below their maximums, too.

Today let’s look at the cost of maintaining township roads.

As you can see, the cost varies a lot,.

So do the number of miles of roads for which the various township road commissioners are responsible for maintaining.

The townships with the most miles of streets and roads are the largest three, Nunda, McHenry and Algonquin.

The reason is the large number of unincorporated subdivisions in McHenry County.

A ranking of the road miles follows:

• Nunda – 98
• McHenry – 95
• Algonquin – 58
• Coral – 56
• Riley – 47
• Greenwood – 46
• Dunham – 43
• Hartland – 43
• Hebron – 40
• Seneca – 40
• Alden – 37
• Dorr – 38
• Marengo – 36
• Chemung – 33
• Richmond – 33
• Grafton – 27
• Burton – 13

The amount each township road commissioner spends per mile of road maintained follows:

Dorr Township Garage

• Algonquin -$67,681
• McHenry – $35,862
• Nunda – $33,413
• Dorr – $30,743
• Grafton – $27,134
• Greenwood – $21,582
• Richmond – $14,117
• Marengo – $13,569
• Chemung – $12,135
• Burton – $11,547
• Dunham – $8,745
• Seneca – $6,521
• Hartland – 5,906
• Hebron – $5,488
• Coral – $4,799
• Alden – $4,178
• Riley – $2,889

Today McHenry County Blog looks at the cost of township government in McHenry County.

The cost per person is the column that I find most interesting.  Below you will see them listed from lowest cost to highest cost for the non-road commissioner part of the bill:

The Dorr Township Hall in Woodstock.

• Chemung – $18
• Algonquin – $20
• Grafton – $20
• Burton – $24
• Greenwood – $29
• Nunda – $29
• Coral – $31
• Dorr – $31
• Richmond – $38


Grafton Township Hall

• McHenry – $39
• Marengo – $40
• Dunham – $58
• Hebron – $58
• Seneca – $58
• Riley – $67
• Hartland – $98
• Alden – $99

With the exception of Chemung, Burton and Coral Townships, the low cost townships tend to be those with the largest populations.

Conversely, those townships with the highest cost per person tend to be the smallest townships.

Townships, of course, can be minimalist in nature or take on tasks which are clearly optional.

The cost of township roads on Monday.

Today we look at the last three McHenry County Townships alphabetically speaking. They are Nunda, Richmond and Riley Townships.

Nunda Township gets a Gold Star for having precinct committeemen in every precinct. It is the only large township to attain that status. Vacancies exist in Algonquin,Grafton and McHenry Townships, as seen in previous days’ articles.

Richmond has three openings. Riley has but one precinct and it is filled.

Here are the maps of Nunda and Richmond Townships. Riley Township has only one precinct.

If you are interested in helping out, drop me an email or email Republican Party Chairman Mike Tryon directly.

 

Pete Gonigam’s First Electric Newspaper reported it first, but he didn’t have the map you see below.

What you see in orange is the new area within McHenry County designated by the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Development as “Targeted Employment Area under the Alien Entrepreneur Visa Program.”

The yellow sections on the map are already so designated.

So, what does it mean?

Under the irreverently coined “buy a visa” program, foreigners with $1 million to invest in an approved job creation enterprise may obtain entry to the United States of America.

However, if the economic development occurs within a “Targeted Employment Area,” the required investment decreases to $500,000.

As you can see two townships—Riley and Chemung—previously were eligible for the smaller “entry fee.”

With the expansion of the Woodstock Greenwood Township section, whose northern edge is Ware Road (the street between the McHenry County Jail and the Administrative Building), to include the rural part of Dorr Township, Lakewood gains a potential source of investment for its part of the intersection of Routes 47 and 176. So does Woodstock as it expands southward toward Route 176.

The rural Dorr Township area was eligible because the census tract had an unemployment rate of 14.2% is 153% of the national average of 9.3%. (An area must be at least at the 150% level.)

Note that the connection is at a point. Only the edges of the census tracts touch. (See black mark on map.)

A January 6th letter from Lakewood Village President to Warren Ribley, Executive Director of the DCCA, states that “the proposed project” will employee “800 temporary and 400 permanent individuals.”

It references a January 7th letter to Village Manager Catherine Peterson from New York City attorney Stephen Yale-Loehr.

He delivers an affirmative answer as to whether the census tract can be designated a “Targeted Employment Area for EB-5 (the name of the “buy a visa” program) purposes.”

He points out his co-authorship of “Immigration Law and Procedure, the leading 20-volume immigration law treatise,” plus his teaching immigration law at Cornell Law School.

He has been a member or in a leadership position in the American Immigration Lawyers Association EB-5 Investors Committee since 1996.

And he says why this particular census tract, which contains the area proposed for the SportsPlex is eligible for a Targeted Employment Area designation.

DCCA apparently agreed with Yale-Loehr’s logic. That’s what DCCA Research Manager Edwin R. Taft’s February 16th letter indicates.