McHenry County Blog

A press release from Grafton Township Supervisor Linda Moore:

Residents of Grafton Township now have the ability to show the members of the township board how they would cast their vote regarding the township tax levies for the Township and Road District. By visiting the township website, www.graftontownshipsupervisor.us residents can vote on whether they want to see the board increase the levies, decrease the levies, or levy for a zero change in the levy.

The place on the page to register your opinion looks like this.

“As the Township Supervisor, I will use this poll to determine how I will vote when this matter comes before the board. I hope the rest of the board will also consider the public’s response when they determine their vote sometime in December. The question that is being posed is as follows:

If you were on the Grafton Township Board, how would you vote regarding the Levy? (A Levy is the use of government authority to impose or collect a tax.)

1. I would increase the levy.
2. I would decrease the levy.
3. I would make no change to the levy.

The website has had more than 15,000 hits to date. It includes township financial information, press releases, upcoming township events, meeting video and audio recordings, food pantry hours, financial assistance information and downloadable forms, a sign-up form to receive emails from the township, etc. Please visit here and vote on the

• increase or
• decrease

of township taxes.

Thanks to Capitol Fax Blog for the following:

Meanwhile, Reuters columnist David Clay Johnston reports that Navistar, Continental Tire, Motorola, Ford, Chrysler, Mitsubishi and other big Illinois companies are keeping the state taxes deducted from their workers’ paychecks. “If you’re already on the payroll, they get to get keep half of them,” Johnston says. “If you’re a new hire, they get to keep all of them.”

The video is below.

This is so simply unbelievable I can’t figure out why I haven’t heard about it before

If you own a small business, shouldn’t you get the same tax break?

Jack Franks

A Jack Franks’ bill that would prevent most local governments from getting more money in year two than they did in year one if real estate assessments are declining flew out of the House Revenue Committee 6-1 Tuesday.

There is a caveat in the legislation.

Voters could approve a higher percentage increase by referendum.

This is bill that will be fought tooth and nail by all non-Home Rule units.

Home Rule units are those municipalities with over 25,000 people, plus those, like Barrington Hills, where local voters have approved the Home Rule status by referendum. Cook County is also a Home Rule unit.

Home Rule units have no taxing limits.

All the other tax district, schools, parks, counties, small villages and cities, townships, etc., would have their tax take capped under this proposal

The bill has been placed on “Short Debate,” which means only two people may speak on each side of the issue.

You can safely assume that more will want to talk.

Proponents to make points for the taxpaying public and those who view their role as primarily protecting the self-interest of schools and other tax districts to defend them.

My guess is that the bill will not clear both houses of the Illinois General Assembly.

And, if it does, who knows what this on-again, off-again progressive government will do. He owes an awful lot to public employee–including teachers’–unions and less money from taxpayers potentially means less money for them.

The Rockford Register-Star Building

Chuck Sweeney, the political editor of the Rockford Register-Star came up with something I have not seen elsewhere:

“I never cease to be amazed at how brain dead the national political debate has become.

“Consider President Barack Obama’s news conference last Wednesday, in which he railed against tax breaks for corporate jet buyers.

“These rich fat cats should pay up, he said six times.

“Problem is, it’s HIS tax break.

“Obama came up with it to save and create jobs in the domestic general aviation industry.

“The tax credit was in the 2009 stimulus bill, and it was a darned good idea.

“But it’s only worth $3 billion, or about a week and a half worth of the unwinnable (ask the Brits and the Russians) Afghanistan war.

“To borrow from a famous John Kerry line: Obama was for the corporate jet tax break before he was against it.”

He also comments in the column on the loss of Rockford political power under the Illinois Democrats’ reapportionment map.

Here’s a newsletter to constituents from Crystal Lake’s State Rep. Mike Tryon:

Dear Friend,

As many of you know, I have been working aggressively for the past two years to pass transparency legislation that will show taxpayers how their money is being spent by state government. I am thrilled to announce that today the Senate approved my legislation to create the Illinois Transparency and Accountability Portal – the strongest transparency reform in our state’s history. House Bill 35 now heads to the Governor’s desk to be signed into law.

The legislation was suggested to me by Americans for Prosperity, a grassroots activist organization leading the charge for transparency in Illinois and throughout the nation. The legislation requires the Department of Central Management Services to create a transparent website detailing nearly every financial transaction of state government including:

state expenditures,

state contracts,

tax credits and

salaries of state employees.

I am extremely confident that this website will help reduce the culture of political handouts and wasteful government spending that has destroyed the public’s trust in state government. The Illinois Transparency and Accountability Portal will hold elected officials accountable to the taxpayer. Opening the checkbook of state government up for public scrutiny will help reduce the state’s $12 billion budget deficit that continues to grow under the secrecy and back-room deals of our state’s leaders.

I also believe the Illinois Accountability Portal will ultimately reduce the number of Freedom of Information Requests that the state must process and be a deterrent for employee discrimination and ghost pay rolling.

Specifically, the Illinois Accountability Portal would provide the public with direct access to:

• State Employees & Consultants: a database of all current state employees and individual consultants, sorted separately by name, agency, position title, current pay rate and year-to-date pay
• State Expenditures: a database of all current state expenditures, sorted separately by agency, category, customer and representative district
• Tax Credits: a database of all current state tax credits, sorted by tax credit category, customer and representative district
• Sales Tax Breaks: a database of all revocations and suspensions of state occupation and use tax certificates of registration and all revocations and suspensions of state professional licenses sorted by name, geographic location and certificate of registration number or license number, as applicable. Professional licenses revocations and suspensions shall be posted only if resulting from a failure to pay taxes, license fees, or child support.
• State Contracts: a database of all current state contracts, sorted separately by contractor name, awarding officer or agency, contract value, and goods or services provided.

If you believe like I do that we must create a transparent government that is open and honest with the public about how their money is being spent – then contact Governor Quinn and ask him to sign House Bill 35 into law today. Call Governor Quinn at 312-814-2121 or 217-782-0244.

As always, do not hesitate to contact me with questions or concerns at (815) 459-6453.

Sincerely,

Michael W. Tryon
Illinois State Representative

What I see that is missing is contributions by those listed and their officers, if a corporation.

McHenry’s Steve Stanek is really disturbed about his city council’s having given a huge tax break to Gary Lang Auto Group. I could re-write his missives, but I’ve decided to let you read them as I did.

Stanek is a Research Fellow at Chicago’s Heartland Institute and Managing Editor of Budget & Tax News, He says he can’t believe how “gullible” city council members were.

First, his note to me:

Cal,

McHenry on Monday night committed a huge outrage.

They granted hundreds of thousands of dollars of sales tax “rebates” annually for 20 years to Gary Lang Auto Group.

This will total millions of dollars and could conceivably cover the entire cost of his expansion.

Meanwhile, just a little north of Lang on Route 31 is Buss Ford, which expanded to its new location less than 10 years ago and recently expanded again by adding Lincoln-Mercury, all with no sales tax subsidies.

Here’s a letter I sent to the mayor and city council (have received no response) and to the NW Herald, which has not published the letter but probably will, as they called to confirm it with me. Here’s a link to the NW Herald article. Last I checked there were four comments, all slamming the city’s move. 

Steve

Stanek’s letter to his council follows:

Dear Mayor Low and City Council Members:

I have just learned the city council is about to consider tax breaks potentially totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars a year for Gary Lang Auto Group.

I cannot state strongly enough my objections to this proposal.

Why not also do this for Buss Ford and Sunnyside Dodge and Extreme Jeep and all the used car dealers? If you do it for them, why not also for every business in the city?

It puts the city council in the position of having a direct interest in seeing the success of Gary Lang, possibly over the success of other car dealers, if for no other reason than to keep the city’s “investment” in Lang looking good.

It will force other businesses and individuals to pay more taxes than they otherwise should pay to subsidize Lang, shifting tax burdens onto the shoulders of smaller businesses and homeowners.

I read the comments from Steve Murgatroyd saying Lang might take his new dealerships elsewhere. What a joke. The expense of opening entirely new facilities elsewhere would be far greater than keeping them where Lang already has land, buildings, equipment, and trained staff. It’s a threat repeated thousands of times around the country by businesspeople none too proud to beg for tax dollars to make them wealthier. It’s almost always an empty threat intended to give cover to the elected officials who give away the money.

If the owner of a small business were to ask for this treatment, the person would be laughed out of city hall. Yet the owner of a big business can beg for tax dollars and be rewarded.

You are elected to represent all the people and businesses in this community equally and fairly. Instead, we have local government playing favorites, saying we will squeeze every nickel we can get from some people and give special breaks to others. This is not good government. If anything it is a reason for cynicism toward government.

It is patently unfair and conflates business decisions with political decisions, making decisions in both realms suspect.

Sincerely,

Steve Stanek
McHenry, IL

And, here is Stanek’s letter to the Northwest Herald:

To the editor:
 

McHenry may do the impossible. City officials are considering hundreds of thousands of dollars of sales tax rebates annually for 20 years to Lang Auto Group, which never has and never will pay sales tax.
 
No retailer pays sales tax. Customers pay it. Retailers collect it and send it to the state, which keeps some and sends the rest to local governments.
 
At no time does sales tax money belong to Lang. It is impossible to rebate money to someone who never owned it.
 
A “rebate” to Lang would be a pure gift of the public’s money. This would be unfair to Lang’s competitors and to the public who paid the tax and would have to pay higher taxes to cover the give-away.
 
If McHenry wants to rebate sales tax collected by Lang, the city should send the money to people who pay it – Lang’s customers.
 
Steve Stanek
McHenry, IL 60050

McHenry’s Steve Stanek is really disturbed about his city council’s having given a huge tax break to Gary Lang Auto Group. I could re-write his missives, but I’ve decided to let you read them as I did.

Stanek is a Research Fellow at Chicago’s Heartland Institute and Managing Editor of Budget & Tax News, He says he can’t believe how “gullible” city council members were.

First, his note to me:

Cal,

McHenry on Monday night committed a huge outrage.

They granted hundreds of thousands of dollars of sales tax “rebates” annually for 20 years to Gary Lang Auto Group.

This will total millions of dollars and could conceivably cover the entire cost of his expansion.

Meanwhile, just a little north of Lang on Route 31 is Buss Ford, which expanded to its new location less than 10 years ago and recently expanded again by adding Lincoln-Mercury, all with no sales tax subsidies.

Here’s a letter I sent to the mayor and city council (have received no response) and to the NW Herald, which has not published the letter but probably will, as they called to confirm it with me. Here’s a link to the NW Herald article. Last I checked there were four comments, all slamming the city’s move. 

Steve

Stanek’s letter to his council follows:

Dear Mayor Low and City Council Members:

I have just learned the city council is about to consider tax breaks potentially totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars a year for Gary Lang Auto Group.

I cannot state strongly enough my objections to this proposal.

Why not also do this for Buss Ford and Sunnyside Dodge and Extreme Jeep and all the used car dealers? If you do it for them, why not also for every business in the city?

It puts the city council in the position of having a direct interest in seeing the success of Gary Lang, possibly over the success of other car dealers, if for no other reason than to keep the city’s “investment” in Lang looking good.

It will force other businesses and individuals to pay more taxes than they otherwise should pay to subsidize Lang, shifting tax burdens onto the shoulders of smaller businesses and homeowners.

I read the comments from Steve Murgatroyd saying Lang might take his new dealerships elsewhere. What a joke. The expense of opening entirely new facilities elsewhere would be far greater than keeping them where Lang already has land, buildings, equipment, and trained staff. It’s a threat repeated thousands of times around the country by businesspeople none too proud to beg for tax dollars to make them wealthier. It’s almost always an empty threat intended to give cover to the elected officials who give away the money.

If the owner of a small business were to ask for this treatment, the person would be laughed out of city hall. Yet the owner of a big business can beg for tax dollars and be rewarded.

You are elected to represent all the people and businesses in this community equally and fairly. Instead, we have local government playing favorites, saying we will squeeze every nickel we can get from some people and give special breaks to others. This is not good government. If anything it is a reason for cynicism toward government.

It is patently unfair and conflates business decisions with political decisions, making decisions in both realms suspect.

Sincerely,

Steve Stanek
McHenry, IL

And, here is Stanek’s letter to the Northwest Herald:

To the editor:
 

McHenry may do the impossible. City officials are considering hundreds of thousands of dollars of sales tax rebates annually for 20 years to Lang Auto Group, which never has and never will pay sales tax.
 
No retailer pays sales tax. Customers pay it. Retailers collect it and send it to the state, which keeps some and sends the rest to local governments.
 
At no time does sales tax money belong to Lang. It is impossible to rebate money to someone who never owned it.
 
A “rebate” to Lang would be a pure gift of the public’s money. This would be unfair to Lang’s competitors and to the public who paid the tax and would have to pay higher taxes to cover the give-away.
 
If McHenry wants to rebate sales tax collected by Lang, the city should send the money to people who pay it – Lang’s customers.
 
Steve Stanek
McHenry, IL 60050