McHenry County Blog

Since McHenry County Blog was started in reaction to the Crystal Lake City Council’s putting Route 14 next to the Vulcan gravel pit in a Tax Increment Financing District, perhaps you will excuse me for returning to the subject once in a while.

For those with memories that don’t go back to 2005, the Vulcan Lake TIF District was going to finance the Three Oaks Recreational Area (TORA, for short).

But right after picking Bill Cellini’s firm to do the development work, Cellini was identified as one of those “Person A” or some other designation in a U.S. Attorney’s indictment.

Cellini, who made substantial sums for the Teachers Retirement Fund from real estate investments pulled himself out of the TIF District management and, eventually, his firm withdrew as well.

Of course, anyone who drives past that Route 14 TIF district knows there has been no real estate appreciation that could possibly have paid for TORA’s development.

So, the City Council decided to high its share of the sales tax by 75% to do the same thing.

That brings us to the question of who pays for TIF-financed projects.

The answer is you, if you live or own property in McHenry County.

In his column on Thursday, the Sun-Times’ Mark Brown reminds readers of that in the context of the DePaul basketball stadium to be subsidized by Cook County taxpayers.

The emphasized paragraph says, “TIF districts, as I hope The Reader’s Ben Joravsky has taught most of you by now, are property tax payments the city siphons from a specific geographic area to pay for a mayor’s pet projects–depriving the schools, park district and other local taxing bodies of their share.”

Although it will be on the Chicago lakefront, every taxpayer in any tax district covering McCormick Place will help pay for it as other tax districts raise their tax takes in order to cover future losses of assessed valuation.

The Vulcan Lake TIF District will suck millions out of the property tax bills of homeowners and businessmen throughout McHenry County over the next twenty or so years. Until other tax districts reach their statutory maximum every tax district that includes part of the Three Oaks Recreation Area will be able to raise their tax rates to make up for the revenue lost in the Route 14 TIF District.

Included on the Tax Rate Calculation page of the McHenry County Clerk’s Office are totals for taxes levied on property within TIF Districts.

Tax Increment Financing Districts are mechanisms that allow municipalities to pry money out everyone in McHenry County who have property outside of the district in question.

This past year the following was taxed so that city councils and village boards could have what amount to unaccountable petty cash funds to distribute to those with property within the TIF districts.

Here’s who taxed the rest of us for how much:

• Cary – $115,681.46
• Cary 2 – $17,531.96
• Crystal Lake Virginia St. – $84,186.88
• Crystal Lake Main St. – $48,186.88
• Crystal Lake Vulcan Lakes – $25,112.22
• Fox River Grove – $501,280.62
• Harvard 2004 – $217,092,10
• Harvard 2005 – $203,854.06
• Harvard – $104,076.14
• Marengo Northside – -0-
• McHenry – $501,261.32
• Woodstock – $648,210.88

A 2007 Cub Scout meeting caused me to miss Springfield politician-developer Bill Cellini’s appearance before the Crystal Lake City Council the day it awarded the contract for the development of the Vulcan Lakes TIF District.

It wasn’t until a Northwest Herald reporter put it together in late November, I think, that I found out.

Having worked under the direction of Cellini is the 1971 Springfield mayoral campaign of Denny Kelley, I certainly would have recognized him at that city council meeting when he and had colleagues got the go-ahead to re-make Route 14 adjacent to what is now called Three Oaks Recreation Area.

Shortly after Cellini was identified by Chicago media as one of the unidentified people in Tony Rezko’s indictment, Cellini withdrew from the Crystal Lake deal.

That was done for political damage control reasons.

Certainly, Cellini is a smart enough guy to have provided value to the so-far failed efforts to re-develop Route 14.

Besides have gotten to know Bill and his delightful wife Julie back in 1971 when they still lived in a bottom floor condo on what was then a two-lane road which is not a major four-lane Springfield street, I am reminded of him pretty much every time I stay in a hotel or a motel.

He invested the curved shower curtain rod, which was first installed at the Springfield hotel on which he and fellow investors got quite a deal from state government under Governor Jim Thompson and Treasurer Jerry Cosentino. (So did former Dan Walker IDOT Rest Stop Inspector Gary Fears in Collinsville.)

Bill Cellini’s curved shower curtain rod was in use in our hotel in Montreal.

His or probably knocked off curved curtain rods are now the industry standard.

More of my memories of Cellini can be found here.

One of the several deputies fired by McHenry County Sheriff Keith Nygren has brain cancer.

Unfortunately, his firing, coming after he was deposed in Zane Seipler’s Federal wrongful termination suit, came when he apparently needed health coverage.

His daughter tells the story below:

Here’s the route of the 5K walk/run:

Click to enlarge.

The event will be held at Vulcan Lakes. If you do not have a Crystal Lake City Sticker, you will be charged $5 to park. Or you can park near the Harris Bank and walk in without paying the toll.

Details follow:

John Kass writes about Bill Cellini's laugh.

In Friday’s Chicago Tribune column, John Kass wrote about Bill Cellini’s laugh.

I sensed Kass believed that when Cellini laughed incriminated him. Read the piece and draw your own conclusion.

And, if you want to hear Cellini’s laugh listen to the YouTube video of Cellini interaction with Crystal Lake Mayor Aaron Shepley.

I note that the Northwest Herald ran a front page story about Cellini’s trail Friday, but did not mention he and colleagues won the Vulcan Lakes Tax Increment Financing (TIF) District development bid. I find that a bit strange because the NW Herald broke the story.

In any event, take a listen below:

Here’s a longer version that puts the snippet above in context:

I claim no knowledge that the Crystal Lake City Council might be contemplating another Tax Increment Financing District east of the one altering the “streetscape” between the stone cemetery monuments at Pizza Hut and across the street from Kwik Kopy.

Can Crystal Lake City Council members how out-of-place the electric lines and tall street lights appear east of the current Tax Increment Financing District?

But look at how different Route 14 looks east of Pizza Hit, compared to in the Tax Increment Financing District where there are no above ground power lines and the street lights are now short and black.

Will the Crystal Lake City Council be able to stand  the inconsistency?

Or will they conclude, “What the heck?   TIF money is free.  Let’s form another TIF District and make it look pretty, too?”

Will this be called TIFhedge years from now? As with Stonehedge, will people ask, "What does it mean?" Wait a minute. People are already asking that question.

What Mayor Aaron Shepley and council members want Crystal Lakers to believe is that Tax Increment Financing money doesn’t cost them anything.

Wrong, as a Chicago Reader reporter has virtually made a career writing about.

When municipalities create these little tax monsters. the result is that all other overlapping tax districts will raise their tax rates in order to capture the lost increase in assessed value stolen to benefit projects in the TIF District.

In the case of the Virginia Street TIF District, we’re talking

• McHenry County
• McHenry County Conservation District
• McHenry County Tuberculosis District
• High School District 155
• Grade School District 47
• Algonquin Township
• Algonquin Township Road & Bridge District
• Crystal Lake Park District
• Crystal Lake Library

Have I missed any tax districts that cover the Virginia Street TIP District?

On, I forgot the rest of Crystal Lake.

Taxpayers from throughout McHenry County will paying off local TIF priojects long after others of us are in a graveyard or an urn. And, come to think of it, some of these monuments in the Dundee Township Cemetery look like the two on Virginia Street.

Those who pay taxes to all of these tax districts will be the ones who pay for the new street lights, the new sidewalks, the fewer parking spaces, the new planters (complete with sprinklers).

City Council folks want people to believe that TIF improvements are free.

Well, most of us learned a long time ago that there is no free lunch. Or as the invitations come to us older folks for a free dinner, there is an investment pitch one must pay. At Wilderness Territory, we offered a $50 credit card, plus $100 off a restaurant meal if we would listen to a pitch for a condo or a time sharing deal, an offer quickly rejected.

The problem with TIFs is that there is no referendum. There isn’t even widespread understanding of how they raise taxes on people who have no idea that this sneaky tax hike affects them.

= = = = =
A reader named Mark has left some insightful comments about TIF districts under this article entitled, “Waste”:

The Virginia Street Corridor TIF district is basically between Pizza Hut, 282 Virginia Street (Route 14) and Petco, 230 Virginia Street, in Crystal Lake.

It thus extends northwest from about Coventry (Pizza Hut), past Linn, McHenry, VanBuren, Washington, Pomeroy, King, Florence, Dole, Lakeshore Drive, to Carpenter (Petco).

VIRGINIA STREET CORRIDOR TAX INCREMENT FINANCING REDEVELOPMENT PLAN AND PROGRAM City of Crystal Lake, Illinois, February 2005
http://www.crystallake.org/Modules/ShowDocument.aspx?documentid=519

A 50 page document stating:

Total Estimated Project Costs: $9,291,000

2003 Equalized Assessed Valuations: $9,845,120

It is estimated that the incremental increase in property taxes over the term of the TIF District in 2003 dollars will be $12,085,875.

Upon the completion of anticipated redevelopment projects it is estimated that the equalized assessed valuation of real property within the Project Area will be in excess of $26,080,000.

This represents an approximate 165% increase in the total equalized assessed valuation.

The following taxing districts cover the proposed Project Area:

Algonquin Township, Algonquin Township Road and Bridge, City of Crystal Lake Fire, Crystal Lake Park District, City of Crystal Lake, College District #528, Crystal Lake Library, McHenry County, McHenry County Conservation District, School District #47, and School District #155.

Mark also provides information on the Main Street TIF district:

CRYSTAL LAKE AVENUE AND MAIN STREET TAX INCREMENT FINANCING REDEVELOPMENT PLAN AND PROGRAM, August 2005
http://www.crystallake.org/Modules/ShowDocument.aspx?documentid=518

Total Estimated Project Costs $35,000,000

The total 2004 equalized assessed valuation of the Project Area is $3,284,169.

The following 14 taxing districts cover the proposed redevelopment project area:

Algonquin Township, Algonquin Township Road and Bridge, Nunda Township, Nunda Township Road and Bridge, Nunda Township Cemetery, City of Crystal Lake Fire District, Crystal Lake Library District, Crystal Lake Park District, College District #528, McHenry County, McHenry County Conservation District, School District #47, School District #155, and City of Crystal Lake.

The principal source of funds will be the incremental increase in real property taxes attributable to the increase in the equalized assessed value of each taxable lot, block, tract or parcel of real property in the project area over the initial equalized assessed value of each such lot, block, tract or parcel.

Finally, Mark left this about the Vulcan Lakes TIF project:

VULCAN LAKES TAX INCREMENT FINANCING REDEVELOPMENT PLAN AND PROGRAM, August 2005

http://www.crystallake.org/Modules/ShowDocument.aspx?documentid=516

Total Estimated Project Costs $30,000,000

The total 2004 equalized assessed valuation of the Project Area is $4,786,053.

The following 11 taxing districts cover the proposed redevelopment project area:

Algonquin Township, Algonquin Township Road and Bridge, City of Crystal Lake Fire District, Crystal Lake Library District, Crystal Lake Park District, College District #528, McHenry County, McHenry County Conservation District, School District #47, School District #155, City of Crystal Lake.