McHenry County Blog

I see the Northwest Herald has run a story today about McHenry County Sheriff Keith Nygren’s family having received two Homestead Exemptions, one in Florida and another Illinois.  (The Nygren home photo above comes from the web site of the Lee County Appraiser.)

The NW Herald story comes almost a week after former Democratic Party Coroner candidate Dave Bachmann’s blog, Dirty Keith vs. Dirty Harry posted the information.

The Herald’s “hook” was that Green Party candidate for sheriff, Gus Philpott, who publishes the blog Woodstock Advocate, wrote stories about the subject.

Nice to know the Herald reporters are still checking out what stories they might have missed by reading the blogs the paper refuses to identify by name.

Used to be, stories would even link to the blogs in question.

Not anymore.

The internet version of the story was posted at 1:20 AM, but revised over nine hours later at 10:58 AM, as you can see below.

The change I found quoted Sheriff Nygren. The printed version reads,

“…If I spend a couple of days there a year, that’s it.”

The current internet version reads,

“On Wednesday, Nygren clarifiied a previous statement and said he spends a few days at a time in Florida, which amounts to a few weeks overall. ”

The only new information I saw in the NW Herald article is that the Nygrens will owe “about $1,100” to Lee County, Florida, local governments because of Nygren’s McHenry County 2007 and 2008 Homestead Exemptions.

“This is one of those things that the Nygrens were caught in a situation that’s nobody’s fault,” McHenry County Supervisor of Assessments Donna Mayberry told me this morning, as I inquired about the family’s having Homestead Exemptions in both McHenry County and Lee County, Florida.

The little saga unfolded on McHenry County Blog over the weekend after the discover was reported on the blog written by 2008 Democratic Party Coroner’s candidate Dave Bachmann:

Dirty Keith vs. Dirty Harry

The existence of the Florida Homestead Exemption was reported on Friday, the Illinois State Board of Elections web site–reported voter registration of Marge Nygren on Saturday and the McHenry County Homestead Exemption on this year’s bill for the Hebron home on Sunday.

“We took it off,” Mayberry told me.

“They did not want the exemption here.”

Mayberry wrote a letter to the Lee County Appraiser on March 16th. You can see it below (click to enlarge):

“In our county, we do not have an application process to obtain the owner-occupied exemption.

“The local township assessor makes the determination of eligibility and certifies the information to the county.

“As a result, the Nygren property in Illinois received the exemption in 2007 and 2008, even though the property owner had not requested it and did not intend to have it.

“Unfortunately, we do not have a legal mechanism to remove the exemption for prior years. A Certificate of Error can only be done to lower the tax a property owner owes, and then only in the following calendar year, during which the taxes are due.

“Therefore, I am unable to remove the exemption for the two years in question.

“We are removing the exemption for 2009 and all subsequent years. There will be no Owner Occupied Exemptions applied to the property owned by the Nygren’s here in McHenry County.”

I pointed out that the $5,500 exemption appears on the Nygren tax bill this year, which is the 2008 tax year.

“You know what, it would be on 2008′s (the tax bill payable in 2009),” Mayberry explained.

“I can’t use a Certificate of Error that raises taxes because of ‘due process.’

“So by the time it came to light, it was too late for 2009.”

“When?” I asked.

“I wrote a letter down there dated March 16th.”

Inspired to look further into McHenry County Sheriff Keith and his wife Margarete Nygren’s ownership of a home in Cape Coral, Florida, by the blog

Dirty Keith vs. Dirty Harry

McHenry County Blog has been reporting the details of this Lee County residence.

Two days ago, it was reported that the home has a Florida Homestead Exemption. Yesterday, the question of the exemption holder, Margarete Nygren’s apparently being registered in both Florida and Illinois was explored.

Only “bona fide Florida residents living in the dwelling” can received such an exemption.

Apparently, one spouse can claim to be a resident of Florida, while another resides officially elsewhere.

In the Nygren family, wife Margarete applied for the Florida exemption.

In the Florida Homestead Exemption rules is the following (printed in boldface in the original):

“In addition, if you are married, your spouse cannot receive exemption, tax credit or rollback in any other jurisdiction. (Emphasis added.) Section 6 (b) Article VII, Fl Constitution states that not more than one exemption shall be allowed any individual or family unit. You will be asked to sign an affidavit stating that you have been informed and that you are responsible for removing any other exemption in order to qualify in Lee County.“

Therein lies the problem.

Look at the McHenry County tax bill for the Nygren’s Hebron home. Look on the lower right hand side.

The property received a Homestead Exemption of $5,500 this year.

There’s an old song entitled, “Love and Marriage.”

I remember dancing the cha-cha to it in a class right after we moved to Salt Lake City in 1953 from Easton, Maryland. Another line is

“You can’t have one with out the other.”

Of course, we are no longer in the moral universe of the 1950′s, but something similar seems relevant here.

If the song were entitled,

“Homestead Exemption,”

one of the lines might be

“You can have one, but not the other.”

Nygren Florida Home Has Homestead Exemption – Part 2

Yesterday, McHenry County Blog revealed that a home in Cape Coral, Florida, owned by Keith and Margaret Nygren has a $50,000 Homestead Exemption.

To qualify for such an exemption one of the owners must file a “Declaration of Domicle” in Florida and, if registered to vote, must be registered only in Florida.

An employee of Florida’s Lee County Assessor’s Office revealed that Keith’s wife Marge (Margarete A.) is the one who applied for the Homestead Exemption.

Since the Nygren’s live in Hebron, I went to the Illinois State Board of Elections web site and typed in Margarete Nygren and Hebron’s zip code of 60034.

Here’s what I found:

The State Board of Elections web site says the Sheriff’s wife is registered in Hebron.

That would seem to pose a problem under the Florida Homestead Exemption law.

The Morgan Real Estate Team in Martin County, Florida, explained reasons that one may lose the Homestead Exemption. Here’s one:

“Are registered to vote elsewhere. As a Martin County resident, this county must be the only place you are registered to vote. You may elect to file a declaration of domicile instead of registering to vote, but you still may not register to vote elsewhere. “

Original discoverer of the Nygren Florida Homestead Exemption was former Democratic Party candidate for McHenry County Coroner David Bachmann. He published it on his opposition research blog about Nygren, which he has entitled

Dirty Keith vs. Dirty Harry