The City of Crystal Lake must notify all of the tax districts who will be affected when it proposes a Tax Increment Financing (TIF) district.
When the city did so, only three decided it was worth their time to take a look at the proposed Vulcan Lakes/Route 13 and the Main Street TIFs. The three were School Districts 47 and 155, plus the Crystal Lake Park District.
All three have taken the tack that they should protect their taxpaying public, even though none would actually lose any money under the TIFs.
The reason no tax district needs to lose money is that they are all beneath their tax rate limits. When they lose up to $100 million per year in assessed valuation of the 23-year duration of the TIF, they can just raise their tax rates.
This is a direct result of the operation of the property tax cap for over ten years. The tax cap limits non-Home Rule tax districts to an increase in their “tax takes” of whatever the Consumer Price Index increases. Since real estate values in McHenry County regularly exceed the CPI, the tax cap forces districts to have lower tax rates.
Missing in action are at least the following tax districts who will have to shift future taxes from the businesses in the proposed TIF districts to the rest of the area’s homeowners and businesses:
McHenry County
McHenry County College
McHenry County Conservation District
McHenry County Mental Health Board
Algonquin Township
Nunda Township
The McHenry County Board Chairman and the Algonquin Township Supervisor were contacted concerning opposing the TIF districts, but neither responded.
Had any one of them been willing to attend Friday’s Joint Review Committee meeting on whether the TIFs should be recommended to be approved or not and voted in the negative with High School District 155, both of the TIFs would now have to achieve 5 of the 7 council votes. Lacking their participation or direction on the Main Street TIF by the Crystal Lake Park Board and Grade School District 47, it will can be imposed on taxpayers throughout McHenry County with only the bare majority of 4 council votes.