Part of the crowd at the Lakewood SSA meeting Tuesday night.
At last night’s meeting of the Lakewood Village Board, residents were masses in support and opposition of the creation of a Special Service Area tax district that would collect a maximum of 15 cents per $100 of assessed valuation for fifty years.
The purpose was to maintain the lakes in Turnberry Subdivision, which, without aeration and weed control would turn green in the summer.
The argument was that such a condition would lower property values.
The crowd of supporters of the $150-$200 a year tax outweighed the number, mainly from Muirfield Drive.
Park Place at the corner of Oak and Woodstock Streets in Crystal Lake is where the meeting will be held.
A subtext of the meeting, however, was over-taxation for the current year for the 25-year SSA that is expiring.
It also has a 15 cent per $100 of AV tax rate,
But last year, tax bills said 18 cents per $100 was collected.
There was clear resentment.
This morning I woke up wondering what would happen if such a crowd were able to attend the Crystal Lake Chamber of Commerce meeting with tax district officials tomorrow morning, Thursday, September 24th, from 7:30 am – 9:00 am. at Park Place located at 406 W. Woodstock St in Crystal Lake.
The meeting will feature spokes people from
meeting featuring representatives from
- the McHenry County Board
- District 155
- District 47
- Crystal Lake Public Library
- the Crystal Lake Park District
These tax districts levy over 80% of local tax bills.
Talk will be about thousands of tax dollars, not $150-$200.
There will be time for some questions.
Maybe someone will ask the Grade School District why it always takes the maximum amount possible under the Property Tax Cap.
(The answer will be, “If we don’t take it, we lose it forever.” The converse is also true, “If they don’t take it, taxpayers save it forever.”)
The Chamber asks people to register by going to www.clchamber.com. For more information contact the Crystal Lake Chamber at info@clchmaber.com. The phone number is 815-459-1300.
The full press release from the Chamber is here.
The Lakewood Village Board, by the way, accepted the official protest by the Muirfield Drive. Officials action will be taken on whether to approve or disapprove the SSA after a sixty-day period during which opponents have the opportunity to kill it by getting 50% of the property owners and 50% of the registered voters to sign a petition.
Cal has once again wrote a gem of an article focusing on what really matters: the big money.
As stated in “Sutton’s Law,” focusing on school and county boards has a very high potential ROI on people’s time “Because that’s where the money is.”
Al: Nah!
You’re just saying that because you work for a Township. 🙂
Anderson / Shorten / Salgado think you and your fellow Townships are the biggest problem!
Why on earth is this scheduled for a Thursday from 7:30 am to 9 am?
I can only assume they are hoping for a small turn out so people can’t come and ask the school district rep. any hard questions.
My husband works and starts at 6 am so he can’t be there and I have 4 kids to get off to school.
The timing of this in ridiculous.
jgkm6,
In my opinion the timing of this is very well planned hoping for a low turnout!
Cal,
I see how you mislead at the start. The Tax will be $250-700. Maybe an empty lot is 150. So lets have the facts right.
It’s NOT the tax amount, it’s how it was rammed through without the majority of the residents knowledge. The TPA and residents that live on the lake have a mission, pay for their shore cleanup.
What is typical here is that if you have a different opinion, or maybe a different idea on how to do this, you are painted as cheap and are crying about $150. Instead of actually having a discussion. As you proved in your comments.
Yea, there were ALL the Lake house residents there, they want their shore taken care of and have everybody else pay for it. So I expected more from that side. Most of the residents have school activities and know the fix was in, so why bother!
They were right!
The figure was not mind.
Someone said it.
Maybe some one can ask the D-47 representatives why they don’t begin the school consolidation process to operate more efficiently.
Or why they staff each K-5 school with both a Principal AND an Assistant Principal?
I’m not aware of any other district in the county that staffs their K-5 buildings with two senior, highly paid, administrators.
Well the meeting was for the Lakewood tax.
So why talk about other issues.
The new SSA8 is being rammed down a specific group of residents that had no input.
That’s just wrong!
It only cleans weeds and the shore of the lakes, that only benefits the lake owners.
NO Fish stocking, NO water maintenance, NO lake enhancements, NO Lake level conditions.
OH but it has a catch all clause for consulting that can be used as their slush fund for more money miss management.
(Leasing aeration system for 30k, was purchased for 7k, cleaning dead fish on the shore 9k, 250k for some Turnberry dredging of their ponds.
It only does weed maintenance.
AND when the other homeowners find out they NO LONGER have lake rights, im sure that will be another issue. Or were we lied to about that as well?
The board misleads the residents, The Lakewood attorney flat out told a non truth (being nice).
He was asked if this tax was in motion and could only be stopped by a total revolt.
He said NO they were still looking at the objections and it could be ended here.
Guess what its in motion.
The fix is in.
WE ALL KNOW IT.
THIS IS A 50 YR TAX, it should be done right!