From the Northwest Herald came the following response to an internet poll concerning the future of township government.
Since township officials are taking office today, it seems appropriate to share them with you.
55% of Northwest Herald internet readers said that township government should be abolished. 23% favored consolidation, wile 22% apparently like things the way they are.
Remember one thing: These are the same people who voted to add a Public Sector Pension GUARANTEE to our State Constitution.
These are same people who vote to approve school bond after school bond.
These are the same people who vote to approve bond after bond for the Conservation District.
These are the same people who supported the “round mound” time after time.
Makes all the sense in the world to eliminate the ONE TYPE OF GOVERNMENT UNIT IN THE COUNTY THAT HAS LED THE WAY IN PROPERTY TAX REDUCTION!!
I do believe Webster has a few words to describe these people.
My guess would be that nearly all of the people voting “Yes” in that survey live in a municipality and that nearly all of them live east of Highway 47.
I could agree that in cases where nearly all of the Township land is now part of an incorporated municipality there may be good arguments for dissolving the Township government.
Other than that, as Conservative Voter says, Townships have led the way in property tax REDUCTION. This level of government is made up of our neighbors, often people that we see at the coffee shop or in the stores.
This is the level of government that was intended when our country was formed.
It is the form of government that still serves us best and most frugally.
COnservative? You forgot to mention that these are the same people that voted for the lock box. I think you are wrong, Patricia. These people are voting less is more. It’s that simple in their simple minds. “Idiocracy” was a prophetic movie. You are witnessing it now.
Eliminate Townships would take State legislative action to make it happen.
Part of a good plan would be to reduce/get rid the various township levies by legislation.
Our local state legislators should be approached with a factual numbers based plan on township levy reduction/elimination.
One way reduce township levies would be to have the Municipalities part of the Road Districts levy be taken off.
Alg Twh could reduce it’s levy by 40%-45%.
Another poll: Do you agree our sunshine blogger should be part of the White House press corps? It is time to finally put our sunshine blog on the national stage where it belongs…2018, are you here yet? Tic, tock, tic, tock…
The first step to evaluate any township consolidation is transparency.
Have the townships to post all their financial documents on their websites.
Then for someone to analyze that data to determine possible savings.
Then estimate, if consolidation occurred, the hiked costs any units of consolidated labor that would likely organize into bargaining units.
Illinois state law regarding collective bargaining is very labor friendly.
Bigger labor units have more negotiating power (threat to strike).
Bigger labor units are compared to other comparable bigger labor units in collective bargaining, usually resulting in hiked labor costs.
+++++++
A historical note on consolidation of government units in Illinois:
When school districts consolidated in the past, the state typically offered financial incentives to the merged school districts.
Why would the state offer financial incentives?
To offset hiked costs.
Each consolidating is unique, but sometimes there were no actual savings from consolidating.
The so called savings were created on the backs of incentives from state taxpayers.
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If the municipal portion of a Township Road levy decreased, presumably the municipality would lobby for the ability to hike its tax levy to compensate for the lost revenue or services.
Id say the the municipal people may lobby against losing townships because they would have to raise there levies to compensate.
It’s a hidden funding, taxation, their residents don’t know about.
As far as municipalities taking over township roads, they would want annexation so they could tax the new residents at their higher rate.
If municipalities levied the same amount of dollars as currently being levied by the townships for the Municipal portion of Township Road District levies, it would be a wash to the taxpayer.
Municipal levy would increase, and township levy would decrease.
That in itself does nothing for the taxpayer.
The Northwest Herald could ask this question to the taxpayer.
Do you have enough information to evaluate whether or not consolidating or elimination townships would save taxpayers money?
+++++++
Has the Northwest Herald ever analyzed township costs and the estimated impact to the taxpayer of eliminating townships?
Who on their staff would have the time and expertise to do that?
Mark I’ve never seen any good solid numbers from the NWH and I look constantly.
The NWH just reprints the Bob Anderson no plan hate stuff.
They favor Jack of course.
No real investigative reporting.
Internet polls are worthless, and that is why no reputable polling company uses them.
Even if there were a way to stop people from voting multiple times, they would still be plagued by self-selection bias.
Wow, the NW Herald wants to save me the TWO PERCENT of my property tax bill that goes to Townships, yet it says absolutely NOTHING about the SEVENTY-THREE PERCENT that goes to “Education?”
Zero coverage of that?
And anti-Township activist Bob Anderson was a School Board Trustee, and he, too, did NOTHING about the SEVENTY-THREE PERCENT of property taxes going to “Education,” either.
Does somebody have relatives working for the school district that we don’t know about here..?
First: “Have the townships to post all their financial documents on their websites.”
Mark has indicated he wants a tax increase to support fully active websites for ALL Townships – that costs money.
Second: “the NW Herald wants to save me the TWO PERCENT of my property tax bill that goes to Townships”
The NWH could give a crap about SAVING anything on property tax.
Well its one thing to obtain all the necessary information to determine the financial viability of consolidating or folding a township, versus ongoing disclosure.
For ongoing disclosure less documents should be posted.
The townships without a website can band together and create one website.
Or they can place their audited AFR, annual budget, board minutes, board agendas, board agenda packets, and some other key documents on Google Docs and a link posted on the county website.
There are various ways to inexpensively post documents on the internet.
The smaller townships don’t have that much information to post.
The State Comptroller has some information on their website as well.
This is the year 2017.
It is not like we are in the 1990’s.
The internet has now been around for a long time.
Of the 17 townships in McHenry County, only Hebron Township does not have a web presence.
Four of the township websites (Coral Township, Dunham Township, Greenwood Township, and Hartland Township) are hosted by the Township Officials of Illinois.
Illinois Policy Institute
Bob Anderson
McHenry Township Trustee
http://www.illinoispolicy.org/story/bob-anderson-3
Illinois Policy Institute
Bob Anderson
“My bill last year was $10,000.
When I was growing up there there was not a home that cost $10,000.”
http://www.illinoispolicy.org/story/bob-anderson-2
Facebook
Illinois Policy Institute
Illinois Policy at Bob’s Countryside Barber Shoppe
July 26, 2016
A barber from Illinois is sparking a revolt against the nation’s highest property taxes.
The link is a 2:26 video
https://www.facebook.com/illinoispolicy/videos/10153885661503667
Mark, those are human interest links, provide the link to Bob’s plan!
The articles indicate his view on the issue.
He views the problem as townships being a farm club for higher office, and once in higher office, they don’t change, and the whole food chain is a good old boys club.
That does happen in some instances.
But a better approach is to treat each township individually, which requires a lot of time and effort to gather and analyze data.
He probably doesn’t have a plan that looks at all the numbers, unless he gathered all the numbers on his own via submitting FOIA requests, because all the numbers are not posted online.
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A bigger problem is we are in system rigged by state laws favoring special interests.
This has evolved over decades.
The public sector union influence on tax hiking legislation and local pay and benefits and building has resulted in unsustainable taxes, even at the current tax rates and service levels, much less the tax hikes required to meet the hiked pension and OPEB (retiree healthcare) benefits, has created a mess.
Too many politicians were in cahoots with the unions.
The legislation, pay, and benefit hikes that resulted were not disclosed to an extent the average taxpayer could grasp the consequences.
+++++
With all the townships in Illinois, undoubtedly one can find some cost savings and reforms.
The outgoing Algonquin Township Road District Commissioner just drew attention to some issues for anyone wanting to fight that fire.
But after all is said and done with any township reform, it will not substantially alter our current unsustainable trajectory.
There is no meaningful reform being considered for the really big problems faced by Illinois taxpayers.
A big reason is because the one person most responsible for creating the mess has amassed incredible political power over the last 46+ years.
And guess whose pay and benefits are now being paid for by McHenry County taxpayers.
An ex state employee who worked in his House Democrat organization.
Townships blow …. our tax $$$$
But some Illinois voters woke up and pitched in the can:http://www.westernjournalism.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/rino-splash.jpg
Sorry, Here are the IL counties where the voters wised up: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Illinois_townships#/media/File:Map_of_Illinois_highlighting_counties_without_township_government.svg
Mark a good leader is not just a mouth piece.
Perhaps you should help the old dude with your talent to search?
You seem to consider all and any changes in our gov needs careful consideration.
Most here just spew with emotion like Bob, not numbers and facts.
Be a hero!
Lol.
Most if not all the southern counties never had township form of government.
The township form of government was an import from the northeastern states that spread west to Ohio, Indiana, etc.
Illinois was first formed from the bottom up with settlers coming by way of Kentucky, the Ohio River, and Mississippi River.
The first capital was Kaskaskia from 1818 – 1820, which is south of St. Louis on the Mississippi River, and is actually west of the Mississippi now due to the Mississippi River changing its course.
The capital moved to Vandalia from 1820 – 1839, then to Springfield.
The National Road / Cumberland Road (first major road built with Federal Funds) reached Vandalia around 1837 – 1839.
Vandalia is southwest of Springfield.
correction, Vandalia is southeast of Springfield.
The Supervisor job in part is Assistance.
Lets just call it welfare as that in essence is what it is.
The Fed and State programs are some what newer and way out of control.
Perhaps those agencies should cut their work force by 90% or so in this area and let Township emloyees deal with all welfare?
I believe the addtional work load would not require more personnel.
Just a thought.