Conservation District Budget – Part 18 Acres and Trail Miles

The final shot at convincing the McHenry County Board of the importance of the McHenry County Conservation District’s mission consists of acreage and miles of trails.

Whether that and the other arguments for the budget proposed in April will keep McHenry County Board Chairman Jack Franks from forcing the 5% rumored levy reduction remains to be seen.


Comments

Conservation District Budget – Part 18 Acres and Trail Miles — 7 Comments

  1. So Cal IYO is Jack right or wrong trying to force a levy reduction by MCCD?

  2. The first thing to figure out is all the unfunded liabilities and debt.

    The County doesn’t bother to put all that in one nice easy to read document.

    Neither does anyone else.

    Until that happens the politicians can keep saying blah blah blah to the clueless taxpayers.

    It would be like if you didn’t know how much you owed on your credit card, but you wanted to cut costs.

  3. This relates to my post in Part 7 regarding the excessive number of acres under management by the County.

    The (shrinking) population of the County cannot afford the operating cost structure necessary to support this 70% increase in acreage.

    It should have probably stayed at its 2001 level of 14,902 acres.

    The County should begin to look at divesting itself of a lot of its excess holdings in order to reduce its operating cost structure that exists today and use the proceeds to abate and/or defease the outstanding debt that currently burdens the taxpayer.

    That debt service burden currently stands at $11.7 million/year.

    The County should begin the process to force-rank its properties based on marketability and value.

    The secondary benefit would be the longterm incremental property tax revenue that would come with any new development from the divested property.

    The County should work with the local municipalities/school districts/etc. to formulate a plan regarding each targeted property and its potential effects on each community.

  4. The county should sell the nursing home it has no business owning.

  5. Hey Coffey,

    You are in idiot. The MCCD is doing all the things it needs to by statute which was approved by the public in referendum in 1971.

    Those are: natural areas preservation, outdoor education, and passive public recreation (ie. not a park district which has ballfields, etc.)

    For the real cost to you as a taxpayer why don’t you find another organization that gives residents more for the dollar.

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