The Northwest Herald ran front page stories on township General Assistance on last Wednesday and Thursday.
Here’s what started the reporter off, findings by Wonder Lake Bob Anderson on this local welfare system:
The first article could be considered a puff piece on the multi-decade tax fighting by former Marine Bob Anderson.
The Thursday article an article favorable to township government.
Although it was mainly about the need for General Assistance from the viewpoint of townhip officials, the front page photo has nothing to do with General Assistance.
It’s a guy getting into a bus.
The paper article looks like this:
It is a photo of a man getting on a township bus.
Township Supervisors love this because THEY become the dispenser of OUR tax dollars.
THEY have the power to determine WHO receives assistance and who does not.
They act as though it’s THEIR money to dispense and they have a personal sense of satisfaction in helping people out with that assistance.
The problem is: The Supervisor is not helping the needy…the TAXPAYER is. They act as though THEY or the Township is the “good guy”. They are NOT. The taxpayer (who they despise and regard as “deplorable”) is the “good guy”.
In fact, when I encourage people who are in need of assistance to go to a their supervisor, they are routinely TURNED DOWN. Only the politically or personally connected get “Township Assistance”.
For the newspaper to praise this program is a JOKE – and reveals their Marxist tendency. They LOVE Comrad Commissar Township Supervisor having the power to determine who gets assistance and who does not. MAGA supporters will never get assistance from these scoundrels. Climate Change activists and friends/family of the Supervisor get assistance. The average mope who is down on his luck gets shown the door by these vile Supervisors.
IT’S A SWAMP.
Thanks for that great political insight bitch.
It’s true S. Pokorny. About 8 years ago, my neighbor, now in a nursing home, bragged to me that he got $850 for his drug addict grand-daughter from McHenry Township after he “called in some favors” from the supervisor.
At the time, I was dumb and didn’t realize what a waste townships are.
MAGA supporters generally don’t qualify. I don’t think you can apply for general assistance if they spent their money on 15 flags to fly from their beater truck and $20 6-packs of “Own the Libs” beer.
Popcorn, you have revealed a deep seated BIAS against one group of people.
That means you LOVE the fact that a government hack can determine who gets our tax dollars for hardship and who does not based on political ideology – not NEED for assistance.
Leftist hacks have to deal with the reality that their policies are failures – that their policies promote Marxist governmental power over our lives.
MAGA is a movement that is MERIT based and blind to factors that LEFTISTS use as litmus tests.
Most of America is “deplorable and irredemable” red necks who “cling to the bible, religion, and guns”.
I’m just glad this hardbitten cynical journalist, was able to find the one person in the State, that is using Township services.
“Popcorn, you have revealed a deep seated BIAS against one group of people.” that is priceless as you go into a rant about the left.
“That means you LOVE ” I guess you have made a determination without asking him. Priceless.
Hunter, townships are a waste and have been for thirty years.
It’s seems to be where politicians cut their teeth , at least in McHenry County.
The Northworst Herald is beyond worthless.
Pokorny: you have revealed yourself as a vapid mind, a self-contradictory intellect, an irrational bloviator, and a fraud.
No one pays attention to your inane liberal crap you spew on this blog.
Your a Leftist troll creating nothing but the cognitive dissonence of a kindergartner in argument.
I’ll no longer respond to your posts; you’re a joke, a fraud, and you’ve revealed yourself as a liberal hack.
Stay there in the swamp.
But you found yourself having to respond. LOL
“a self-contradictory intellect,” that would be you you intellectual bankrupt blowhard.
Try a little consistency in your argument.
Accusing others of what you yourself do.
Townships? Why?
They are cash siphons for more BS.
Just look at the pervert transvestite McHenry Township Clerk do his sicko drag dance at the meetings.
He thinks he’s female, why. should the township pay for his sex change operation?$450,000!
Sicko!
Seems like there’s way too much admin costs per squandered dollar on obese black freeloaders, who have come out of nowhere to pick my pockets
Some of them definitely do appear to have a problem and should spend their accounts down while waiving taxes, but this seems like a highly variable issue that depends on which specific township you live in.
How can we quantify this problem? Well, if you summed up the amount of each township’s balance and divided that per resident of the whole county you’d have about two dollars per person. That’s what it would look like if you averaged it out. Two dollars if you were to confiscate all of the townships’ GA funds and redistribute them. Two dollars.
I would probably approve of consolidating or eliminating townships if given the chance, but I don’t understand the fervor that some folks, like Bob Anderson, have about this issue. It seems like a disproportionate amount of time and effort is spent attacking townships as hoarders of vast stashes of cash. The numbers don’t really show that in my opinion. Bob does deserve props for his perseverance though.
Many losers read this blog. How many of them will be written about in books like Bob Anderson or be on the front page of a newspaper like Bob Anderson? Probably close to zero.
Correcting, your rationale is the reasoning of a government loving, taxes are never too high, SWAMP creature.
Every government body says the same thing: Oh, it’s only xx% or it’s only an additional $17.25 per household. Year after year the park district, the library, the police, the fire fighters, the municipal works department, the township, the road commissioner, the general fun, the Supervisor’s program….they ALL ask for more and more and more.
Before you realize it, the taxes are HIGHER than the mortgage and you’re state is in a financial death spiral.
Correcting, you’re a liberal – and your policies fail. EVERY TIME.
Correcting, that’s way too much work for the journalistic farts at the soon to close NWH.
I can’t wait for the closing!
I dropped my subscription in 2005 thanks to the libtard called Begalka, who littered right in front of my store!
Townships steal , but not as much as school districts. Still they are obsolete.
Correcting, Bob took this fight up over 37 yrs. ago because he was a township trustee and saw what they were doing and how they were bilking the taxpayers.
It comes from being on the inside and understanding where the money comes from and where it goes.
CLM, you can drop the self-righteous act.
I said, “I would probably approve of consolidating or eliminating townships if given the chance.”
And you concluded from that comment I’m in favor of townships and am a liberal? What is wrong with you? You better get your vision checked. I am confident that I’ve helped more candidates running against “liberals” and have in general done more activism than you have or ever will, so your personal opinion of me does not matter but I will not allow you to commit libel against me in the presence of others.
white Knight’s comment is more realistic and in the spirit of what I was trying to articulate in the previous comment. There are bigger fish to fry than townships. You are hooting and hollering about how high your taxes are and I just showed you the GA fund would average out to two dollars per person. How much of your property tax bill belongs to schools? It’s always townships townships townships. What about the other 97 percent of your property tax bill though? Why is there almost no energy in school board elections and why do center-right candidates (mostly) get crushed in your supposed “Republican” county?
Why are YOU more self-righteously upset with townships helping a poor person pay for heating in the winter than you are with our foreign quagmires that cost trillions of dollars?
You’re not telling me any mind-blowing information about how we have too many layers of government or too high taxes. I’ve argued the same thing many times for many years. white Knight says townships are “obsolete.” I agree. As I’ve pointed out ON THIS BLOG before (probably arguing with the nob), there are about 30 states that function fine without townships. BecauseScience and I’m pretty sure Pokorny also don’t seem to be big fans of townships. You won’t see many defenders of townships on this blog and I don’t consider myself one either — but I am not part of a camp that devotes my life to being primarily concerned with townships. You won’t put opinions into my mouth, CLM.
I’m aware of some of the history of Bob, G-Man, but that does not diminish any of his arguments. We should be able to judge an argument as it is independent of the motivations of the person making the case.