David takes a smack at Goliath

Today's Northwest Herald gave anti-Township advocate Bob Anderson a generous number of column-inchs for Bob to remind us why Township governments are dinosaurs that just haven't died yet. You can read the article here or you can go to the Northwest Herald website and search for "redundant" or you can copy and paste this URL: www.nwherald.com/2011/10/12/a-redundant-system-of-local-government/arozwbl/

Bob informs readers that there are about 7,000 local governments in Illinois. Of these, there are 1,433 township governments in the State of Illinois, and there are 1.395 township road districts. All of these have employees and benefits and, probably, retirement plans.

One of the main local duties of the Supervisor of a township is what is called General Assistance. If someone has an urgent financial need, he might apply to the township for some money. Bob writes, "Aid provided by the township costs two to three dollars in administrative overhead for each dollar of aid delivered."

Geez! And people worry about administrative costs of a charity, when they hit 40-50-60-70-80-92%. Township administrative costs for aid are 100-200% of the aid amount.

Read Bob's column. If you don't get to it within a week, it will dive out of sight into the Northwest Herald archives. Use your Woodstock Library card for free access to the archives.

You can read Bob's website at www.mchenrycitizenstaxwatch.org  Bob's contact information can be found on that website.