You've got to read Cal Skinner's McHenry County Blog today! Read his article entitled "How to Cut a Budget, Plus How to Provide Political Camouflage for Incumbent McHenry County Board Members". You can find it quickly by clicking here.
Within the article Cal wrote, "If the County Board didn’t want to raise our taxes, it could have have asked for (levied) less than the maximum allowed by the Property Tax Cap (PTELL to those who don’t use the common name)."
Now, substitute "Woodstock" for "County Board" and then read the recent article by Mike Neumann in The Woodstock Independent. You can find that article right here
This sentence from that article ought to be an eye-opener for many residents: "Shaughnessy Muldowney, tax extension supervisor for the McHenry County Clerk’s Office, said that until recent years, she had never seen any taxing body levy less money than the previous year during her nearly 20 years on the job. Even as home prices have decreased, most taxing bodies continue to request more than the previous year. Unless a taxing district requests to levy less money, the county clerk is effectively forced to set a higher tax rate." (Emphasis added.)
And I think it was the editorial board of TWI that last week praised the approach of the Woodstock City Council in its approaching decision to "abate" the property tax increase that is headed our way.
Perhaps all City Council members will read, and re-read, Cal Skinner's sentence above. If the City Council is really sensitive to the financial hardships facing too many Woodstock residents and property owners, why doesn't it ask for less than the max? Why is it poised to approve higher taxes and then "camouflage" the increase with an abatement?
An abatement is too much like a payday loan. It's not free. Let's get rid of the smoke and mirrors and require complete transparency in government and in terms that the common folk can understand.
What would it be like if 1,000 people in Woodstock packed the City Council chambers on the night they are to vote on the increase taxes?
Voters in Woodstock, and voters everywhere, should read Scott Alexander's book, Rhinoceros Success. Stop being a cow on the side of the road, chewing its cud, and watching life go by. Be a rhino; just be careful not to step on the flowers.
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Woodstock property owners and residents are encouraged to read the Minutes of the Woodstock City Council meeting on Dec. 6, 2011. Go to www.woodstockil.gov to find them. Read especially the lengthy discussion of the tax levy. Don't hurry. Try to understand it. It affects your money.
After this lengthy discussion, the Council voted. What was the question again??? See Doc. 4
Voting for: Larson, Thompson, Turner, Saladin, Sager.
Voting no: Ahrens
Absent: Dillon
Thanks to Councilman Ahrens for his NO vote!
The Motion on Doc. 5 failed, because a super-majority (75%) was required.
Ah, that brings to mind another time when a super-majority was needed. I think that was on the Grace Hall matter. As a recall, the super-majority rule was applied differently then.
Whether it's our Local, County, State or the Federal Governments, there's a profound disconnect in spending. You cannot spend what you cannot raise in revenue.
Raising any tax rate, especially in this climate, does not automatically translate into a like amount of additional revenue. Ask Toni Preckwinkle and Cook County.
In these times, raising property taxes forces an additional number of property owners to have to abandon their homes, their dreams; as you are finally asking more of them than they can possibly pay. Each and every increasingly larger tax bill forces more and more folks to have to abandon their homes, AND abandon an otherwise tax-paying property.
Uh-Duh!
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