Thursday, June 6, 2013

Another one bites the dust

Be sure to read this week's The Woodstock Independent and the article on Page 15 about the closing of Woodstock's Edgetown Bowl.

Remember their 2005 fire? Their tax bill that year was $24,000. You've got to be kidding!

And their tax bill at the beginning of 2013? $60,000!!! What in the world for???

When are the people of McHenry County going to wake up and realize what is killing this county? High taxes!

Many homeowners are squawking about $1,000 tax increase or a $2,500 tax increase. And well they should. Multiply that by thousands of pieces of property. How does anyone afford a house in McHenry County? The answer is that many don't.

What could we do without? What would it take to cut property taxes 50%? Take a look at your tax bill and see what a huge bite is taken by schools. They have nibbled and nibbled for years ("Oh, it's for the kids"), until their share of the pie is huge.

But even teachers will tell you about the teachers and staff who are not pulling their weight. (No jokes here, please, but if you line up a lot of the teachers, you would not want to get in a tug-of-war with them.) The public just has no idea what teachers are really paid. And the public can't afford it.

Back to Edgewood Bowl. A $60,000 tax bill. That's $1,200/week. Rain or shine. Strikes or spares. Customers or none. And, as the cost of bowling has gone up, the number of bowlers has gone down. Guess who got caught in the middle.

Watch for the new name - Kingston Lanes. I hope the new owners can figure out how to drive down their tax bill, so they can afford to take something home for themselves and stay in business.

And don't forget the $2,000 liquor license. And the tightening enforcement against DUI, which means fewer drinks and few drinkers. Why doesn't Woodstock cut the liquor license fee, in recognition of reduced alcohol consumption? Ha. That'll never happen.

Visit Kingston Lanes online. The website is being developed now.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

A perfect example of wasting a lot of tax money is the police departments. I support our police having good equipment but why do they need a bunch of extra cop cars they don't use sitting in the parking lots two good examples are county and lake in the hills PD. I’m still not clear why county is encrypting all their radio traffic which costs them more money per month. I think as a citizen of this county I have a right to know what the police are doing and if its sensitive information they can just use cell phones like all the other departments. We only get the opportunity to vote on whether we want to be taxed more. Rarely if ever do we get to vote on reducing taxes.

Clem Kadiddlehopper said...

Short of a actual political revolt, you will never get the tax eaters to lower taxes. Especially the schools.

Refuse to raise taxes and the first thing they do is punish the citizens, just like Obama tried to do with the sequestration.

The rule for all government officials when faces with a budget cut is practice "MAKE IT HURT!"

The only way to stop it is to take action against the individuals who run the schools. Identify these people. Make posters with their pictures the way businesses identify check bouncers.

Refuse to sell them ANYTHING in the county. Put giant inflatable rats in front of their homes.

MAKE..IT..HURT...

Do it to them as they do it to you. They want to cut favorite programs in order to extort your vote to raise taxes. You cut their quality of life - make these people OUTCASTS in community.

Dam them.

They work for US. We don't work for them. Make it personal. If they don't like being singled out in church sermons, on radio ads, on billboards, BY NAME AND PHOTO.

Then they cut their budgets and stop trying to extort more tax money.

This should apply to teachers, administrators, and UNION OFFICIALS.

MAKE..IT..HURT...

tired of kids being harassed said...

They chatge us up the but for taxes on the schools but can't educate them. What are we paying for. The superintendent doesnt do her job. Stil waiting for. Call back from her since October 2010. What a good job she does what's her salary. She should have to pay us. They cant educate the kids with an iep all they do is torture them. This distict is a warehouse for these kids not a school and look what we pay. Huntleys taxes dropped woodstocks go up our houses arent worth what they were 6 years ago why havent they dropped and the rest of our services stink also. Snow plowing is a joke.

Gus said...

tired of kids, I suggest you call the Superintendent back. If your call hasn't been returned in 2½ years, we both know it's not going to be. Your message has fallen off her radar, if it even got to her.

Maybe an underling tossed it.

If you are having a problem with a student's IEP, there is plenty of help available. Give me a call.