Friday, December 01, 2006

The Great Swiper



Cal Skinner's no-nonsense piece on what Ralph Martire (Center for Tax and Budget Responsibility - heh, heh), A+ Illinois, et. al. have in store for businesses and tax payers of Illinois is excellent.

He says, in part:
The folks at Advance 300 don’t seem to have a clue about the geo-political dynamics of Springfield politics. But they are back on the internet after a hiatus.

They have been pushing for Ralph Martire’s shell game, which will raise and broaden income and sales taxes, promising a cut in property taxes. (This group of tax hikers gave his tax hiking group $10,000.)

Good ol’ Ralph is interested in income redistribution . . .

. . . Anyone with a brain ought to be able to figure out that business pays a higher percentage of the property tax than corporations do of the income tax.

While business pays a huge share of real estate taxes --41%-- business only paid 15.7% of the income tax in Fiscal Year 2006. (I say “only” because I remember in the early 1970’s when business paid over 20% of the total.)

But, my guess is nothing will be able to penetrate the District 300 tax hikers’ mindset.

What does it matter if business has a lower tax burden and homeowners have a higher tax burden?

What does it matter that there will be a huge tax shift from business to people?

After all, it’s for the kids, right?
Now Cal's numbers are for for District 300 (Algonquin, Dundee, Kane County, etc.), the principles are universal.

Some Late Political Thanksgiving


Good ole Eric Krol in the Daily Herald, lists among others, these Illinois politicians and what they're thankful for this year (albeit one week late):
•State Treasurer-elect Alexi Giannoulias: thankful that his family contributed $3.1 million to pay for his campaign, including a late infusion of a $1 million loan by his mother.

•Tammy Duckworth: thankful that Blagojevich helped her ease the pain of a close congressional loss to Peter Roskam by awarding her a job that will pay more than $100,000 a year to oversee veterans issues in Illinois. In theory, the new gig gives her a platform from which to run again in 2008, if that’s her wish. On the other hand, the federal probe into serious allegations of “endemic hiring fraud” under Blagojevich likely involves the state’s veterans’ preference laws and whether they were skirted to pack more cronies into state jobs. Should anything erupt, Duckworth will have to choose whether to back Blagojevich or stick to the independent theme she talked about as a candidate.

•Illinois Senate President Emil Jones: thankful an unexpected wave of suburban Democratic victories gives him a veto-proof majority. Again, that could be a case of being careful what you’re thankful for, if enough members decide it’s safe to bolt the reservation.

•DuPage County State’s Attorney Joe Birkett: thankful his participation as Republican governor candidate Judy Baar Topinka’s running mate allowed him to erase his $700,000 campaign debt from his 2002 run for attorney general.

•Gov. Rod Blagojevich: strangely enough, it’s the same thing he had to be thankful for last year — all of that campaign cash he raised which allowed him to overcome his numerous scandal woes. The question looming now, of course, is whether he’ll still be thankful about how all that campaign money was raised a year from now, in light of the “gathering storm” of a federal probe.
The rest of us are just thankful that the weather is so bad there will be no sessions in Spendfield today.


Thursday, November 30, 2006

"Radioactive" Veto Overide in Springfield


The Illinois House voted 82-29 Wednesday to override the governor's veto of Senate Bill 2477, which will let Peoria School District 150 have the Peoria Public Building Commission issue bonds for school construction - without voter approval. That sucking sound you hear is local school board control whooshing down to Spendfield and up to Chicago special interests.

We generally respect Rep. David Leitch, R-Peoria, and like what he says, but he's been dead wrong philosophically on this one. He said yesterday:

"It's about as radioactive as it can get because it deals with non-referendum debt," he said, adding that new schools are "urgently needed" for District 150.

If you think this is bad, just wait 'til we get the tax-swipe, errh, swap in place for "real education funding reform" in Illinois. Those jokers from A+ Illinois (Sean Noble), the "Center for Tax and Budget Accountability", the "Metropolitan [Chicago] Planning Council are drooling all over themselves. They just can't wait to increase the income tax, institute a "services" sales tax, call it property tax (school)reform and stick it into the teachers' pension funds.

As an aside, here are a few blurbs from Google. It's the usual suspects looking for tax dollars:

Illinois Federation of Teachers

The Illinois Federation of Teachers is a leading member of A+ Illinois Coalition - a ... How much truth is behind these claims? The AFT asked Washington, ...
www.ift-aft.org/ - 23k - Nov 29, 2006 - Cached - Similar pages - Note this

Alliance Library System - Taking Library Service to a New High Point

Check out the A+ Illinois website and consider joining the effort to support ... until No Child Left Behind legislation is reauthorized, to communicate with ...
www.alliancelibrarysystem.com/article.cfm?year=2006&month=1 - 114k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this

CATALYST, April 2004: Resolved: State taxes should be raised to ...

... is a member of A+ Illinois, the coalition promoting school finance reform. ... and the federal No Child Left Behind Act ($1.4 billion to $1.5 billion). ...
www.catalyst-chicago.org/arch/04-04/0404debate.htm - 30k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this


Illinois Education Association - IEA insider ~ Oct. 13, 2006

Join A+ Illinois and several other community groups for a community forum on education funding at 7 p.m., Oct. 23 at the Chicago Embassy Church. ...
www.ieanea.org/Oct13insider.aspx - 153k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this


Early Childhood Advocacy and Public Policy

Chicago City Council. Chicago and Illinois. A+ Illinois · Build Initiative ... Illinois Action for Children (formerly Day Care Action Council of Illinois) ...
home.sprintmail.com/~peggyriehl/pradvppolicy.htm - 12k - Nov 28, 2006 - Cached - Similar pages - Note this




Clearly the foxes again wish to be the gardians for the henhouse.

Wednesday, November 29, 2006

"New" Congressional Democrat Education Plans


This from our friends over at the Education Intelligence Agency:

The Hill reports that Congressional Democrats held a big meeting yesterday to plan their legislative agenda. A few people were there to help them decide:

"Representatives from AFSCME, AFL-CIO, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), the National Education Association, the American Federation of Teachers, Americans United, a labor-funded advocacy group, and a slew of progressive groups — including USAction, ACORN, Campaign for America’s Future, and MoveOn.org — attended the meeting."

This is the new "conservative" Democrat approach? (Wait - we forgot - it's governance "for the common good".)

Tuesday, November 28, 2006

WANTED: Board of Trustees representative


The Illinois Community College District #514 (I.C.C.) is electing two Trustees this spring.

Woodford County needs someone on this board. Any takers out there? Here's the current board serving six year terms:

Jerry E. Wright (Chair); Trivoli
Retired - Caterpillar Inc.
Trustee, 1989 - present

Mary A. Heller (Vice-Chair); Peoria
Retired - Bradley University
Trustee, 1991 - present

Robert R. Ehrich; Pekin
Retired - Private Practice of Dentistry
Trustee, 1976 - present

Ken A. Hinrichs; Peoria
Retired - Educator
Trustee, 1991 - present

James K. Polk; Peoria
President - Balance Stone Strategy Group
Trustee, 1993, 1998 - present

James G. Sherman; Peoria
Retired - President, Peoria Children's Home
Trustee, 2005 - present

Sue K. Yoder; East Peoria
Vice President - Marketing, CEFCU
Trustee, 1999 - present

One needs 50 signatures on a petition to be filed from January 29 through February 5, 2007. We're a little bit unclear on which Trustees' terms are up and whether they are running again.
The District boundaries map is here.

Sunday, November 26, 2006

More Hyper-Local (Township) Government





Here is the best guess list of who is doing what in the Woodford County Townships:




CAZENOVIA ASSESSOR
NONE

CAZENOVIA CLERK MS. BRENDA WEERS

CAZENOVIA HIGHWAY COMMISSIONER MR. KRAIG HOFSTATTER

CAZENOVIA SUPERVISOR MS. GINGER HUMPHREY

CAZENOVIA TOWNSHIP OFFICE


CAZENOVIA TRUSTEE MR. ROBERT GEHRICH

CAZENOVIA TRUSTEE MS. GENEVA GRESHAM

CAZENOVIA TRUSTEE MR. DAVID FORCE

CAZENOVIA TRUSTEE MR. RICHARD D. PEABODY

CLAYTON ASSESSOR MR. EDWARD J. LONGMAN

CLAYTON CLERK MR. RONALD W. JONES

CLAYTON HIGHWAY COMMISSIONER MR. RANDY KOEHLER

CLAYTON SUPERVISOR MR. ARTHUR J. GERDES

CLAYTON TOWNSHIP OFFICE


CLAYTON TRUSTEE MR. RICHARD B. BURMOOD

CLAYTON TRUSTEE MR. JAMES W. WILSON

CLAYTON TRUSTEE MR. RICHARD WEBER

CLAYTON TRUSTEE MR. BRUCE TALLYN, JR.

CRUGER ASSESSOR MS. ROSALEE SHANKLIN

CRUGER CLERK MS. SHEILA SCHUMACHER

CRUGER HIGHWAY COMMISSIONER MR. RONALD D. SCHMIDGALL

CRUGER SUPERVISOR MR. RICHARD BROWN

CRUGER TOWNSHIP OFFICE


CRUGER TRUSTEE MR. MYRON BLUNIER

CRUGER TRUSTEE MR. RONALD E. UNDERWOOD

EL PASO ASSESSOR MR. ROBERT A. HUNSAKER

EL PASO CLERK MR. RONALD S. FEVER

EL PASO HIGHWAY COMMISSIONER MR. JACK M. KEARFOTT

EL PASO SUPERVISOR MR. DAN J. BENEDICT

EL PASO TOWNSHIP OFFICE


EL PASO TRUSTEE MR. PHILIP R. MULLVAIN

EL PASO TRUSTEE MR. JEFFERY D. NEISLER

EL PASO TRUSTEE MR. THOMAS E. CLEARY

EL PASO TRUSTEE MR. DARRELL DULEY

GREENE ASSESSOR MR. EDWARD J. LOHGMAN

GREENE CLERK MR. WILLIAM F. DEHORITY

GREENE HIGHWAY COMMISSIONER MR. BRUCE VON NORDHEIM

GREENE SUPERVISOR MS. DEBRA HARTMAN

GREENE TRUSTEE MR. BILL HARTMAN

GREENE TRUSTEE MR. MARTIN H. VOGEL

GREENE TRUSTEE MR. BRENT HODEL

GREENE TRUSTEE MR. CARL MILLER, JR.

KANSAS ASSESSOR MR. KENNETH UPHOFF

KANSAS CLERK MS. BETTY M. TODD

KANSAS HIGHWAY COMMISSIONER MR. KEITH L. MCCLURE

KANSAS SUPERVISOR MR. LEONARD HOSPELHORN

KANSAS TOWNSHIP OFFICE


KANSAS TRUSTEE MR. STEPHEN THOMAS

KANSAS TRUSTEE MR. KENNETH UPHOFF

KANSAS TRUSTEE MR. KENNETH YAEGER

KANSAS TRUSTEE MR. THOMAS MARQUARDT

LINN ASSESSOR MR. EDWARD J. LONGMAN

LINN CLERK MS. ROBYN M. PANNIER

LINN HIGHWAY COMMISSIONER MR. LES KENNELL

LINN SUPERVISOR MR. PAUL JURY

LINN TOWNSHIP OFFICE


LINN TRUSTEE MR. DONALD HECK

LINN TRUSTEE MR. STEVE THOMPSON

LINN TRUSTEE MR. CHARLES L. KENNELL

LINN TRUSTEE MS. LISA KULL


ASSESSOR MR. ROGER ALIG

METAMORA CLERK MS. SHARON L. KUHLMAN

METAMORA HIGHWAY COMMISSIONER MR. JAMES L. SCHERTZ

METAMORA SUPERVISOR MS. MARTHA SCHEIRER

METAMORA TOWNSHIP OFFICE


METAMORA TRUSTEE MR. DARRYL BACHMAN

METAMORA TRUSTEE MR. MICHAEL W. SLUGA

METAMORA TRUSTEE MR. LOUIS TURNER

METAMORA TRUSTEE MR. JOEL OBERY

MINONK ASSESSOR MR. ED LONGMAN

MINONK CLERK MR. HENRY C. BUDDE

MINONK HIGHWAY COMMISSIONER MR. JAMES F. BAUMANN

MINONK SUPERVISOR MR. JAMES E. MEYER

MINONK TOWNSHIP OFFICE


MINONK TRUSTEE MR. WILBUR "BUD" WHITCOMB

MINONK TRUSTEE MR. ROGER K. JANSSEN

MINONK TRUSTEE MS. MAE COPP

MINONK TRUSTEE MR. RONALD E. SEGGERMAN



MONTGOMERY

MONTGOMERY


ASSESSER

CLERK


MR.

MR.


E.WAYNE TROYER

BRUCE BROWN

MONTGOMERY HIGHWAY COMMISSIONER MR. ART WIEGAND

MONTGOMERY SUPERVISOR MR. MELVIN L. BLUNIER

MONTGOMERY TOWNSHIP OFFICE


MONTGOMERY TRUSTEE MR. BRET VOLLMER

MONTGOMERY TRUSTEE MR. EDWARD WIEGAND

MONTGOMERY TRUSTEE MR. MARK MILLER

MONTGOMERY TRUSTEE MR. DANIEL SCHUMACHER

OLIO ASSESSOR MS. ROSALEE SHANKLIN

OLIO CLERK MS. PAMELA K. KNAPP

OLIO HIGHWAY COMMISSONER MR. MELVIN R. HARTTER

OLIO SUPERVISOR MR. ROGER D. MILLER

OLIO TOWNSHIP OFFICE


OLIO TRUSTEE MR. TIM GETZ

OLIO TRUSTEE MR. KEITH BLUNIER

OLIO TRUSTEE MR. JOHN D HARTTER

OLIO TRUSTEE MR. ROBERT IMHOFF

PALESTINE ASSESSOR MR. KENNETH UPHOFF

PALESTINE CLERK MS. W. ANN ARMSTRONG

PALESTINE HIGHWAY COMMISSONER MR. JACK HEYUNGS

PALESTINE SUPERVISOR MR. RON BACHMAN

PALESTINE TOWNSHIP OFFICE


PALESTINE TRUSTEE MS. CINDY JANSSEN-HEYUNGS

PALESTINE TRUSTEE MR. JAMES L. HUNT

PALESTINE TRUSTEE MR. JAMES R. WILKEY

PALESTINE TRUSTEE MR. DAVID RIFE

PANOLA ASSESSOR MR. EDWARD J. LONGMAN

PANOLA CLERK MS. KAREN J. KRUG

PANOLA HIGHWAY COMMISSONER MR. TERRY R. MOOL

PANOLA SUPERVISOR MR. JOHN E. LONGMAN

PANOLA TOWNSHIP OFFICE


PANOLA TRUSTEE MR. KEITH MOOL

PANOLA TRUSTEE MR. BRIAN S. STOLLER

PANOLA TRUSTEE MR. RICHARD CARLS

PANOLA TRUSTEE MS. LYNN A BARTH

PARTRIDGE ASSESSOR
NONE

PARTRIDGE CLERK MR. GERALD W. JENKINS

PARTRIDGE HIGHWAY COMMISSONER MR. TERRY E. CLARK

PARTRIDGE SUPERVISOR MR. DAVID JENKINS

PARTRIDGE TOWNSHIP OFFICE


PARTRIDGE TRUSTEE MR. CLARENCE MITZELFELT

PARTRIDGE TRUSTEE MR. RON STRAYER

PARTRIDGE TRUSTEE MS. SHARON K. BROOKS

PARTRIDGE TRUSTEE MR. WILLARD WINKLER

ROANOKE ASSESSOR
NONE

ROANOKE CLERK MR. GREGORY FUNK

ROANOKE HIGHWAY COMMISSONER MR. SCOTT HOLLIGER

ROANOKE SUPERVISOR MS. BEVERLY LADENDORF

ROANOKE TOWNSHIP OFFICE


ROANOKE TRUSTEE MR. TILMAN L. BACHMAN, SR.

ROANOKE TRUSTEE MR. ROSS GINGRICH

ROANOKE TRUSTEE MS. KATHLEEN L. ADAMS

ROANOKE TRUSTEE MR. ERIC BACHMAN

SPRING BAY ASSESSOR MR. PETE LAMBIE

SPRING BAY CLERK MR. JOHN R. McCARTY

SPRING BAY HIGHWAY COMMISSONER MR. JEFFREY D. SMITH

SPRING BAY SUPERVISOR MR. DENNIS PERRY

SPRING BAY TOWNSHIP OFFICE


SPRING BAY TRUSTEE MR. OLIVER E. GARBER, JR.

SPRING BAY TRUSTEE MR. DANNY JENKINS

SPRING BAY TRUSTEE MR. CURTIS BALLARD

SPRING BAY TRUSTEE MR. HAROLD W. DOTY

WORTH ASSESSOR MR. JOHN BEECHLER

WORTH CLERK MS. BEVERLY SCHNEIDER

WORTH HIGHWAY COMMISSONER MR. DALE HOLLINGSWORTH

WORTH SUPERVISOR MR. THOMAS SECKLER

WORTH TOWNSHIP OFFICE


WORTH TRUSTEE MR. RONALD L. SCHNEIDER

WORTH TRUSTEE MR. EDWARD EVANS

WORTH TRUSTEE MR. ARTHUR J. KIESEWETTER

WORTH TRUSTEE MR. DANIEL KIESEWETTER

You might just want to get acquainted with these folks if you're not already!