My big falling out with the way the McHenry County Conservation District finances its operation came when the school district, park (including conservation) districts, etc., successfully lobbied the Illinois General Assembly in the mid-1990’s to roll back the complete prohibition of borrowing money without a referendum.
The “compromise ,” which completely screwed taxpayers, allowed tax districts to keep the same amount of non-referendum debt they had on the date the law took affect.
The Conservation District decided to borrow every dime possible,
That figured into the 1996 Republican Primary Election in which Cary County Board member John Brehmer challenged me.
He supported the non-referendum borrowing; I did not.
This was also the election that McHenry County’s Establishment made my opposition to the Northern Bypass proposal around Algonquin, which, not coincidentally, in my opinion, would have ended at the property next to the Northwest Herald building on Route 31, next to which owners of the NWH owned vacant property.
Now comes the MCCD with its over 100-page report [196!] to the County Board with this paragraph on page 115:
There is also $2,385,000 of outstanding debt certificates that were issued to acquire land through the retirement of an installment contract. The installment contract was entered into in 2006 in the amount of $6.3 million dollars to acquire a parcel of land at a fixed interest rate of 2.5% (This rate represented a discount of 44% from the current market rate, which was approximately 4.5% at the time the installment loan was entered into.) The Conservation District paid off the full $4.3 million dollar balance in FY 2021, using $2.38 million dollars from an issuance of debt certificates and $1.92 million of unrestricted reserves. The Debt Certificates were issued at an effective interest rate of 1.26%. The Conservation District plans to pay off or refinance the debt certificates in 2026, when the Conservation District’s debt service levy on existing GO Bonds will be reduced from $14.1 million dollars to $0.00. [Emphasis added.]
Down at the bottom of the volumist report (page 178) is the following definition:
Non-Referendum Bonds – General Obligation Bonds that can be issued without a referendum. The Conservation District’s total outstanding non-referendum debt is limited to 0.575% of the County’s
EAV. {Equalized Assessed Valuation]
