No one needs to do anything other than vote. The politicians who are presently doing nothing to lower the tax burden ought to be replaced. That is a simple. I will participate in the rallies and give my financial support, however, until people suffer enough to demand our elected officials take drastic and sufficient actions we, as a community, will continue a downward spiral. Maybe this is the tragic flaw in our community , our county and our state. A flaw that allows us to stand by and suffer when all we have to do is vote. Those who will do us harm do so only with our leave and we give it gladly. I'd like everyone reading this to stop giving their consent to those who cannot, for whatever reason, tax us fairly and reduce the bloated government payroll.

Anyone that moved to Kendall County in the last 20 years is part of the problem.

Frankly, it is pathetic to see you complain, when what is being paid for is the infrastructure that was built to enable you to move into the county. There have been warnings for the better part of 40 years that the exurb model is not sustainable, and would require massive tax increases just to pay for simple services and be sustainable.

Why is it suddenly everyone elses fault that you did not do your due diligence before moving in?

Either accept that your taxes will be higher to pay for the spread out construction of an exurb, or move somewhere else. Complaining about it is not suddenly going to make the roads cost less to maintain(which as you may have noticed, the county is not even doing very well - River Rd). It is not going to suddenly make the schools cost less to build and maintain.

This is not a problem unique to Kendall County, it is a reflection of the poorly planned allocation of resources in the exurb model, and is happening across the country.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/story/2012-04-05/sprawl-census-urban/54007292/1
"I'm not sure we're going to see outward sprawl even if the urge to sprawl continues," he says. "Counties are getting to the point that they don't have the money to maintain the roads, water, sewer. … This is a century of urbanization."

It isn't infrastructure and urban sprawl that is the problem. It is much more complex than that. If it was simply urban sprawl then why are record numbers protesting their property taxes in Cook County? It is a death spiral of over spending-borrowing to cover shortfalls-paying interest to over spending-borrowing to cover shortfalls-paying interest to over spending-borrowing to cover shortfalls-paying interest...This spiral must stop now.

I agree with Mark. Again, the simple answer is the correct one. Lets all listen to what Mark has said and ask our elected officials to end this behavior. Revenues must equal expenditures. Simple, simple, simple.

People who are in power, whether through an election, or (like in some countries), taken by force, always find ways to take money from the populace. If we don't have the cash to grab, they will grab our belongings. They ALWAYS find ways to complete their schemes and dreams. As long as people have their own dreams of what life should be like, they will vote for whoever says the words, promises the promises they like to hear. Few people are noble enough to look at the bigger picture and try to care about what might be for the good of all. I think I'll stop here, as I feel either a "rant" or a "ramble" coming on. It could just be this heat!

@ Ipyramus - Two minor clarifications to your statements above. Voting is only good if good people get off the behinds and actually donate 2-4 years running and being elected. We need good people to run first! The other clarification is to stop ASKING and start DEMANDING that they do the right thing for us and not for themselves or the small-time lobbyists out here in Kendall County...

I cannot disagree with what you have said; you are always well spoken. My point is that people like me will not place themselves in harms way. I am not a philosopher king and I know what befalls those who place their good name into the public arena. I will advocate for positive change, as you have, and vote against the incumbents who do not take a balanced budget position. Simple. Who is in office ought not to matter (of course it does) as that person is simply voting the will of the people.

I, too, have put myself out there and it has cost me dearly. I have tried and failed. I do believe though, that there are some young people with the brains, common sense, and energy to take on these special interest politicians. I pray every day that several of them will step forward. As I heard in a comment the other day, The new people running for county board this fall aren't even showing up for the meetings to educate themselves with the process. That speaks volumes as to their true desires... Please don't think I was critiquing you - My real point was that we truly need more people to get involved any way they can...even in these BLOGs!!!

I suspect by how you speak that your influence is part of the conscience of many in Kendall County. The paradigm of our political system must be changed as well as how people view their role in the process of government or efforts will be useless and fraught with unending frustration. Running for office can be pointless, or Sisyphean to place a point on it. We are Americans so those who tread on us do so to their own peril.

To Travis: Maybe a start is to put Toftoy, and Koukol up for sacrifice (electorially speaking). I guarantee you that if one, and/or both were to fail to get elected, there would be more than a few tremors in the current network.

Tim,
Since you live not in Kendall County, it is understandable that you would think the out of service River Road Bridge is a “County Bridge.” FYI, it is a Yorkville City Bridge. Kendall County Government has made one loan to Yorkville for Bridge Engineering and another more substantial county loan to Yorkville at the request of Mayor Golinski for New Bridge Construction because the City of Yorkville is presently over leveraged on infrastructure debt like water and sewer lines built to accommodate “bet the farm” subdivision developers. These vacant or under built (curb and gutter only) sub-divisions which are now owned by Mega Banks were bailed out by us federal taxpayers and were funded by alternate revenue bonds. That alternate revenue source is now the common taxpayers of Yorkville who again are left to pay for this grand (infrastructure gamble) scheme perpetuated by the 1999-2007 Prochaska Administration. This was the root cause of chasing rooftops to have more rooftops on the fringe of the Greater Chicago Metro. It has become THE primary reason for annually increasing taxes. We were told Growth would pay its’ way during this 8-year period. We who choose to stay,care about our communities are left to pick up the pieces & pay the freight/tab left by the recklessness behavior of the fast buck crowd. Please ask John Purcell, why the 30+ lots he owned went to Delinquent Property Tax sale on 11-6-2009.
http://www.yorkvilleinsider.org/kcb/purcell/propertytax.pdf

If you are interested in learning more about what the county is doing to promote economic development and diversifying the tax base, check out this article: http://patch.com/A-vSR2

I have to say voting out the elected officials who do not support your views is definitely an option but how about talking to them first and expressing your views. You know, some of them were just elected and will be around for at least the next 3 years. That's a long time to just wait those suckers out so you can get rid of them. How about giving them a call and an email to let them know what you would like them to support? Let's remember these people in our city government are not "evil others". They are our neighbors who are trying to make our community a great place to live. Do they always make decisions that we agree with? No But are you actually telling them what your opinion is or just complaining when they do something you con't agree with? I have talked to all of them and basically they are pretty nice people - so call them up, tell them what's on your mind. Sometimes they vote for things differently from what they personally want because their constituents have a different view. They can't know what you want if you don't tell them. If you have an idea of how your city should look, function, it's your responsibility to GET INVOLVED!

@ Tim " You would make better decisions if your opinions were based on the reality of the situation, instead of your personal perception of it "

FYI > The vast majority of people under the age of 30 do not buy $250- $300 homes. They have not had 3 or 4 kids yet, therefore they have no need for that size of home. You do not cite your source for your definition of "young people" but even if we take your word for it, the fact of the matter is that adults under 40 tend to have younger children. I understand many ppl are delinquent on their HOA, property taxes, and even mortgages. But that all has nothing to do with where they happen to live. Same is true outside of Kendall County. Please respond with a better argument. I have a firm grasp of reality.

The wasteful spending continues. Now Yorkville wants to put up $4 million to help build a new YMCA facility, b/c they feel it will take business away from the current Rec. Center. Or they want to purchase the Rec. Center. Why not just let the Y build a new facility, and if it pushes out the Rec, so be it. The Y can spend $8 million b/c it is a more efficient operation.

btw Tim, if you don't live in Kendall, then why do you care if we choose to whine about higher taxes ?? I could care less about your taxes. Or do you not even pay property taxes ?

My family is new to Oswego and Kendall County. I wish I had heard of this rally prior to today so I could have joined the protest. I agree with a comment above in that we need to talk to those currently in office, and if they do not make changes we need to replace them. How many of us would run to replace them? One of the best way to stop the increases in property taxes is to have responsible housing growth. The downturn in the real estate market slowed the housing growth. If that had not happened property taxes would continue to sky rocket! We don't need anymore subdivisions in the middle of corn fields like the Hunt Club subdivision on Minkler Rd. That sticks out like a sore thumb! There is plenty of land out by Rt 59 and to the north to build new homes, and plenty of foreclosed homes to be bought and made new again too! Let's not try to become the next "Naperville." I happen to like the country farm like feel of Kendall County!

Does anyone know why this "Tim" person is part of this discussion? He does not live or work here and appears to have no connection to our county. His suggestions are also inappropriate in many ways. May I suggest we not respond to his diatribes and focus on how we can lower out taxes.

To All Who Are Interested: You want to fix the problem? Look in the mirror, and ask yourself one question, "Where was I during the election cycles of the last 10 years?"
If the answer is, I didn't vote, I didn't work to elect good candidates, I didn't pay attention, or a combination of all three answers, YOU are to blame. The solution is simple. Form a non-partisan property owners association dedicated to recruiting, and electing quality candidates for all offices, from library board to school board, from park district to village hall, from township to county. Otherwise, all these postings, and anybody elses complaints are all in vain.

Rick, thanks for the welcome. I am a Hunt Club Resident and actually enjoy the view of the corn being seeded, growing, and being harvested on all four sides of home in the middle of corn fields. My only wish is that my property taxes were lower and that the school board could tighten their belt and stop spending.

Yahoo - I'm with you Stephen. But we actually do have some good folks in there so let's check them out before we throw themout.

I respectfully disagree with Ms. Banks. The people who are there are very nice, probably very smart and surely very wonderful people. Unfortunately, they always have some excuse why they keep spending. And our taxes keep going up. We need people in there who will not engage in spending and take cuts seriously.

Let me give an example. The Rec center is now being considered as a purchase. My goodness how can that be? How could that even be considered? It is a private business and needs to stay a private business. The Rex center will pay approximately $720,000 into county and city tax revenue. Why would we want to take the revenue stream out and in its place put an expenditure for maintenance and mortgage costs? That is just one egregious example. We all know there are many more. This story made the front page of the records for goodness sake. My point is the people who have been in power cannot get the job done. OK, lets congratulate them for trying, but they failed. So lets put others in. Insanity is doing the same thing over and over while expecting to get a different result. The Yorkville school board just spent millions on a new phone system. Nice, but what was so wrong with the one we had. Could it not get the job done or did we need some new contracts for whomever pitched the new system? Of course the phone system could do the job as it had for years. We just needed more bells and whistles, right? All I am saying is we need to be prudent and frugal. Must we have a depression in this country and lose our homes before we stop spending on things we want, but don't need?

I wanted to retire here in Yorkville. It appears I may have to leave. I suspect the property tax rate will be over 10% next year and many will not make it. Eventually the houses will be sold for taxes. Can any community that taxes the citizens 10% of their home value every year sustain itself?

Whooo, Ipyramus, There are folks on the city council who are totally supporting what you say they just do not always have the majority vote. You are frustated - so are they!! Come to the council meetings and you will quickly figure out who you should support and who you need to replace. Let;s not throw them all out. Some of them CONSISTANLY support financial responsiblitly. They are doing a goo job. I do go to the council meetings.

Ipyraqmus, if you live in Yorkville, call your alderman and your mayor and let them know what you think and how their decisions impact your life. This is important and does make a difference, believe me.

OK, I will. I have not found my involvement has done anything to change things. My opinions are simply not in the majority. I will, however, try and attend the meetings. Thank you for the suggestions.

Judith,
Please tell the "In Name Only" fiscal conservatives on the Yorkville City Council to lead by example, walk the walk, make that public service sacrifice for the taxpayers of Yorkville, and terminate their taxpayer-funded health insurance that is costing Yorkville Taxpayers $150,000 a year for a part-time gig. I have never asked anyone to do anything that I would not do myself; you lead from the front by your actions, not just words uttered to get elected.

Todd, I know what I look for in the folks who represent me and I make my decisions based on that. I attend the meetings and communicate with the folks who have been elected. My vigilance may not be up to your standards and I can only focus on so many things at once. We all shine our light where we can.

Todd’s stated issue is another reason why the whole council should be replaced. I know there are people on the council who voted against the health care issue. I respect their wisdom and concern, but they are not able to stop the spending. They did not find a way to prevent the passage of the law that allows this obscene benefit. Nor do they have the skills to convince their colleagues to vote to stop the health insurance. The steps they took were not successful (again!). I suggest we should let someone else with a different skill set try and get the health insurance costs removed. The council should be ashamed. Public service is not for their benefit, but the community's benefit. This is why I think I have to leave Kendall County. This is an issue that should not even be debated. Our elected officials ought, and I use that in a moral sense, not dare spend money on their selves. Yet they do time and time again. I for one do respect three Yorkville council members for consistently questioning spending and wise voting records, but they often fail to carry the day. The real point here is that the council has acted with the consent of the voters, voters who want to allow spending I consider immoral and unwise. Consequently, I must continue to pay or leave the community I love and enjoy. The voters have spoken.

How can we be out of money? We still have checks...

Those of you concerned about government spending might find a project from the Illinois Policy Institute interesting. They're asking residents to send them specific examples of wasteful government spending: http://illin.is/MmWbMb