I attended the yearly Truth in Taxation meeting this year and, to my dismay, nothing had changed from previous years. We, the public, are invited to voice our concerns before an expressionless and unresponsive panel of Cook County commissioners. In other words, we’re invited to “vent” for a strictly limited five minutes with the promise that our talking points will be considered by the commissioners at some unspecified meeting in the future. Since nothing changes as a result of the venting, i.e. tax-related content, I have fallen into a depressed cynicism. The whole exercise is one of futility, nothing more than a dog and pony show.
In addition, it was revealed this week that our assessor who started in 2015 is still not accredited for his license. Since my house valuation has jumped up and down, I am not amused by this news, especially since my taxes keep rising.
At this week’s commissioners’ meeting to set the levy, the commissioners took time not only to assure us of each of their extensive financial backgrounds which supposedly lend credibility to their decisions, but also their unceasing devotion to the task. “This is really hard work” and “you laypeople have no idea how complicated this job is.” No doubt.
I have confidence in only one commissioner to act prudently. The others seem ensorcelled by County Administrator Cadwell’s ability to crunch numbers in a pleasing manner since his arrival three years ago at which time our property taxes began their upward leap. He is a poised public speaker who always employs the presumptive close, that is, he speaks as though whatever he’s arguing is a foregone conclusion:
“when the new jail is built” as opposed to “if the new jail is built.”
This effectively shines a light in the eyes of the deer-like board, blinding them to the input from their constituency. All but one commissioner buys the administrator’s platform, namely, tax the population until we have a huge cash reserve with which to back bond issues for even more spending in Cook County. The irony is that the current financial burden of these taxes is contrary to the stated goal of attracting more young families to the county, since the current exodus is greater than the influx of permanent residents, and our young “lifers” who grew up in Cook County don’t see a future here when they can’t save enough money for a down payment, much less pay exorbitant taxes.
Many of Mr. Cadwell’s tax figures are based on a figure of a $51K average household income. That figure is a clever blending of the ultra-rich property owners and the three-job-norm permanent residents. The real income figure is somewhere between $21K and $30K per year, not nearly enough to foot a huge tax levy every year for three years with no end in sight. If you buy Mr. Cadwell’s figures, the idealism of a utopian debt-free county with all modern conveniences is actually sacrificing its bedrock workforce.
Another item of controversy is the crazy pay schedule for our courthouse personnel. The salary and benefit packages are commensurate with larger counties in the Metro area, despite the fact that while there is a great deal of land in Cook County, the overall population is small. These salaries deserve a second look and a downward adjustment to cut budget costs.
An important area of interest to all taxpayers is the proposed construction of a $5 million jail. In an interview with WTIP last week, Sheriff Pat Eliasen outlined the rationale for this costly undertaking which I won’t touch on here, but he did mention that he had been speaking with the U.S.-Canadian Border Patrol and ICE, and it’s this fact that made my ears prick up. The argument is that since the southern border has proved difficult to penetrate, those forces seeking illegal entry to the U.S. will turn to the Canadian border.
It is here that some sort of cooperative effort between ICE and the Grand Marais jail would come into play. Any time the Fed sticks its nose into a project we can safely kiss our autonomy goodbye. I picture chain link fencing with barbed wire coils along the top. Worst-case scenario is housing illegal immigrants, young children, and drug smugglers in our local jail. Best-case scenario is that other counties start trucking their prisoners to our jail in much the same way we truck ours to them, for profit. Neither option seems appealing for a small town with a hefty tourist trade and a desire to attract young families. Also, the timing of this project is unfortunate after three years of whopping tax hikes.
I urge anyone and everyone who can to start attending these meetings. Watching them at home by live stream and then muttering behind your hands does nothing to effect change. It’s a lot harder to pull something if you have a live audience. As near as I can tell, our taxes are an expensive way to strangle a town. The outrageous salaries, the $5 million jail, the higher-than-promised tax levy are all luxuries Grand Marais can ill afford, and perhaps our county administrator is, too.
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