Michael Sweeney running in the 33rd District against Dan Kotowski, attacked Dan for pay raises even though Dan was one of the stronger voices against them. And Michael took a pay raise as Clerk in Elk Grove Village.
He took that raise even though he didn’t perform his most important function on time in 2006.
From the Kotowski release:
In 2006, Michael Sweeney, Republican candidate for State Senate, bungled the most important
assignment given to the Elk Grove Township Clerk, according to documents filed with the Office of
Cook County Clerk David Orr.
According to the Cook County Clerk’s Office and the Illinois Property Tax Code, the tax levy “must be
filed on or before the last Tuesday of December of the given tax year.” In 2006, the last Tuesday of
December was Tuesday, December 26.
In 2006, the Elk Grove Township filed its annual township tax levy on Friday, December 29, according
to time stamped documents filed with the Cook County Clerk’s Office, Tax Extension Division. The
documents are signed by former Township Supervisor Richard Hall and Sweeney.
In other words, the $2.1 million 2006 township tax levy was filed three days late, exposing the township
to legal challenges to the local tax rate and possibly costing taxpayers thousands of dollars.
Former Republican State Sen. Cheryl Axley, who served as Elk Grove Township Clerk from 1993 to
2005, said the levy filing is a crucial part of the clerk’s job
Axley was defeated by Dan in 2006 and is now endorsing him. My bad, she just joined Dan in issuing statements on this and I read too much into it.
I think Elk Grove Village might deserve a refund on his $3,716 in raises over 3 years.
What is the Tax Extension Division? Did EGT file for an extension from the County? And was it granted? Was there really any wrong doing on the part of the EGT Clerk? Just curious.
I believe “extension” here is a term of art in the property tax world that doesn’t mean what it intuitively means- here “extension” is about figuring out the bill. The Tax Extension Unit, per David Orr’s site, takes the levies and figures out individual tax bills.
Can we just abolish these useless townships? Fold their functions into the counties or pass them off to municipalities. They seem to exist to support local party hacks and little more.
[…] For background on Sweeney’s hypocritical, flailing campaign against Kotowski… see my take here or ArchPundit’s comments here and here. […]