McHenry Township trustees prevail in highway commissioner’s state court appeal, cementing 30% levy cut

Illinois appellate judges on Tuesday upheld a McHenry County Circuit Court decision from earlier this month that found the McHenry Township Board of Trustees had the legal ability to cut the township road district’s property tax levy by nearly $1 million.

The decision Tuesday, which was the result of an appeal by Highway Commissioner Jim Condon, means he will have nearly 30% less property tax revenue than the $3 million he initially sought for the McHenry Township Road District.

McHenry County Judge Kevin Costello rejected Condon’s argument that a township’s board of trustees must approve the levy put forward by an elected road district commissioner and cannot make changes to the dollar figure.

A three-judge panel for the Appellate Court of Illinois’ Second District upheld Costello’s decision but it did little to address the merits of Condon’s claim that the trustees were not legally entitled to pass an alternative levy.

Instead, the higher court’s decision, which was delivered by Justice George Bridges with justices Donald C. Hudson and Liam C. Brennan concurring, noted that the highway commissioner’s complaint named as defendants the trustees and Supervisor Craig Adams individually in their official capacities with McHenry Township, rather than the McHenry Township Board of Trustees itself.

“It is the Township Board itself which is vested with the duty to certify the levy, and as we have previously discussed the McHenry Township Board of Trustees is not properly before this court, and as such no writ can be directed against them,” Bridges wrote for the appellate court.

He also wrote there was no record or transcript of Costello’s reasoning for declining to grant orders against the township officials in Condon’s favor supplied to the appellate court.

The ruling did contend there is little chance of Condon’s success with one aspect of his complaint. The highway commissioner asked the trial court to compel McHenry Township Clerk Dan Aylward, who is also the ex-officio road district clerk, to certify Condon’s levy with the county instead of the smaller property tax approved by the trustees.

“The highway code explicitly states that ‘The district clerk shall not certify levies of taxes to the county clerk,’” Bridges wrote.

McHenry Township trustees Bob Anderson, Steve Verr and Mike Rakestraw carried the motion that passed 3-1 in a meeting earlier this month to cut Condon’s levy to $2,095,000. They also cut the levy for the township itself by about 40% from what the township supervisor proposed. Tax levies need to be filed with the McHenry County Clerk by this week.

Anderson and Verr have consistently advocated abolishing the township government, and the trustees earlier this year sent a question to the April ballot to ask voters if they want to eliminate the McHenry Township Road District.

“For now, we will supply the best service possible in the future with the reduced funds as a result of the reduced levy,” Condon said. “It’s unfortunate that the government agency that has been so fiscally responsible by either lowering or keeping flat its levy for the past 10 years is being attacked by entities that have not even taken the time to understand what a road district does.”