May 1, 2008
More on Palatine
As announced, Todd Stroger passed on last night's meeting with residents in Palatine. Palatine Mayor Rita Mullins took some of the blame for his absence, saying she understood why Stroger might be put off by the change of meeting format that came Monday. After a heated debate about the format of the meeting, Palatine Councilman Jack Wagner lost his temper.
"He was yelling at us about paying the county more money," county spokesman Eugene Mullins (no relation to Rita) said. "They don't know who's running the show out (in Palatine) and we were the brunt of that."
"It's incredibly disappointing and sad for the people interested in why we have the highest sales tax in the nation," Rita Mullins told the Daily Herald. "But we made an uncorrectable mistake." Mullins also cited several missteps at the village level that might have scared Stroger off as well. But those mistakes haven't kept Mullins from weighing in on secession. "It is not inconceivable that it could happen," Mullins told CBS2 in an on-air interview. "If you got 100 of the 120 communities outside of the city of Chicago, they could petition to disannex, and they could merge with adjacent counties or form their own."
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I simply don't understand why Rita Mullins took any responsibility for Toddler's refusal to show up. Big deal that someone got angry about all the money Palatine (I live in Arlington Heights and we pay thru the nose as well) pays to Cook County for almost nothing. BFD. Toddler sure earned his nickname by acting exactly like a toddler who doesn't get his way and refuses to play with the other kids. I think Rita Mullins' showed a lack of spine in taking any responsibility for Toddler not showing up.
So happy I didn't vote for him. At least that comforts me at night.
Oh stop. Arlington Heights gets nothing from the county? Well, you get the same as what most of us in the city get. You get the court system, some roads, and some forest preserves. Other than the police services that a few people get, or the hospital care an unlucky few get, what is it you think everyone else gets the northwest suburbs don't get?
The border towns like Palatine, AH, and Barrington have had this coming for a while. They overbuilt their downtowns with TIF districting or, in the case of Barrington, turned away commercial development so that malls like Deer Park in Lake County got built.
I wonder if Rita bid on those condos that went up for auction the other week in downtown Palatine. I feel bad for the suckers that paid $350K+ for them.
Well, actually most roads in Arlington Heights are city roads or state roads. We don't have any forest preserves in Arlington Heights. And we don't get policed by Cook County Sheriffs. And we don't have any Cook County hospitals or clinics in Arlington Heights. Last fall, Stroger almost closed the only county run health clinic in this area, which was in Palatine. The concern here (and it's a very valid one) is towns like Arlington Heights and Palatine sit on the border of Lake County and residents can with considerable ease cross the border into Lake County where sales tax is a lot less and spend their money there.
Furthermore, I didn't say we got nothing. I said we got "almost nothing" in exchange for all that we pay in taxes to the county.
And really, you make my point for me . . . If Toddler had shown up last night for the meeting, then he could have clearly explained to all of us exactly what he's done for us lately. Maybe he could have put to rest the feeling that we're all being taxed to death, but receiving nothing. But he didn't. He was chicken.
Sorry to break it to you, but it's not all about Chicago.
I think what Chicago D is saying is that *nobody* is getting anything out of the county these days, Chicago included. If a huge tax hike is needed across 5 million people to fund a hospital and a police force, something is really wrong.