McHenry Township sends road district consolidation proposal to April ballot

The McHenry Township Board on Thursday voted, 3-2, to send a proposal to voters this April that would eliminate the township’s road district, setting up a retrial of an issue that the district’s top official said failed by a solid margin about two years ago.

The measure was added to the April ballot after voters in three other townships in the state – Ela, Elk Grove and Bloomington townships – favored eliminating their township road districts in the presidential election earlier this month, according to unofficial election results from DuPage and Cook counties.

McHenry Township is a separate taxing entity from the McHenry Township Road District, and if the referendum this April is approved by voters, the district’s assets and duties would be taken over by the township itself.

Trustee Stan Wojewski questioned why the three trustees in favor of sending the referendum to voters, Bob Anderson, Steve Verr and Mike Rakestraw, also are appealing a McHenry County court ruling that prevented another measure that could have abolished the entire township and road district at once from appearing on the November ballot.

A McHenry County judge ruled that voters can’t be asked the question again until 2022 because voters already shot down that idea earlier this year.

State law prohibits the same ballot questions from being asked twice in a 23-month span and McHenry County Clerk Joe Tirio was right by declining to certify the wholesale township and road district elimination question for the November ballot, the court ruled.

If approved by voters, the measure now set for the April township ballot would take a step toward complete township abolition by getting rid of the road district’s tax and transferring its duties of maintaining about 145 miles of roads to the township.

“This board has extremely limited powers over how the road district is operated,” said Anderson, who has long advocated eliminating township governments, according to video of the Thursday meeting posted online.

But Road District Commissioner Jim Condon pushed back, noting trustees have the option to adjust the district’s tax levy and budget. Plus, the trustees cut the pay of the township’s and district’s elected officials, which include Condon, by nearly half earlier this year.

“If you eliminate the township road district, I believe, wholeheartedly believe, if [road management] is taken over by the county or the municipalities that are close to our areas, I don’t think either one can do it cheaper than the township,” Condon said.