McHenry County Sportsplex developer asking for more time

McHenry County Sportsplex LLC wants to put the 100-plus-acre sports facility southwest of the intersection of Routes 47 and 176.

Designs for the two-phase project include playing fields for soccer, baseball, lacrosse, basketball and volleyball. A 125,000- to 150,000-square-foot building would house a restaurant, retail space and indoor sports facilities. There also would be an outdoor arena able to accommodate local, national and international teams.

The SportsPlex gained notice in August 2010 when it was listed in a report of 100 stimulus-funded projects considered boondoggles by two U.S. senators.

Click on the following for more details:  http://www.nwherald.com/2011/07/22/sportsplex-developer-asking-for-more-time/ai0ljdn/

Boone County: Highest Unemployment in Illinois; third lowest per capital stimulus funds?

This is taken from:  http://projects.propublica.org/recovery/locale/illinois

Is this saying something about our local government or is the state/feds?

This site was updated in January 2011. The data recipient-reported data through Sept. 30, 2010 from Recovery.gov which was released in October. It also includes some grants and loans from USASpending.gov through October 2010. The final report from 2010 is scheduled to be released Jan. 30. We hope to get new data up shortly after that.

Counties

Note: For some programs where states do to note report where money will be distributed across the state, we do not have the allocation for individual counties. Those programs include: Medicaid, unemployment benefits and food stamps. Those amounts are included in the totals for where the state agency receiving that money is located.

	Stimulus Funds	Unemployment Rate
Name	Total	Per Capita	2008	2009	2010
Adams	$43,004,312	$641	5.0	7.8	6.9
Alexander	$10,593,676	$1,339	8.9	12.3	11.4
Bond	$7,285,142	$402	7.8	9.9	9.5
Boone	$10,644,194	$197	9.7	15.1	13.5
Brown	$4,108,525	$623	3.7	4.9	4.5
Bureau	$22,423,046	$646	6.6	11.4	10.1
Calhoun	$13,121,359	$2,614	7.2	10.7	10.8
Carroll	$4,678,222	$297	6.3	11.1	9.9
Cass	$16,452,786	$1,213	5.1	7.3	7.5
Champaign	$224,774,120	$1,149	5.9	8.9	8.3
Christian	$24,639,931	$719	7.7	10.6	9.9
Clark	$9,670,753	$581	8.9	13.2	11.3
Clay	$8,659,913	$640	8.5	12.3	12.3
Clinton	$38,473,537	$1,058	6.9	8.3	7.6
Coles	$52,808,739	$1,014	6.6	9.6	8.8
Cook	$4,926,181,549	$932	6.8	10.7	9.4
Crawford	$10,639,844	$548	6.7	10.0	8.6
Cumberland	$4,694,413	$438	7.8	9.6	9.7
DeKalb	$125,775,902	$1,172	6.1	9.7	8.0
De Witt	$6,946,365	$433	6.1	9.2	8.6
Douglas	$8,303,369	$433	6.0	9.0	9.2
DuPage	$258,485,052	$277	5.2	8.6	7.1
Edgar	$10,073,604	$545	7.4	10.9	10.4
Edwards	$889,086	$138	6.7	9.3	8.2
Effingham	$23,271,953	$676	5.9	8.5	7.7
Fayette	$9,225,958	$441	9.1	12.1	11.0
Ford	$5,573,657	$401	6.3	10.0	9.1
Franklin	$47,153,290	$1,199	9.5	13.0	11.7
Fulton	$18,309,235	$500	6.8	11.8	10.5
Gallatin	$10,034,360	$1,759	8.1	10.7	9.6
Greene	$8,232,952	$607	6.6	9.1	9.3
Grundy	$50,409,574	$1,041	6.9	11.4	10.1
Hamilton	$1,507,617	$186	6.6	9.4	9.3
Hancock	$8,909,306	$485	7.0	11.1	10.2
Hardin	$618,856	$142	8.8	11.8	10.3
Henderson	$2,672,752	$363	6.7	8.6	7.9
Henry	$25,205,453	$511	6.2	9.2	7.8
Iroquois	$13,335,993	$449	6.9	10.2	9.1
Jackson	$48,289,837	$831	5.9	7.5	7.3
Jasper	$1,142,653	$120	7.2	9.5	9.6
Jefferson	$15,646,573	$392	6.9	10.3	9.1
Jersey	$12,875,395	$571	7.2	9.6	9.3
Jo Daviess	$7,326,088	$333	5.7	8.9	7.5
Johnson	$7,756,742	$565	8.0	10.7	10.4
Kane	$161,160,015	$315	6.3	10.1	8.7
Kankakee	$45,461,683	$402	9.3	12.9	12.1
Kendall	$16,430,436	$157	5.8	10.0	7.9
Knox	$16,622,422	$322	6.4	10.1	8.7
Lake	$194,168,959	$272	6.9	10.3	9.5
LaSalle	$64,942,745	$577	8.1	12.9	11.9
Lawrence	$8,141,605	$496	8.4	9.3	8.9
Lee	$22,585,737	$647	6.9	11.1	9.9
Livingston	$15,751,423	$417	5.9	10.0	9.1
Logan	$12,655,767	$425	6.8	9.5	8.6
McDonough	$24,468,261	$747	5.4	8.5	7.3
McHenry	$52,862,350	$165	6.0	9.6	8.1
McLean	$108,523,991	$647	5.1	7.7	7.1
Macon	$351,535,544	$3,249	7.0	12.1	11.0
Macoupin	$14,934,307	$313	7.9	10.4	10.2
Madison	$189,535,144	$706	7.4	10.4	9.3
Marion	$18,246,024	$468	9.5	12.5	11.5
Marshall	$5,384,354	$424	5.3	10.7	8.3
Mason	$8,541,115	$578	7.7	13.1	11.5
Massac	$4,659,173	$311	7.7	8.6	8.5
Menard	$4,343,261	$348	5.6	8.1	7.6
Mercer	$2,836,898	$174	6.7	9.9	8.0
Monroe	$53,537,779	$1,611	5.9	8.0	7.6
Montgomery	$14,240,250	$483	10.0	13.1	13.3
Morgan	$1,604,202,590	$45,970	6.5	8.8	8.6
Moultrie	$3,092,701	$215	5.3	8.9	8.1
Ogle	$15,786,393	$285	7.9	12.6	12.1
Peoria	$100,316,430	$540	6.0	11.3	10.0
Perry	$5,875,093	$262	9.6	12.0	11.0
Piatt	$6,734,362	$407	4.9	8.1	7.1
Pike	$12,102,988	$744	5.4	8.7	8.1
Pope	$7,647,667	$1,916	8.6	11.3	9.9
Pulaski	$37,337,833	$6,005	10.0	11.2	10.3
Putnam	$2,180,905	$363	7.2	12.6	11.4
Randolph	$6,618,646	$202	6.7	9.3	8.4
Richland	$11,500,674	$741	7.5	10.5	10.1
Rock Island	$106,747,239	$727	5.8	10.0	8.4
St. Clair	$136,763,545	$519	8.5	11.4	10.6
Saline	$58,519,957	$2,274	8.2	10.6	9.6
Sangamon	$7,405,289,506	$37,837	5.9	7.9	7.5
Schuyler	$4,837,380	$719	4.8	7.5	6.7
Scott	$4,939,852	$951	5.9	7.8	8.5
Shelby	$11,840,451	$543	7.4	10.7	10.2
Stark	$4,070,621	$676	6.3	9.7	9.2
Stephenson	$22,105,429	$475	7.1	11.5	10.3
Tazewell	$43,213,629	$326	5.3	10.7	8.9
Union	$4,429,597	$246	8.7	11.1	11.2
Vermilion	$50,357,417	$629	8.6	11.7	11.0
Wabash	$3,902,823	$325	7.7	10.1	9.4
Warren	$6,587,015	$378	5.7	8.3	7.7
Washington	$4,834,727	$332	6.1	8.2	7.2
Wayne	$2,810,795	$173	6.6	9.5	9.1
White	$9,768,807	$666	6.2	8.6	8.6
Whiteside	$41,619,643	$706	7.0	10.9	9.7
Will	$228,120,685	$333	6.2	10.1	8.9
Williamson	$42,654,321	$655	7.2	9.4	9.0
Winnebago	$114,039,952	$381	9.4	15.6	13.8
Woodford	$9,643,265	$248	4.4	8.8	7.4

TARP bailout to cost taxpayers $25 billion: CBO | Reuters

 

The U.S. Troubled Asset Relief Program, which risked up to $700 billion of government funds to bail out troubled banks and automakers, will cost taxpayers a mere $25 billion, according to an estimate released on Monday by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

Click on the following for more details:  TARP bailout to cost taxpayers $25 billion: CBO | Reuters

McHenry County Board Passes $18.5 Million Sportsplex Buck

 

The McHenry County Board Thursday voted to hand a regional development agency[UIRVDA]  its $18.5 million stimulus bond authority for the proposed giant sportsplex on Route 47 between Huntley and Woodstock…

"This is a Village of Lakewood project."

a rapidly-approaching and increasingly doubtful end of year deadline to issue the stimulus bonds.  The UIRVDA Board isn't scheduled to meet to consider the Sportsplex's new application until next Tuesday.

Click on the following for more details:  #links

Town-saved-by-stimulus

Is this also  Belvidere and its Chrysler plant? But how many residents see it that way?

Kokomo is going back to work.

Economists disagree over the real nationwide impact of the massive stimulus jolt orchestrated by President Obama. But here in Kokomo, the Recovery Act and Obama's auto bailout have jolted Kokomo back to life -- keeping big industry from fleeing and attracting newcomers as well.

A year and a half ago the fate of this car town, home to four Chrysler plants and a Delphi facility, was as uncertain as the American auto industry itself.

Now, thanks largely to the federal government, the town's unemployment rate has gone from over 20% to under 14%.

 

Click on the following for more of the details: a-town-saved-by-stimulus: Personal Finance News from Yahoo! Finance

McHenry County May Give Sportsplex, Stadium More Time

This article by a blogger in Algonquin/Lake in the Hills details what McHenry County is going with its remaining stimulus funding.

County Board gave all three projects the greenlight earlier this year it set a Sept. 30 deadline to issue federally tax-subsidized revenue bonds for the supposedly shovel-ready projects.

Click on the following for the rest of the story:  FirstElectricNewspaper: County May Give Sportsplex, Stadium More Time

Genoa eyes ARR bond sale to fund street work using

The Boone County Board did not pass the enabling legislation for such funds until December 2009.  Such funds are available to for private firms and government units.  The allocation for Boone County is in the process of being returned to the state.

proposed sale of Build America Bonds for much-needed street improvements.

The city is looking to sell $550,000 of the bonds for roadway improvement

Build America Bond program was implemented under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 to provide funding for state and local government public works projects at lower-than-market-rate borrowing costs. The U.S. Department of the Treasury makes a direct payment to the state or local governmental issuer in an amount equal to 35 percent of the required interest payment on the bond

Genoa eyes bond sale to fund street work :: The Courier News :: Local News

Jobs bill clears a key hurdle in the Senate

A $26 billion plan to prevent the layoffs of tens of thousands of teachers, firefighters and other state and local workers cleared a key hurdle in the Senate on Wednesday

give states $10 billion for education programs and $16 billion to help cover their Medicaid budgets in the first six months of next year.

Jobs bill clears a key hurdle in the Senate

Update on McHenry County Sportsplex

On August 1, 2010 I posted a  lead to a newspaper story about Lakewood/McHenry County using stimulus bonding power [$18mm] to aid a private developer in building a very large sports complex. See http://boonecountywatchdog.blogspot.com/2010/08/foreign-funding-and-key-to-165-acre.html  It appears that the blog, First Electric Newspaper, out of Algonquin, Illinois has some very interesting comments regarding the developer.  See http://www.firstelectricnewspaper.com/2010/08/unapproved-center-disgraced-cfo-linked.html. 

That blog questions the credentials of  the developer and points out the involvement of  Terry Gaouette in the project.  Mr. Gaouetter was the Chief  Financial Officer and CEO of the Milwaukee Public Museum. He  authorized the misuse of trust funds in a 2006 scandal at the museum.  See http://www.jsonline.com/news/milwaukee/29189214.html Felony charges were pressed against Mr. Gaouette  however he received only a small fine [$500] and the lost of his CPA license for two years. 

Foreign funding and Federal Stimulus Bonds key to 165-acre McHenry County Sportsplex project

I do not necessarily advocate sportsplexes but here is how McHenry County used their federal stimulus bonding capacity and other programs. McHenry County passed their ARA declaration in June 2009 and had it all allocated by the time Boone County passed its declaration in December 2009.  The time for allocation is almost over and Boone County’s share [approximately $2million] will revert back to the state.

Each investor has to put in $500,000, which has to support 10 jobs for at least two years. In return for the foreign investment, the investor goes through an expedited visa-application process for himself, a spouse and their children.

The sports complex, which will be on the west side of Route 47, south of the northwest leg of Route 176, has received permission to sell $18 million in recovery zone bonds to help jumpstart the project and purchase the land, which should take place by mid-October, Porter said.

playing fields for team sports such as soccer, baseball, lacrosse, basketball and volleyball. There will be a restaurant, retail space and indoor sports facilities. It is being designed with an outdoor championship arena able to accommodate local, national and international athletic teams

Click on the following for more details:  Northwest Herald | Foreign funding key to project

Obama pleads for $50 billion in state, local aid

Will Obama save the cities and counties across the nation?  Is there any way the Congress will pass this aid to local government?

President Obama urged reluctant lawmakers Saturday to quickly approve nearly $50 billion in emergency aid to state and local governments, saying the money is needed to avoid "massive layoffs of teachers, police and firefighters" and to support the still-fragile economic recovery.

Read more of this Washington Post Article by clicking on the following:  Obama pleads for $50 billion in state, local aid

Stimulus bonds for sport complexes take step forward

McHenry County may have allocated all of its bonds and Boone County has not allocated a single dollar.  Look at the final paragraph—the Northwest Herald believes all the unused funds will go back to the State.  Boone County Board could do nothing until Growth Dimension passed judgment on the stimulus bonds—perhaps Growth Dimension can see to it that the stimulus bonds are allocated locally before the June cutoff.

allocate the last of McHenry County's economic stimulus bonding authority to two sports ventures are now on their way to the McHenry County Board.
Its Finance and Audit Committee voted Tuesday, 6-1, to recommend giving the proposed Lakewood Sportsplex $18 million of its bonding authority from the 2009 economic stimulus bill. The remaining $3.57 million will go to the proposed McHenry County K-Nines baseball stadium in Woodstock, far short of the $15 million asked for by its developer, EquityOne Sports Development.

McHenry County received $27.5 million in bonding authority for private projects under the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act. The bonds are meant to encourage lending for ready projects by giving investors a 45 percent refund of the federal taxes payable on them. The county only grants the ability to borrow and not the bonds themselves.

The state likely will collect the unused bonding authority in June from county and municipal governments, and authorize the Illinois Finance Authority, a self-financed state bonding and loan agency, to disburse it to shovel-ready projects. The state’s 102 counties and eight of its largest cities divided up $1.67 billion in stimulus bonding authority.

 

For the next seven days you may read the rest of the story by clicking on the following:  Northwest Herald | Stimulus bonds for sport complexes take step forward

Suburban officials, Congresswoman Bean talk funding for transportation, jobs, business

 

Several community leaders asked for Bean's help in getting the STAR line, a long planned suburb-to-suburb rail system, off the ground.

The system would connect the Northwest and South suburbs along I-90 and the former Elgin, Joliet & Eastern railroad, linking destinations including O'Hare, Hoffman Estates, Naperville and Joliet.

Click on the following for more details:  Daily Herald | Suburban officials, Bean talk funding for transportation, jobs, business

DeKalb Courthouse, jail projects go to public hearing | Daily Chronicle

 DeKalb County will enjoy low rates for these projects through the federal stimulus program.  Boone County board members should note the start date of DeKalb’s new jail. After that is completed Boone County will lose a sizeable source of revenue.

Finance Committee agreed to use a combination of Recovery Zone Bonds and Build America Bonds, which are federal stimulus programs with a subsidized interest rate.

majority of the jail project may be funded by new revenue generated by an expansion of the landfill, which is a multiyear process needing approval by both the county and the state. Those bonds and the start of the jail construction are slated for 2012, though Hanson said it all depends on the landfill outcome.

Courthouse, jail projects go to public hearing | Daily Chronicle

Thousands of Illinoisans could lose jobless benefits

More than 65,000 residents stand to lose their unemployment payments in March — and another 235,000 by June — if Congress doesn’t authorize another funding extension to prolong jobless benefits, according to an analysis by the National Employment Law Project.

The federal government funded several tiers of unemployment extensions, which total 73 weeks, on top of the state’s regular 26 weeks of unemployment insurance.

Some jobless could start losing their benefits as early as next week

Click on the following for more details:  Thousands of Illinoisans could lose jobless benefits - - BusinessRockford.com

AIG plans to pay $100 million in another round of bonuses - washingtonpost.com

employees at the company's Financial Products division who agreed recently to accept 10 to 20 percent less money than AIG had initially promised them two years ago. In return, they are to receive their payments more than a month ahead of schedule.

These payments are tied to employment contracts from 2007 that fell outside the jurisdiction of the Special Master [Feinberg] and the law,"

Read more of the details by clicking on the following:  AIG plans to pay $100 million in another round of bonuses - washingtonpost.com

‘Cash for appliances’ starts Jan. 31

 

starting Jan. 31 heating and cooling equipment will receive an instant rebate from contractors that are listed on the ComEd, AmerenIU or Participating Energy Efficiency Contractor (PEEC)

April 16-25 — when shoppers will get a 15 percent discount at the cash register for buying a new washer, dryer, refrigerator, oven, microwave or other appliance with the Energy Star seal of approval.

Shoppers who arrange to have an old appliance hauled away when their new one is delivered will get a mail-in rebate of $50 to $100 per old appliance.

Click on the following for more details:  ‘Cash for appliances’ starts Jan. 31 :: CHICAGO SUN-TIMES :: Personal Finance

Will latest jobs bill really produce jobs?

Republicans scoff at the "Jobs for Main Street Act" title that House Democrats put on their $174 billion package last month….

In its last vote of 2009, the House narrowly passed the bill, 217-212, without a single Republican supporter….

$75 billion in infrastructure and public sector spending: tens of thousands of new construction jobs, 5,500 more police officers, 25,000 additional AmeriCorps members, 250,000 summer jobs for disadvantaged youth, 14,000 part-time jobs for parks and forestry workers.

The CBO has estimated that employment was 600,000 to 1.6 million higher in the third quarter of 2009 because of the[last] stimulus act.

Click on the following for more details on this debate:  Will latest jobs bill really produce jobs? | Daily Chronicle

Sterling gets bond authority to develop: Unnamed retailer interested in east end

The city of Sterling was given authority Tuesday to issue $6.2 million in federal economic stimulus bonds to an undisclosed retail builder interested in moving into the city’s east end.  The unanimous vote by the Whiteside County Board does not release the money, but it gives Sterling the authority to issue the bonds if the builder commits to the project.

Click on the following for more details:  saukvalley.com | Sterling gets bond authority to develop: Unnamed retailer interested in east end

Elgin branching out with sustainability program

 

$300,000 from its casino tax money to complete an inventory and forestry management plan for city-owned trees…

the city has qualified for a grant of close to $1.8 million in stimulus package money from the U.S. Forest Service to expand and improve its forestry efforts.

That Elgin already was considering a tree count made it easier for the city to obtain the funding

The count is part of the city's "green" goals.  crew of up to 10 inventory arborists will hit the streets and parks of Elgin -

Elgin branching out with sustainability program :: The Courier News :: Local News