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Politics & Government

Bill to Trim Taxing Bodies Bombs

Here's how much we'll keep paying to keep Wheatland Township working.

Township officials are high-fiving each other this week, celebrating the failure of the bill that could have abolished thousands of small taxing bodies in Illinois.

Illinois Senate Bill 173 went down Tuesday on a vote of 14 to 30, with two senators, including our own Sen. A.J. Wihelmi (D-Joliet), voting present, which in political speak means he didn't vote at all.

Township officials were calling senators in “droves,” according to an announcement on the Township of Illinois Web site. They are publicly thanking their legislative consultant Tim Bramlet, who “worked tirelessly on helping get the bill defeated.” You have to wonder who’s footing the bill for that.

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Township highway districts recently overcame a roadblock, too. There was no support last month for Sen. Michael Noland's (D-Elgin) amendment that would have eliminated all township road districts with 32 miles or less in counties of 500,000 or more. That bill did not come to a vote.

So we’ll go ahead and keep paying the $64,000 salary of Wheatland Highway Commissioner Dayton Jarnagin to keep up a little more than 60 miles of road. That is, of course, unless you lip off to him, like Plainfield resident Chuck Miller did, and then Jarnagin might threaten not to plow your street. But don’t worry. That Jarnagin is quite the kidder.

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The Wheatland Township highway commissioner has a brand new $3 million building in which to keep his equipment. And he can’t maintain those roads all by himself. He has a foreman who makes $52,000 a year, an administrator who makes $39,500 and three maintenance workers who draw combined annual salaries of nearly $116,500, according to information Plainfield Patch obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request.

That may have cost, you, too, because in the past Wheatland Township has run FOIA requests past their attorneys before granting them.

The township staff does not have a new building, but they are trying hard to build one to the tune of at least $1.5 million of your money. That way they will have a pleasant environment to work while they earn their paychecks.

Wheatland Township Supervisor Todd Morse makes $29,000 a year, assisted by two
administrators who together make about $74,000 and an office manager who makes $41,000.

Each of four trustees makes $5,500 a year and the township clerk gets $11,000. Township assessor Kelli Lord makes $54,000, with six employees who draw added paychecks of just over $200,000. At least in Wheatland they actually assess, unlike Plainfield Township, where they haven’t done mandatory four-year assessments for maybe 30 years.

Let’s all call Tim Bramlet and thank him, too.

ARGOUDELIS WATCH: 185 days since Election Day 2010 and still from Plainfield Township Supervisor John Argoudelis on whether he intends to be both township supervisor and a Will County Board member.

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