Coles County -Insufficient reporting keeps citizens in the dark – Part VI -Tyranny exposed

Coles Co. (ECWd) –

OK, we had to extend the series.

See Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV, and Part V to follow the chain of events that show why the local reporting is so insufficient and how out of control the Coles County officials are.

August 1, 2018, Article:  “Any other compensation to Bob Becker not specifically authorized by the county board is inconsistent with the statute,” Bower said in a memo he said he’ll provide to the board.”

“He added that he’s still researching the issue to determine what, if anything, needs to be done about the payments Becker already received.”

When payments are done in violation of the law they are recoverable.  The County should demand the return of those funds and if they refuse the taxpayers could bring a suit for the recovery of those funds.

August 1, 2018, Article: “Biddle did talk to the board’s Office and Rules Committee, which oversees her office, and the consensus was that the hourly rate for the appeals work was “reasonable,” Metzger said.”

OK, how the paper let this one go unchallenged is beyond me.  A committee established by the County Board, Office and Rules Committee, does not oversee the Supervisor of Assessments office.  The law is very clear on how the SOA office is to operate and it says nothing about a committee being in a position to oversee the office.

Is anyone reading the law for the jobs they hold?

August 1, 2018, Article: “Biddle and Becker both said the appeals work took place during 2016 and last year. The work was to defend the county’s positions during county Board of Review appeal hearings and cases that taxpayers took to the Illinois Property Tax Appeals Board, Biddle said.”

I think I am going to need a vacation after this one.  How the paper missed this huge issue is unbelievable.  What the paper reported, and never challenged, is the SOA is not only getting paid, but taxpayer funds are also being used to pay another person to do her job, but there’s more.

“The work was to defend the county’s positions during county Board of Review appeal hearings and cases that taxpayers took to the Illinois Property Tax Appeals Board, Biddle said.”

What that means is the taxpayers are literally having their tax money used against them when trying to appeal their property tax assessments both at the County level and at the State level. 

If that is not tyranny I don’t know what is.