Sportsplex, Minor League Baseball Stadium

The "Bridge To Nowhere" (Alaska), "To Big To Fail" (Washington D.C.) and now "To Big To Ignore" (McHenry County IL). With the County Board extending the financing deadline for The Equity One Minor League Baseball Stadium (Woodstock, $15 million) and The McHenry County Sportsplex (Lakewood, $18 million) to December, it looks like we intend to entertain our way out of this recession. I disagree with both developments. Sure it will create jobs in the short term, but what happens later? When the business models don't hold up, and they come to the tax payer to bail them out or they'll go bankrupt. Then they will be too big to fail and get whatever tax payer support they want.

When developers come to the county and want to spend 10s of millions of dollars, the "any growth is good growth" board members rise to the occasion and approve their plans. These are private facilities, not public! They can not get all the financing on their own - for good reason. The projects are not sustainable. They will need more taxpayer help in the future.

This is very similar to the residential housing bust - build it and they will come, build it and then walk away without regard for the consequences. The people involved get their compensation - fees, commission, bonuses, ect. - and then it all collapses.

I am against both developments and believe the bonds should have gone to help small and medium size business. This is a very difficult loan environment for local businesses. Sure, some loans to small business will default, but the vast majority will not. Local established businesses will do more for the economy over the long-term than these large dramatic developments.

The financing deadline has been extended until Dec. It may need to be extended again. You can influence this with the Nov election. The two incumbents in district 5 voted for the financing. I will be against it.

Special Environmental Education

At this morning's Planning & Development Committee meeting, McHenry County Special Environmental Education Program (MCSEEP) Director, Susan Burke, made a presentation to the committee regarding MCSEEP. Here is a link to this important and worthwhile organization - http://www.co.mchenry.il.us/departments/mcseep/Pages/index.aspx

From the MCSEEP website, the purpose is to " to educate the children and staff of McHenry County schools about the environment and stewardship. The program teaches environmental lessons in K-12 classes. It offers instructional materials for incorporating environmental education in the classroom through teacher workshops, a curriculum library and a website. It interacts and networks with other environmental organizations for the purpose of enhanced environmental education in McHenry County."

MCSEEP, like many programs in IL, is having budget challenges. The budget went from $57,000 a few years ago to $42,000 with $16,250 coming from McHenry County.

Teaching our youth how live sustainable lives is worth the investment of time and money. Changing behavior takes time. Changing our behavior when it is still mostly voluntary is much less painful than being forced to change. For example, water and gasoline are still inexpensive to the point that many people don't think twice about their usage. If people start now using fewer resources, the forced change in future behavior will be more palatable.