We have a State's Attorney that has be accused of spending $17,000.00 of our tax money on personal and political items. Per the Northwest Herald quote, he says he did nothing wrong because once the money is budgeted to his department, he call spend it anyway he wants. We have a county treasurer who gave up his Chairmanship to the McHenry County Republican Party because it would cause a conflict of interest if he would have to produce the records for an investigation into the SA's spending. The county auditor who says that she thinks our SA spent the $17,000.00 on non county activities but is not sure because our rules on how money should be spent is not clear and she wants the county board to make them clear to her.
     First I have to say to our SA that he can not spend our tax money on anything but county business, not anyway he sees fit once his budget is approved. That is why I think that Jack Franks' idea of a "Zero Balance Budget" should be used in our county also. What that is, is every department has to submit a line item budget every time it is time to renew the county's budget showing just how the money is to be spent. No more of I want 10% over what we got last year.
     Second as to our county auditor saying she can not tell if the my spent by our SA was OK or not because the rules are too vague, use common since will you? Were the items the money was spent on for his personal or political use? If so, it was wrong. If you can't tell the difference, maybe it is time to step down and let someone who knows what they are looking for when its time to audit the county's spending do the job right.
     It looks to me as tho these three people knew just what was going on from the beginning and are now covering it all up to protect their rears. We still have not had any investigations into this matter to prove one way or the other. We should can for the investigation now before the Primary so we know before the people of this county vote someone in that will have to step down after the facts come out.
     The papers and others are trying to say this is just a campaign stunt to put a bad spin on the SA since he stopped using outside lawyers. If it is a campaign stunt, it is from the people of his own party since the Dems don't have anyone going against him.
     I think the county treasurer and auditor also know that this is not the only one in the county government with their hand in the cookie jar. I think if we audit the rest of the county departments, we will find they all have something to hide.
     Let me know what you think about this and if you know of any other departments using our tax money for other than county business.

A. Georgi