OUTRAGE is celebrating its tenth year of operations by announcing its 2006 Good Government Awards and its Government Hall Of Shame Awards.
Good Government, The Golden Apple Award goes to:
1. Bourbonnais Township Government: They continue to fulfill their promise to trim spending and hold the line on taxes. They have been a model to which all other local Governments should aspire.
2. Bourbonnais Library District: They have done a fine job balancing the library needs of a growing population against the climate of increased internet usage. Their frugal plan to expand the library without going to referendum or raising taxes beyond tax caps limits is laudable.
Both taxing bodies have demonstrated that conscientious elected officials provide a high level of community service on a cost effective basis.
Government Hall of Shame, The Rotten Apple, the Poison Apple and the Taxers of Deceit awards are given. The winners are:
1. The City of Kankakee distinguishes itself as the Winner of both a Rotten Apple award and the Poison Apple Award. These two awards place the City of Kankakee clearly alone at the top of the OUTRAGE “GOVERNMENT HALL OF SHAME” list. A Poison Apple Award is given for the City’s approval of a toxic landfill in the most hydro-geologically sensitive area of the County. In so doing, the City has jeopardized the heath, safety and welfare of all Kankakee County and other areas served by Aqua Illinois.
The City also receives the Rotten Apple Award for its oppressive governance. It distorts the home rule provision of the constitution to suppress dissent among its own Council Members. Further, the City thumbs its nose at the Illinois Freedom of Information Act and the Open Meetings Act. It is also uses code enforcement inspectors to squelch dissent from the general public. In Short the City Administration conducts itself as if it were an elected dictatorship.
2. The Kankakee Valley Airport Authority is awarded a Poison Apple Award for not using their authority under State and Federal Laws that would prohibit the siting of the Town and Country landfill. In applying for, and receiving an exemption from the prohibition , they have chosen to put of pilots and passengers, who use the Kankakee Valley Airport at serious risk of bird strikes which have caused over half a billion dollars in actual aircraft damage in the past 6 years and have caused death and injury to scores of people worldwide.
3. The County of Kankakee receives a Rotten Apple Award for is excessive spending growth and for its continuing efforts to site a landfill in the Sammons Point Area, which is a hydro-geologically sensitive area and if sited would present a clear and present threat to the health, safely and welfare of county residents. In addition the County also thumbs its nose at the Illinois Constitution by illegally changing the County Board districts without going to public referendum. As a result the County Board is illegally formed.
4. The Bourbonnais Township Park District receives A Rotten Apple Award for its general mismanagement of public dollars and its ever escalating tax drain on Township taxpayers
5. The County of Kankakee, Kankakee Valley Park District, Bourbonnais Township Park District, Bourbonnais Fire District, Village of Bourbonnais and the Bradley Library all receive a Taxers of Deceit Award for understating the actual property tax increase they are requesting payable this year. They are using a different method for figuring their property tax increase then other taxing bodies in the area. This gives a distorted view of how much they are increasing taxes in comparison to the other taxing bodies who are presenting the facts accurately.