According the City of Morris Treasurer's Report, one of the city's largest vendors is a company called Minority Development Co. Last fiscal year, the city paid Minority Development $639,604.
With the name Minority Development, someone skimming the Treasurer's Report might assume that this is a minority-owned construction company hired for a large public works project. That is not the case.
Actually, this company occupies a sparsely furnished one-room office in the Franklin Building, where it does "paperwork" for a large suburban car dealership.
What is really going on here?
It appears that the arrangement goes something like this:
The car dealership claims that millions of dollars of vehicles are sold in the tiny office in Morris. Using a sales tax rebate agreement, the city then rebates a large portion of the city's sales tax revenue back to the dealership, keeping a small percentage for the city. Minority Development acts as the conduit. No cars, customers or salesmen are physically present in Morris.
The dealership manages to avoid paying hundreds of thousands of dollars in sales tax. The suburban village where the car dealership is actually located is similarly deprived of hundreds of thousands of dollars in sales tax revenue. All courtesy of the City of Morris.
Municipality sued over sales tax rebate agreement
Village of Itasca vs. Village of Lisle
41 comments:
I don't see a problem with it.
So here we are left hanging in a Nancy Drew "whodunit". So many questions but let's start here. Who is the big dealership, what town is loosing the money, what is the local connection? This did not happen because someone threw a dart at a map and hit Morris, the South end of a Northbound horse. Sales tax law is a funny business and maybe one of our locals can make a note on Sledge about the location of a transaction and who get the $. I just can't wait until some town up North realizes they should pay more attention about the source of their sales tax. Any bets how it will take before there is another little office for rent in our TIF district?
The owner loves to give away Bears tickets to the local pols.
Its funny that the mayors fishing buddys always find employment their.
How can you live with yourself? Sickening.
Brian Feeney was the architect, but all the aldermen who voted for this connivance should be ashamed of themselves. Is there no integrity in city hall?
one scam after another for city hall.
The City of Morris is scamming and cheating the children of Grayslake. I wonder how Greenways and Taltys feel about this.
Do any city hall people have Grayslake Rockenbach chevy stickers on their trunks?
The sales tax TIF, like the property tax TIF, was designed to encourage new business in economically depressed areas. Once again, the City of Morris has managed to find a way to abuse the purpose of the TIF law. This arrangment does not create new business, it just takes tax money away from another municipality and puts it back into the pockets of an existing business. This deal only created one new job in Morris, and wouldn't you know it, the job went to the wife of the mayor's best pal.
Lake County and Grayslake are probably getting swindled, IMHO, and I'm sure we're getting hosed in some way, and I'm sure some local pols are enriched by this scheme, IMO. Let's find out!!!!
TIF deals may smack of impropriety, but they are legal. The city attorney said so.
It doesn't matter if the city does things that smack of impropriety, as long as those things are technically legal, and the city makes a couple of bucks.
This is going to be fun!!!
I love the challenge.
Silly mayor, TIF are for kids, not car dealerships.
The Illinois Department of Revenue should be notified and investigate this deal.
I definitely think the Illinois Department of Revenue should be notified, as well as the states attorney's office.
This is a blatant and illegal misuse of tax laws.
Maybe it is time the citizens of Morris take a HARD look at politics and get involved? Maybe some NEW blood in city hall is all it takes instead of the "good ol boys club"? Maybe that new blood should be the so called "outsiders" running for office? At least they may be unbiased and not swayed by the big shots who pull the mayor's strings from behind the scenes.
Morris is just a small mud puddle in the a great ocean. No investigatie reporters from Chicago care about small time political wrongs in Morris. Who is going to report it and piss the mayor off...The Morris Heald? WJDK? Right!
I called this dealership and they told me they charge 6.5% sales tax. Grundy county sales tax is 6.25%. Am i missing something here? If the point of sale is in Morris what is up.
Would it be fair to say that Grayslake is not our Illinois sister city.
interesting, are the local auto dealers doing the same sort of thing with some unknown cities?
Our city has gone down the crapper.
The rumor through town is that Darrell Brown is running against Dicky Cupcake in the next election....fact or fiction???
It is time to take back our town from the thugs in city hall.
Grayslake mayor: mayorperry@hotmail.com
How much money is the other city losing? I would assume at least the $639,000 paid out by the city, plus however much the city of Morris is keeping for itself. Does anyone know how much this is? Is the other municipality aware of this?
Greenways and Talty's should approach Grayslake and ask for the same deal.
Sounds to me like the auto dealer in Grayslake is "out-sourcing" its sales tax -- like many US businesses do overseas for their manufacture/labor costs. Am I right or wrong?
What is the sales tax in Grayslake? Anyone know if this is legal, illegal, or are we just wanting to complain about the city?
--Just looking for "the facts mam' just the facts".....
There are other companies with similar deals with the city. Morris is getting a reputation as the go-to destination for shady sales tax deals.
This type of thing is indicative of the the moral standards of the people in charge in city hall.
The people in power in city hall, the mayor, city attorney, etc., have become drunk with power. They believe the ends (their ends) justify the means. They believe that they are untouchable, that they are above the law. It is an arrogance that we have seen before with previous city administrations. This one too shall fall.
7:21, was your post a review of what happened in Coal City last year? If it was you hit the nail on the head. The abuse of power does not happen over night. It builds one little step at a time until the shell game becomes so blatant and manipulative the public is slapped in the face every day. It is cured only one way, "throw the bum's out of office"! Believe in the candidate that has one unspoken goal in mind, changing the lawyer, engineer, and any employee that is not subordinate.
D Brown running for mayor? Please God, pretty please? I'll start going to church if you could set that comedy of errors in motion! I swear! Anything you want! I just want to see the Cabana Boy show up for a debate in his untucked shirt with the embroidered martini glass on it. Pretty please, God? Are you listening???
D Brown is a dope.
history lesson....
Actually I was thinking of when Bob Feeney got the boot, but Coal City is also a fine example. I predict that in a few years we will be seeing an emaciated Dick Cupcake riding around town on a moped, while the new mayor is busy cleaning up the wreckage. You are so right on your point about Coal City - there will be no change in the business-as-usual approach without a complete housecleaning, with the lawyer and engineer at the top of the list.
6:50am....WOW...tell us how you really feel!!! A dope?? Ok, that word is soooo 1970's but then again so is "cabana boy"...LMAO.
And FYI....wearing a shirt with a martini glass is so much more stylish then the polyester pants with the pleat down the front like Mr. Cupcake wears...Oh and let's not forget the combover!!
Is this how we decide who shall be running our town?? By fashion statements?? Because if that's the case, I'm calling Stacy & Clinton from "What Not To Wear" to give the entire city council a makeover!!
I sit by a stream and just ponder,
how money could come from a yonder.
With paper a shuffle,
our mouths are a muffle.
And everyone says it's a blunder.
The taxes aren't fake,
which start in Grayslake
and pockets o' plenty we squander.
--Warren Olson
Hush little baby
Don't you cry,
Cupcake's gonna buy you
Pie in the sky.
Hush Little baby
Don't you cry,
Scooter's gonna buy you
another lie.
Hush Little baby
Don't you cry,
Chamlin's gonna bill you
Till your pockets dry.
Clone W.O.
There once was a meatcutter from Morris,
Who promised to clean up the town for us.
Good for family and friends, we saw,
He soon hired on his cousin-in-law.
Lawyer bills went through the roof,
And our tax dollars all went poof.
They conjured up the name Minority
to make it sound like a sorority,
With checkbook in hand
throwout hundreds of grand,
For political pals priorities.
This could turn into a real bonanza for Scooter. Think of all the legal fees defending the City of Morris from a lawsuit by Grayslake.
Amen,and pass the collection plate.
I wonder if they're getting unwanted attention. Their website, www.minoritydevco.com has disappeared from the internet.
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