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Woodstock boys top Marian Central to advance to regional final / C1 NWHerald.com
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Rauner’s proposed cuts draw ire Local officials slam plan to reduce municipalities’ share of state income tax By STEPHEN Di BENEDETTO sdibenedetto@shawmedia.com Fearing drastic cutbacks to police, public works and other core governmental services, officials from two area communities this week formally denounced Gov. Bruce Rauner’s proposed cut to their state shared revenues. Members from both the Wood-
stock City Council and Algonquin Village Board separately approved resolutions that urged Rauner and state lawmakers to preserve the 8 percent share local governments across Illinois receive from state income tax receipts. As part of numerous proposed cuts to try and cure the state’s budget ills, Rauner detailed a 50 percent reduction to municipalities’ share of
state income tax, estimated to save Illinois $600 million a year. “It’s a shame the state has spent the last 20 years destroying the fiscal status of Illinois and now is John Schmitt asking municipalities to help fix it,” Algonquin Village President John Schmitt said.
If approved, Rauner’s cut would remove $1.5 million from Algonquin’s general fund and $1.2 million from Woodstock’s general fund, representatives of each community estimated. The revenue for both communities helps bankroll services like police protection, road maintenance and parks, officials from Algonquin and Woodstock said.
2015 McHENRY COUNTY SPELLING BEE
LAST SPELLER STANDING
In his budget address last month, Rauner defended the proposed cut to municipalities, stating the state’s income tax transfers to local government have grown 42 percent over the past decade. The cut amounts to an average 3 percent of municipalities’ total revenue, the Republican governor said.
See REVENUE CUTS, page A6
Justices divided over law’s subsidies Health care provision debated in high court By MARK SHERMAN The Associated Press
Photos by Sarah Nader – snader@shawmedia.com
Mareike Western, 14, of Johnsburg spells her final word on Wednesday before winning the annual McHenry County Spelling Bee at McHenry County College in Crystal Lake. She competed against 11 local students to earn a trip to the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C.
Johnsburg Junior High girl correctly spells ‘perfidy’ to win bee By EMILY K. COLEMAN ecoleman@shawmedia.com CRYSTAL LAKE – The final word was perfidy. Mareike Western knew she knew the word, but the lights shining on the stage of McHenry County College’s Luecht Conference Center were bright and she was nervous. “I was really scared because it was the last word and I knew it and I was going to go to Washington,” she said. “I had to make sure I wasn’t going to mess up. That’s what I was really worried about, not so much the words I didn’t know but the words I could have screwed up because I was nervous.” Western even got through the word she completely didn’t know – homburg, a word German in origin that means a man’s felt hat with a dented crown and a slightly rolled brim. And after 25 rounds, the 14-year-old Johnsburg Junior High School student was the last of 12 spellers standing and the new McHenry County Spelling Bee champion, the first new champion in five years. Four-time McHenry County spelling bee champion Lucas Urbanski still attended the bee – but this time in a judge’s chair. As the champ, Western will travel to Washington, D.C., for the Scripps National Spelling Bee in May, with all expenses paid for her and a family member.
See SPELLERS, page A6
Aniketh Chedalla, 11, of Algonquin spells a word while competing in the spelling bee. Chedalla was the first runner-up out of the 12 local students.
More online: To watch a recording of the McHenry County Spelling Bee, visit NWHerald.com.
WASHINGTON – Sharply divided along familiar lines, the Supreme Court took up a politically charged new challenge to President Barack Obama’s health overhaul Wednesday in a dispute over the tax subsidies that make insurance affordable for millions of Americans. The outcome in what Justice Elena Kagan called “this never-ending saga” of Republican-led efforts to kill the Affordable Care Act appears to hinge on the votes of Chief Justice John Roberts, whose vote saved the law three years ago, and Justice Anthony Kennedy. Roberts said almost nothing in Wednesday’s 85 minutes of lively back-and-forth, and Kennedy, who At issue voted to strike down the health The case law in 2012, asked asks the questions of both Supreme Court sides that made it to decide hard to tell where whether users he might come out of all health this time. insurance Otherwise, the exchanges can same liberal-conget federal tax servative divide subsidies to that characterized help pay for the earlier case was evident in the their policies, packed courtroom or just users with the same law- of state-run yers facing off as exchanges. in 2012. Millions of people could be affected by the court’s decision. The justices are trying to determine whether the law makes people in all 50 states eligible for federal tax subsidies to cut the cost of insurance premiums. Opponents say that only residents of states that set up their own insurance markets can get federal subsidies to help pay the premiums. About three dozen states did not set up their own exchanges and rely on the federal healthcare. gov. The Obama administration says it would make no sense to condition subsidies on where people live, and that doing so would set off a “death spiral” in which enrollment declined, driving premiums up and leaving only the sickest, and costliest, people insured.
See SUBSIDIES, page A6
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