Property Taxes

 Grand Tower Energy Corporation and Jackson County have finally settled the decade long dispute over the valuation of the shuttered power plant at Grand Tower. Under the agreement, as I read it, due to the devaluation of the property, the GTEC receives a refund of $6.5 million in property taxes collected. Unfortunately, under state law, some of the taxing districts will have to make up the amount refunded, meaning that property owners in the Grand Tower area could see property tax increases of 60% to 100% in 2025 and 2026, before the levies return to normal in 2027. That is a lot of money for a poor area like the Grand Tower Township to come up with and could mean even less road and infrastructure repair over the next couple of years.

Levee Bonds

Apparently bi-partisanship only goes so far.  According to this story in the Southern, State Sen. Bill Luechtefeld thinks Rep. Bill Enyart stepped waaaaay out of line by testifying in favor of a bill allowing the issuing of bonds to repair the levee by Grand Tower. Luechtefeld:


“We had a gentleman there taking credit for it who had absolutely nothing to do with it,” Luechtefeld said. “That’s over the top. You see a lot of awful political things that are ugly, but this was right at the top. I’ve been here for a lot of years, and this is as political as I’ve ever seen. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing, that a person would have the nerve to do that just for political reasons. He used it.”

That's quite a condemnation, coming from a guy who served during the Blagoyovich years.