Who is Steve Balich

Who is Steve Balich   

I understand that as taxes increase property values decrease, and more people are either forced to move or figured out that paying rent in the from of Increasing Property Taxes is a good reason to get out while the getting is good. A $6000 Property Tax bill equals $500 per month. People aren't stupid! everyone knows the tax right over the border is much lower. The people in homer Glen where I live have had it with taxes and our ever increasing water bills. Seniors and others on a fixed income see so much of their disposable income taken away (legally stolen) they have to move or struggle to make ends meet. The problem is that increasing taxes erode the home value so people can't sell for what they think their property is worth.

The only people moving to Illinois are those who have to because of their job.  The people left that don't move get the privilege of paying higher taxes to make up for those who stay.

I am a Will County Board Member. The first 2 years I was on the Board the Democrats controlled the Board and the taxes were raised to the max. The next 3 years the Republicans gained control and the the tax rate was reduced each year. As part of the Will County Board Republican Majority we did not impose a public safety tax which the Democrats were pushing to pay for building a new Public Safety Building, Health Department, and Court House. The Republican majority made cuts in spending to make the Capital Projects work while reducing the tax rate. As a Board member I was part of the group removing County Board Members from the IMRF   Pension program, giving no pay raises to elected County Offices. As a Board member I find it important to spend taxpayer money as if it were my own. Less government, taxes, and regulation are my guiding principals. 

Laws or Regulations that are not enforced, make little since, or just a way for government to make money need to be removed or changed. Examples: Getting your money back if you are found not guilty in court for towing, storage, and administration fees is just the right thing to do and is now part of the Will County ordinance. Making it so The County can't use Aerial Photos to initiate code violations and that violations are to be complaint driven so the County is not looking for violations unless there is a complaint. Contractor now get a 2 hour window as to when the inspector will show up to approve continuing construction. This means contractors won't have to pay employees for  waiting for an inspector to show up.

It is important to stand for issues that benefit people. Since being on the Will County Board I championed many which can be read on my website www.electbalich.com 

As a citizen I championed a tax referendum in 2016 which passed with 87% of the vote. This was advisory but about half of the taxing bodies listened to the will of the people. I go to the schools, fire districts and the Township and demand they do not raise the Levy. I say any person  voting a property tax increase has the disease "Raise my Taxitis". Every taxpayer should take the time to go to the meetings and voice their opinion. Every Taxpayer can send emails and make phone calls to stop office holders from getting then dred disease "Raise My Taxitis". I have been fighting raising the property tax Levy since 2008 and will continue. By getting Citizens Utility Board (CUB) involved we were able to get the Illinois American Water rate increase reduced by over 50%. The rate still went up but not as much as it could have. I am a member of St. Joseph Club, St. Bernards Church, Homer Chamber Advisory Committee, Will County Board Republican Majority, as well as donating and sponsoring numerous community groups and associations.

Steve Balich 815-557-7196   sbalich@comcast.net

Why Support Mike Fricilone and Steve Balich Fundraiser September 10th

Some of what Mike Fricilone & Steve Balich have ACCOMPLISHED for you   1. Lowered the tax rate the last 3 years while at the same time building a New Public Safety Building, Court House, Health Department, and starting a program to replace squad cars on a yearly basis. 2. Stopped code violations initiated by aerial Photos. Code violations are now complaint driven. 3. Reduced the tax rate for the last 3 years. 4. Stopped mandatory sprinkler systems from being required in all homes. 5. Passed a Resolution allowing the Court to return your money for towing, storage, and administration if not guilty in court. 6. Stopped the County from putting raised barriers on 143rd St. 7. Continue to vote against raises for County wide and County Board elected officials. 8. Stopped light ordinance that had no measurements relying on the opinion of Code officers as to what is a nuisance. 9. Argue that code inspectors can only inspect what a permit was written for. They don't have the right to write violations for other items out of code. 10. Worked with Lockport to move barricades north of Gougar and 147th, allowing for cars to cut through like the past from 151st over to Lemont Rd/State via 147th. A signal was placed at Gougar and 143rd. 11. Worked with Citizens Utility board to reduce the rate increase from Illinois American Water. The Rate increase was reduced but we still got an increase to an already high cost of water. 12. Voted to not allow County Board Elected Officials to take the IMRF Pension. 13. Worked to get the light at RT. 6 and Parker. 14. Stopped Will county Land Use from initiating a rental inspection program targeting 17,000 plus landlords based on HUD guidelines. Will County never adopted HUD guidelines. 15. Stopped requiring a building permit for some repair and maintenance items on your property. 16. Cut the Tax Rate at the Forest Preserve the last 4 years while expanding recreational opportunities. 17. Since we have be on the Board there have been no pay raises for County Elected officials and County Board member Pensions were eliminated. Fricilone & Balich never took the Pension even though it was a benefit. Mike Fricilone 708-310-9831 mikefricilone@gmail.com    Steve Balich 815-557

Will County Republican Central Committee Endorses Steve Balich

Cub (Citizens Utility Board) hosts press conference on Homer Glen Water Costs

Officials, residents urge governor to veto water bill they say would harm communities

Patrick M. O'Connell and Cecilia ReyesContact ReporterChicago Tribune

Flanked by state senators and the mayors of Homer Glen and Bolingbrook, the Citizens Utility Board urged Gov. Bruce Rauner to veto an amendment to the Illinois Water Systems Viability Act on Monday, saying the provisions are bad for consumers and a boon for private water companies.

The consumer watchdog group said the bill will allow private companies to grow unchecked at the expense of Illinois residents. The morning event was held at the Village Hall of southwest suburban Homer Glen, where residents served by Illinois American Water complained of skyrocketing monthly bills.

Introduced earlier this year by Rep. Nick Sauer, R-Lake Barrington, the bill would renew the act’s amendments for another 10 years and remove a 7,500-connection cap on the size of water systems that private companies can buy. That would, consumer advocates fear, increase the chance of a monopoly on the resource.

“Getting rid of the cap on the size of the system lays bare the utilities’ profiteering motivations,” said Bryan McDaniel, director of governmental affairs for CUB. “That will speed up the pace of acquisition. The bigger the system, the higher the price tag.”

The legislation, House Bill 4508, passed in the Senate but failed to obtain a veto-proof majority in the House. Rauner has until mid-August to sign or veto the bill.

“This legislation is a bad deal for customers, and it would make it much easier for private companies to purchase water systems and then to dramatically increase the customer rates,” said state Sen. Sue Rezin, R-Morris, herself a customer of Illinois American Water.

The Tribune calculated and verified the costs associated with 5,000 gallons of Lake Michigan water use for customers of Illinois American and Aqua Illinois. On average, Illinois American charges $74.95 and Aqua Illinois $53.16. The two companies serve about 52,000 customers in the Chicago area, and their prices were 20 to 70 percent higher than the 2017 price tag a resident under a publicly managed water system would pay for the same Lake Michigan water, taking service fees and other base charges into account.

Aqua Illinois said in a statement that the bill allows the company to improve water quality and system reliability, enhances fire protection across the state and will help struggling systems gain compliance with Illinois Environmental Protection Agency regulations. The viability act, Aqua said, enables communities to focus on other priorities, and the company emphasized that even with the amendment, municipalities retain control over whether to sell their water system to a private operator.

“It is important to remember that the opportunity afforded by this bill is simply an option for municipalities,” Aqua said.

Signed into law in 2013, the Illinois Water Systems Viability Act allows private water utilities to buy out water utilities and spread the costs of doing so across its existing ratepayers. The legislation is part of the Public Utilities Act, which designates the Illinois Commerce Commission as the gatekeeper of “reasonable” rate increases and a competitive energy market.

Under the current bill, the commission is allowed to reject a pending municipal acquisition if it’s not in the public interest, Marianne Manko, director of public affairs at the commission, said via email. Manko noted, however, that a decision by a municipality’s local leaders to privatize makes the move “very difficult” to reverse.

With regard to size, “it’s conceivable the Commission would reject such a transaction,” Manko wrote, if the acquiring utility “would find it difficult or impossible to provide safe, adequate and reliable service to a greatly-expanded customer base.”

Rezin said there needs to be a cap on future rate increases, which she lamented as already “out of control,” and said the length of the amendment — 10 years — is far too long. Homer Glen Mayor George Yukich and Bolingbrook Mayor Roger Claar also spoke out against the bill.

“(Water) is a life necessity; we have to have it,” Yukich said. “And unfortunately, we’re stuck with very high bills. So we’re asking the governor the same thing, he’s gotta veto this bill, otherwise it lets them keep raising it, keep raising it.”

Several senior citizens on fixed incomes, Yukich said, have told village officials they sometimes do not flush their toilets because of worries about the cost of water.

Residents of Homer Glen, with a population of about 24,000, paid $85.58 a month per 5,000 gallons, not including sewer charges — a figure higher than all but one of the Chicago area’s publicly managed systems that use Lake Michigan water, according to a survey conducted by the Tribune for its 2017 series “The Water Drain.” The average bill for 5,000 gallons in that survey was $44. The embattled southwest suburb filed an official complaint with the Illinois Commerce Commission regarding its water rates in 2016.

“You know, it’s outrageous, and we have to stop it,” said Homer Glen resident Stephen J. Balich, a Will County Board member.

Watering the lawn, other residents said, is out of the question. One Homer Glen resident on Friday posted to one of the residents’ community Facebook pages a picture of her $2,000-plus water bill, the result, she said, of watering new sod.

State Sen. John Curran, R-Downers Grove, said water rates are a top concern among many of his constituents, especially those in Homer Glen. Curran voted against the bill and urged Rauner to veto it so the bill can be reworked with additional consumer protections.

“The difference between what public utility water customers pay and private is alarming in this state, in this area,” said Curran, whose district includes Homer Glen. “We talk about property taxes all the time and people being taxed out of their home. In Homer Glen, I’ve heard resoundingly from individuals I represent that water bills are also barrier to homeownership here. They just can’t afford the monthly freight. There’s a big disparity between public and private.”

McDaniel said the bill can be improved by requiring shareholders to pay a portion of the purchase price of a newly acquired system; adding a referendum requirement so that local residents can register their opinion on turning a municipal system over to a private company; maintaining a cap on the size of the system that can be purchased; and shortening the term length of the amendment.

Reached by phone, Elizabeth Tomev, deputy director of communications for the governor’s office, said the bill was still under review and that she could not comment on specifics in the legislation.

Homer Glen Trustee Keith Gray, who frequently hears from residents complaining about water bills at board meetings, said privatization leaves residents with few options and little recourse.

“If I’m unhappy with Ford, I can go buy a Chevy,” Gray said. “I can’t pick up my pipes and go find another water system.”

poconnell@chicagotribune.com

creyes@chicagotribune.com

Sen. Curran Urges Governor To Veto Water Bill

Under the proposed bill, the companies can automatically raise their existing customers' rates to fund municipal acquisitions.

By Andrea Earnest, Patch Staff | Jun 26, 2018 1:46 pm ET

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HOMER GLEN, IL — State Sen. John Curran, the Citizens Utility Board and other suburban lawmakers gathered recently in Homer Glen to urge Governor Bruce Rauner to veto legislation that would make it easier for large, private water companies to buy municipal water systems. According to a release, Curran and CUB warned that that enacting House Bill 4508 would place too much power into the hands of American Water and Aqua Illinois, giving them the ability to impose automatic rate hikes to bankroll the purchase of water systems.

"The difference between what public and private utility water customers pay is alarming in this state," Curran said in the news conference. "We frequently discuss our high property taxes, and residents being taxed out of their home. In Homer Glen, I have heard resounding complaints from individuals I represent that water bills are another barrier for home ownership here. They can't afford the monthly freight—with the large disparity separating public and private water systems."

According to a release, under the proposed bill, the companies can automatically raise their existing customers' rates to fund municipal acquisitions—by 2.5 percent for one acquisition, or a total of 5 percent for multiple acquisitions. Despite opposition from Curran, House Bill 4508 passed the Senate; however, it failed to get a veto-proof majority in the House. The Governor has the opportunity to veto the bill within a 60-day time window.

"We want Gov. Rauner to know that this bill is bad news for Illinois American Water and Aqua Illinois customers, as well as any communities in their path," CUB Director of Governmental Affairs Bryan McDaniel said in a release. "It allows two profit-hungry private water companies to expand at a pace heretofore unseen in Illinois."

"Illinois residents shouldn't be an unforeseen casualty in these water acquisitions," Curran said in a release. "I urge Governor Rauner to veto the bill as soon as possible, and make steps to address the unjust gap in water prices."

"Water Bills" CUB holding meeting 10:00 a.m., Monday, June 25 Homer Glen Village Hall Board Room

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:                                              CONTACT: Mike Truppa

June 22, 2018                                                                                                 (312) 286-5077

MEDIA ADVISORY

Illinois’ top utility watchdog will join with suburban Chicago leaders to urge Gov. Bruce Rauner to stand up for consumers and veto House Bill 4508, legislation that favors two powerful private water companies and opens the door for higher water bills across the state.  

The news conference is:

10:00 a.m., Monday, June 25

Homer Glen Village Hall Board Room

14240 W 151^st Street

            Homer Glen, IL 60491

HB 4508, which passed the General Assembly this spring, renews earlier legislation that allows Aqua Illinois and Illinois American Water to automatically raise their existing customers’ rates to fund municipal acquisitions. This bill also repeals a 7,500-connection limit on the size of systems that the water companies can buy.

Consumer advocates fear the legislation will allow Illinois' two biggest private water companies to march across the state buying up municipal water systems and raising customer rates.  The parent companies of Aqua and Illinois American made a combined profit of $150 million in the first quarter alone, and past reviews have shown that the two companies charge up to 70 percent more than public systems in the region.

State Sen. Sue Rezin and Bryan McDaniel, director of governmental affairs for the Citizens Utility Board (CUB), will lead the news conference. The event will also feature Homer Glen Mayor George Yukich, who can speak about his constituents’ history of skyrocketing bills under Illinois American Water.   

CUB is Illinois’ leading nonprofit utility watchdog organization. Created by the Illinois Legislature, CUB opened its doors in 1984 to represent the interests of residential and small-business utility customers. Since then, CUB has saved consumers more than $20 billion by helping to block rate hikes and secure refunds. For more information, call CUB’s Consumer Hotline at 1-800-669-5556 or visit www.CitizensUtilityBoard.org.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:                                              CONTACT: Mike Truppa

June 25, 2018                                                                                                 (312) 286-5077

CUB, SUBURBAN LEADERS URGE GOV. RAUNER TO VETO BAD WATER BILL,

SAY HB 4508 GIVES IL AMERICAN TOO MUCH POWER TO IMPOSE RATE HIKES

Suburban Chicago leaders and the state’s top consumer watchdog group on Monday urged Gov. Bruce Rauner to veto a bill that will give special treatment to Illinois’ most powerful private water companies, making it easier for them to buy municipal water systems and slap their customers with higher rates.

 At a news conference in Homer Glen, state Sen. Sue Rezin and the Citizens Utility Board (CUB), warned that House Bill 4508 gives Illinois American Water and Aqua Illinois far too much power to march across the state and take over municipal water systems.

“Families across the suburbs and in my district have been sticker shocked over the years by the steep increases in their water bills,” State Sen. Sue Rezin (R-Morris) said. “Private water companies across the state have had a history of large water increases. This legislation would only allow those rates to climb higher, offering a blank check for these private water companies to use ratepayers to expand their company footprint throughout the state. What customers need is a real, hard cap on future rate increases for all ratepayers affected, stricter oversight by the Illinois Commerce Commission, and the ability for local voters to have a voice by referendum before their water systems are sold to a private company.”

HB 4508, which passed the General Assembly this spring, renews earlier legislation that allows Aqua Illinois and Illinois American Water to impose automatic rate hikes to bankroll the purchase of municipal water systems.

Under HB 4508, the companies can automatically raise their existing customers’ rates to fund municipal acquisitions—by 2.5 percent for one acquisition, or a total of 5 percent for multiple acquisitions. The new bill is actually worse than the legislation passed in 2013, because it removes a 7,500-connection cap on the size of systems that the water companies can buy.

HB 4508 easily passed the Senate, but failed to get a veto-proof majority in the House, opening the door for a gubernatorial veto. The legislation is now on the governor’s desk, and he has 60 calendar days to sign it.

The battle for the mind is the most malicious type of warfare

By Bob Livingston

The battle for the mind is the most malicious type of warfare conducted upon us by unseen powers. We call it "psychological warfare" because we are programmed by the system, and our programmed beliefs go from generation to generation the same as genetics.

Unless we break the pattern of programmed thought, we may hold erroneous beliefs for hundreds of years without question.

We build our lives or we self-destruct according to our ability and our inclination to break the programming code or preconditioning of the system. Not many do.

The philosophy of the system (government) must be evaluated in terms of human liberty. Human suppression is more psychological control than physical coercion. Those who control our minds control our physical and monetary assets including our physical bodies.

The establishment creates and uses words and phrases to control our thoughts and actions. It's this subtle system of psychological warfare and programming that creates conformity.

Governments insist on conformity because governments want to control the people. Where there is conformity, there is control.

Edward L. Bernays, the nephew of Sigmund Freud, knew a thing or two about mass persuasion. He is the father of manipulative propaganda in America. In his book Propaganda, Bernays writes:

Those who manipulate the unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. We are governed, our minds molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested largely by men we have never heard of. In almost every act of our lives, whether in the sph…

So the words and phrases the establishment creates and uses against us can rightly be called control words or control phrases. My term for them is code words, and I have listed some of them here and here.

The art and science of mass mind control has reached its zenith. The fact that so few suspect it, attests to its perfection.

Totalitarianism by and of the elite has been refined into a "benevolency" that is embraced by the people. Indeed the people have been seduced to their enslavement through this mind control. Evil has been made to appear good and good has become evil.

Psychological warfare excludes objective reality. There are no options to choose that would benefit the individual. All options are funneled toward the benefit of government and the elite. All that's left is myth and counter-myth.

Here are some social, political, economic and health myths that are used to deceive the people:

Democracy — Democracy is a great pretension of open debate. Indeed it is open debate but only on spurious issues. It implies an open and free society in the public mind but is instead no less totalitarianism than socialism, communism and fascism.

Democrat vs. Republican — It's hard to believe the American people can imagine a difference when, regardless of whether the "D" Party is in charge or the "R" party, the federal leviathan grows, the direction of the country never changes and more liberties are lost.

The government promotes savings for retirement through IRAs and 401(k)s — Government uses these deceptions as one means to regulate consumption by taking vast sums of "dollars" out of circulation until they can inflate the purchasing power out of existence. It also serves to help prop up the stock market giving the illusion of prosperity and enriching the banksters.

There is a national debt — Impossible, according to Federal Reserve publication Keeping Our Money Healthy, published by the Federal Reserve of New York. The Federal Reserve System works only with credit. It is an imaginary system represented in the public mind as numbers or computer symbols. How can there be a deficit of numbers that can be created to infinity?

Terrorism/War on Terror — Governments since the Roman Empire have created enemies to instill fear in the population so that the people are manipulated into giving more police power over to the government. Politicians always go along with this Machiavellian deception. This time they created the "Patriot Act" — how appropriate — and the indefinite detention articles of the National Defense Authorization Act, and launched endless wars under the guise of "War on Terror." Yet 17 years of "War on Terror" has only made more "terror" in more places. There is such blatant oppression of the people and the economic system is on the verge of unraveling, more fear and more war is needed to manipulate the people against their own freedom. Oh, you know this. And yes, they have this time added a touch of religion to enlist fanatics.

The mainstream media are objective — The media have never been "objective" or fair as people believe. The media have always used innate biases in selecting the stories it covers and the way the stories are slanted and edited. The major media are little more than government mouthpieces which disseminate information fed them by the elites. Many of the major players in national media are either CIA operatives or members of the Council on Foreign Relations/Trilateral Commission.

Social Security is going broke — Social Security is not an accounting discipline but a Ponzi scheme. "They" can print the money so Social Security will not go broke but the "money" paid out will go broke in purchasing power.

We get all the vitamins and nutrition we need from our food — Impossible with the American diet. Eighty percent of Americans are malnourished.

There's no difference between synthetic and natural vitamins — False. Synthetic vitamins are chemicals. Natural vitamins are food.

The government, the medical establishment and the pharmaceuticals promote health — Nothing could be further from the truth. People don't need drugs or doctors. Sick people especially don't need drugs or doctors. They need nutrition.

Euthanasia is a quick and painless death — Euthanasia can happen over many years as drugs and immunizations usually kill slowly. The system can reduce the population without blame if they do it over time so as to separate cause and effect.

Unless and until we decipher these myths, we will never see liberty for ourselves or our progeny.

A Dark Secret Exposed By One In The Left’s Inner Circle

Every day, we see another shocking new cause supported by the left that takes us further away from being a moral and civilized society.

The traditional values that make up the foundation of our nation are crumbling, and the left keeps pushing the boundaries to impose their views on the world.

Now, one radical leftist – who happens to support most of the abhorrent progressive ideology being spread – is finding herself a target for standing against one radical issue that even she cannot believe is being encouraged.

Natasha Chart is a self-proclaimed radical feminist, but she has uncovered an outrageous plot and is bringing it to conservative news outlets because her stance has been shunned by her colleagues, friends, and employers.

The Christian Post reported:

She opted to speak with The Christian Post, she said, “because I have been hoping that someone could be bothered to care that there is a significant and influential portion of the left-aligned and mainstream human rights activist community that both believes that ‘youth sex work’ should be made legal, and that they have the clout to get people fired from political and media jobs for making concerns about that public.”

“The progressive press won’t touch it, the regular press doesn’t seem to follow these issues, and self-publishing a story like this would likely have been pointless,” Chart said.

Yes, Chart states that many radical leftists – including so-called “esteemed” international organizations – are supportive of the sex trade, including the involvement of minors.

She realizes that while conservative outlets do not sympathize with her political viewpoints, her hope is that someone will listen to what is going on – in her words, “the institutional rot of a political edifice that was so easily taken over by a sex industry advocacy that’s alien to its founding principles.”

As Chart learned about the support for sex trafficking by organizations she was involved in through her work, she became sickened by what she was seeing.

The basis of the argument of these radical organizations is that by imposing restrictions on prostitution, including by minors, it would somehow harm those who depend on sex work to make a living.

Chart tells The Christian Post:

“My friends and colleagues over several years know this happened. Hundreds of… journalists and academics in the United States know this happened. They didn’t all agree, but none of them said one public word in my defense.”

“If they could be intimidated into overlooking this, what’s next?” As the days went by, it would become ever clearer that the promotion of the sex trade was a cause being backed by prominent people, and she could stay quiet no longer.

Chart assumed that her colleagues didn’t really understand what was going on, but as she pressed for answers, she was shocked at the outcome.She was shunned and even severely reprimanded by her employer — being told to cease her research and criticism immediately.

One of the major plots she uncovered was the involvement of Amnesty International.  In 2015, they encouraged legalizing the sex trade and created a memo using “human and labor rights language” outlining that sex workers must have the same rights as those in any other profession.

She began to publicly address that the philosophy of Amnesty International was immoral, and further research showed her that they were hardly the only advocates of keeping the sex trade blossoming, including actual language referring to the “youth” involved.

The Christian Post continued:

When the executive director of Human Rights Watch, Kenneth Roth, tweeted an article…in praise of Amnesty’s policy decriminalizing prostitution, Chart voiced her disgust on Twitter, and replied with a link to [an] essay on “Youth in sex work and the sex trade.”

Roth tweeted comments… asking, “All want to end poverty, but in meantime why deny poor women the option of voluntary sex work?”

“Nobody could really support this, right?” a flabbergasted Chart recalled thinking at the time. 

Her boss even told her it was “more of a public health approach.” Much of the current international legislation aims to make the purchase of sex illegal in order to focus on “pimps and johns,” but that criminalizing the selling of sex would send many young women into unemployment and poverty, thus “harming minors.”

Many of these international organizations also receive taxpayer and/or government funding, thus enabling youth prostitution to continue unchecked.

This kind of language and twisted ideology has appeared in many documents of international organizations, including the World Health Organization, according to Chart.

While Natasha Chart is certainly a radical progressive herself, aligned with left-wing advocacy groups on many issues, the fact that she is sickened by what’s going on with the international sex trade speaks volumes.

If even a radical leftist is outraged by what she is seeing, what does that say about the international organizations that promote the idea that criminalizing prostitution will harm minors?

With the help of these organizations, these young women – and children – are being given no choice but to stay in the sex trade industry.  The left – and their money – will continue to advocate it unless others like Chart come forward.