32% Tax Increase For Illinois - Illinois Pays The Highest Property Tax In The Nation

Legislators are proud they came up with a "balanced" budget for the state of Illinois by increasing taxes. Governor Rauner vetoed the tax increase because it was a 32% tax increase with no real reforms. However legislators have trouble with math are telling constituents that the tax increase was only 1.2%-an increase from 3.76% to 4.95%.

I have spoken to several area residents and they have no clue how much this increase really is. An average family in Illinois will have a tax increase of $1,150.  In the final vote 10 Republicans in the House supported the tax increase, and one republican in the Senate. Originally when the tax increase first passed 15 House Republicans, voted for it. One was out of town for the veto override, and four pulled off the vote by Governor Rauner. To be sure, Speaker Madigan made up for the missing Republican votes by adding more Democratic votes for the final passage. 

The problem being, Speaker Madigan, evidently you don't understand the law of economics, you need money in the till to support the vote. Most Illinois citizens don't get the drift of the problem, even with a tax increase, the budget will be unsustainable because of uncontrolled pension costs.

One of the major flaws in the new budget is the requirement that Illinois public education moves to an "evidence based' model of school funding. This program will prescribe exactly how much money must be spent on  "everything" from instructional materials to employee benefits! 

This new budget WILL INCREASE the costs of education for Illinois schools an eventual estimated $3.5 to $6 Billion in tax-payer funding. Where, Speaker Madigan do you suppose that money is gong to come from?

We are already 13th in the nation in the amount of money spent per student. Ohio, North Dakota, Arkansas, and Wyoming have "evidence-based" funding and have collectively spent billions more in tax dollars. In these states they see no improvement in achievement tests and achievement levels have been flat.

Increasing income "input" into the existing establishment will not solve Illinois education problems. Illinois citizens already pay the highest property taxes in the nation, and should not have to spend more on education. To partly solve this problem, there must be pension reform and limits to executive pay to the bureaucracies in Illinois schools.

Given by permission Concerned Christians Newsletter