For some reason the Southtown Star's website seems unable to include Fran Eaton's regular bi-weekly column in its online listings. This week she responded to Rich Miller's June 22 column entitled "We all need to sacrifice for budget" - calling on Illinoisans to bite the bullet and go along with the Democrat's proposed state income tax increase. Fran responded:
We've all heard Governor Pat Quinn’s stories of state agency budgets being cut by 75 percent or more if state income taxes aren't raised by 50 percent this week in Springfield Indeed, no one likes to look to those in need with hands open and have to say, “Sorry, we’re tapped.”
But many of us taxpayers really are tapped. We’ve cut back on our family budgets to make room for higher gas costs, utility bills, mortgage interest rates and food prices. We’ve delayed updating our kitchens, bought a new set of tires instead of a new car, and tightened our belts as much as possible.
We understand these are tough times, and that even Barack Obama’s trillion dollar indebtedness has not been the miracle cure we were all promised. We see evidence of how the federal industry bailouts haven’t worked.
Along Cicero Avenue, where hundreds of new and used cars were once sold, producing jobs for mechanics, salesmen, and receptionists, now vacant car dealer lots sit. Desolate tracts of asphalt like those in Midlothian and Crestwood mean lower tax revenue, higher unemployment and hard times for a growing number of Illinois families.
That’s just one example.
Once a flourishing revenue producer, the south suburban trucking business has been hard hit by higher fuel costs and dwindling freight demands. Major trucking companies, once competitors, have now combined, only to ask for employees who remain to take a substantial cut in their wages.
Municipalities and school districts will be feeling the pinch soon, if they don’t already. As Illinois unemployment rate climbs over ten percent, more and more will be facing mortgage foreclosures and income shortages.
And that doesn’t even touch on how south suburban property taxes have increased, along with Cook County sales taxes.
Indeed, the situation is nearing a depressing level for a growing number of Illinoisans.
Perhaps that’s why reading fellow Southtown Star columnist Rich Miller’s lecture this week on how we should all be willing to sacrifice and support Governor Quinn’s proposed state income tax hike was so disturbing.
Miller lives near the State Capitol, so he's probably not ever lived in Cook County and sacrificially shared our county’s property taxes. He's probably only paid Cook County's nationally-high sales tax when he's been up here for a visit. He's probably not too worried about those north-of-I-80ers paying their fair share into the system.
Maybe it would be good for him to visit us in struggling southern Cook County. Maybe he’d understand a little better why we groan when we’re self-righteously preached to about our lack of concern for the needy.
Miller says Illinoisans should understand the need to cough up needed dollars to catch up with the outrageous spending spree unchallenged Democrats in the legislature have been on since Jim Edgar was governor. Since then, Illinois’ budget has increased by over 60%. More by far, than it’s revenue stream has grown.
Tuesday, busloads of non-taxpaying citizens will converge on the State Capitol, and they'll point fingers at our state lawmakers about the troubles that will reign on state agencies if we don't willingly sacrifice by writing checks for much more than we wrote this past April 15th.
Many of those making demands in Springfield will be purple-T-shirted SEIU union members who've been also picketing at state lawmakers’ district offices, bused from one office to another. One can't help but wonder how many of our hard-earned tax dollars they’re spending to pressure lawmakers into raising our income taxes.
At the same time, these SEIU union workers rake in a 4 percent wage increase, other former state employees hoard their $100,000+/year pensions, teacher union members won’t suffer, and still other state employees will demand more benefits and less work.
The cuts the governor is threatening mention nothing about six-figure salaried state employees taking a 10% salary cut or offering to renegotiate their plush pensions, while General Motors or Chrysler pensioners face before-unheard-of golden year financial crises.
Most Illinoisans are paying higher property taxes on their homes and businesses, higher sales tax rates, higher licensing fees, higher gas costs, higher utility costs, while the governor paints a doomsday scenario to intimidate already overwrought taxpayers who will be forced to carry the burden of never-enough government demands.
We as taxpayers are very concerned about the needy and underprivileged. Shoot, lots of us were once among those very ranks ourselves and we all know we’ll be at the mercy of fellow taxpayers in days to come.
But true compassion is not accumulating more dependents on social programs. True compassion is teaching others to stand on their own. Helping those in need is best done by making them less dependent on state agencies. That's true fiscal freedom and economic liberty.
Find another way, Democrats, to fix the mess you've created.
As taxpayers, we want to help, but we're tired of the constant demands of "more, more, more," no matter what Springfield-based columnists think we can spare for the common good.
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Copyright 2009 Southtown Star
