By State Rep. Jeanne Ives (R-Wheaton) -
Have you gotten mailers from your Democrat State Representatives saying they voted to freeze your property taxes, yet? If you haven’t, you will. And the mailers don’t lie. They voted for a property tax freeze. In fact, they voted for it up to seventeen times. Do you think, maybe … I don’t know… property tax rates should be frozen, then?
As a state legislator, I can assure you that no bill gets seventeen votes. It is extremely rare that a bill gets a second vote. So what’s going on here?
It’s a game that’s being played. House Democrats, led by Speaker Mike Madigan, know that they are going to have to answer for the fact that your property taxes are sky-rocketing. They need to have a vote or two to point at on a campaign mailer. So, they bring a bill to the floor with no intention of seeing into law, and vote on it. The process is a scam that’s being perpetrated on Illinois homeowners.
On these bills, Republicans vote ‘Present,’ because we refuse to participate in Mike Madigan’s political theater. Then, Democrats in “safe districts” are strategically let off the vote to ensure that it doesn’t pass. On the one occasion that Republicans decided to vote ‘Yes’ on one of these bills (HB 696), it passed out of the House. So, what happened? It was never sent to the Senate for a vote. It was never meant to be a law. It was only meant to be a campaign talking point. House Democrats let it die.
This was Madigan’s play and suburban Democrats backed it time after time after time.
Worse still, everyone is in on it. Lobbyists, unions, administrators and other political insiders dependent on Madigan’s Democrat legislators encourage such votes to protect their kept-politicians. So, instead of working to pass a balanced budget, we take sham votes on bills that won’t do anything to lower property taxes. All so that Democrat legislators can fill your mailbox with glossy mailers touting the great things they are doing for your community.
It is a game that only works for Illinois’ political elites. It doesn’t work for homeowners and businesses. Illinoisans pay the highest property taxes in the nation despite all the politicians who claim they are for lower taxes. We don’t have a balanced budget despite all the politicians who claim they want to compromise on the budget.
Families are being taxed out of their homes. Our state is broke. We have the highest unemployment rate in the nation. Do they think you will be so blinded by those glossy mailers that you won’t notice that? Yes, and what’s worse: they count on it. It is the impetus for this whole charade.
I have never been surprised that Speaker Madigan and his Democrats play political games. They are surely not the only political elites to do so. I’m just surprised that he chooses to make the games so obvious.
Seventeen votes on a bill that never passes? Who do they think they’re fooling?
In Illinois, elections speak louder than words. On November 8, will you tell the ruling class that games and lies so transparent render campaign mailers and rhetoric not just useless, but ridiculous?
Jeanne Ives represents Illinois' 42nc House District.
