Champaign, IL (April 24, 2012): Lately it seems that hiking taxes and revenue has become the rampant public policy solution on every level of government. First, there was the middle-of-the-night 67% income tax hike on hard-working Illinois families last year. Springfield has so mismanaged it's budget and finances, they decided to confiscate a full week of pay from every working family in the state.
This tax hike was billed as a fix-all for Illinois' budget problems. Yet, using the Governor's own numbers we find out that not only do we have about an $8.5 billion backlog in bills, by 2017 (assuming no fundamental changes), the amount of past-due bills will climb to an eye-popping $34 billion (more than the state will bring in that year). Calls have already begun for yet ANOTHER tax hike to fund an out-of-control state government.
However, it isn't just Springfield that wants to drill into working families' pockets. Despite Illinois having the third highest gas tax in the nation, the City of Champaign decided to double down on the pain at the pump by levying an additional 4 cent tax for every gallon sold. Then came the 5 cent Champaign bag tax which is still under deliberation.
It hasn't stopped there. Now the City has levied a $60 roof tax (euphemistically called a storm water retention fee) on every homeowner in the district and uses a highly complex formula to levy taxes on every business, apartment and church in the city. This fee is billed as necessary to handle issues relating to storm water in the city center.
The problem with this theory is that the city is sitting on almost $20 million in unrestricted cash that it can use to address this problem today. Instead of using that cash on-hand that is uncommitted to other purposes, they are hoarding it and levying an additional tax.
On top of hitting the hard-working families in the district, this tax will be levied on non-profits and churches as they will be denied an exemption. At a time when these churches may be the last lifeline for the poor in our communities, the City wants to raid those coffers (and thus take money from those most in need) to further hoard cash.
The formula for the roof tax is also woefully skewed. Many businesses have already invested a great deal of their own money to managing their storm water, yet the city will tax them anyway. Not only is this tax ill-conceived and ill-timed, it is half-baked and needs some serious review to ensure some modicum of fairness is included in the taxing formula. Even better would be to use existing revenue or unassigned cash sitting in their bank account.
Lastly, Champaign Unit 4 is also looking to hike property taxes for a $14.5 million working cash bond. Working cash was designed, by law, to be used for cash management. A loophole introduced by legislation 3 years ago allows districts to use working cash for any purpose. And this tax hike is via "backdoor referendum" so the voters likely will get no say on this come November.
This move to borrow money and increase property taxes comes after the 1% sales tax hike passed a few years ago that was supposed to be facilities as well. By the way, this 1% sales tax hike also is levies on gas prices and providing more pain at the pump.
This utilization of a backdoor to hike taxes and the use of a loophole to fund projects in a way the legislature never intended shows real innovation. Innovation, I would rather, be directed in finding ways to do more with less instead of finding ways to just get more.
The taxpayers and hard-working families of our community are getting pinched on all sides, it's time for government on all levels to find ways to live within their means instead of taking more and more.
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John Bambenek is the Republican Candidate for the State Senate in the 52nd District. He can be reached at http://www.johnbambenek.com
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