Growing property tax burdens make this state unlivable for too many Illinoisans – Wirepoints joins Tom Miller of WJPF Carbondale
Ted joined Tom Miller of WJPF to talk about Illinois’ highest-in-the-nation property taxes, why lawmakers don’t want to touch the tax’s cost drivers, just how much Illinoisans’ tax burden has grown over the decades, why Gov. Pritzker failed to meet his promise to reform property taxes, and more.
Mark – You had an article recently that tracked all the operating losses the county reported over the years. Any idea how those loses tied back to their respective budgets? Because for all the hub-bub on being $200M short, how much you wanna bet the county will be deep in the red this fiscal year with or without the soda tax.
Right. Here is that article. Cook County is in blue. In all those years of actual losses they were claiming to have a balanced budget https://wirepoints.org/one-chart-shows-awful-fiscal-trajectory-of-chicago-area-and-illinois-wp-original/
So now they say they have to fill the 200m hole that’s been “blown” in the budget. Holes in a budget can be “blown” from either side of the equation. Spending, patronage, unsustainable promises, unneeded and duplicated services and assets and an unfriendly business climate have ‘blown” far more holes than the revenue side of the equation. But all they see is revenue, never a thought that mismanagement blows holes. Government cannot grow 10 percent a year doubling in size every decade.