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CHICAGO—Taxpayers United of America (TUA), one of the largest taxpayer organizations in the nation, has released its 15th biennial non-partisan Tax Survey of the Illinois General Assembly, revealing the tax and spending records of every member of the 97th General Assembly from January 2011 to January 2013.
“The 97th General Assembly accomplished little to improve the tax landscape for Illinois residents,” said TUA President Jim Tobin. “The most notable piece of legislation to come out of this group was SB3314, introduced by St. Sen. Don Harmon (D-39 Oak Park), which was the direct result of the lawsuits filed by TUA against Oak Park D-97 and Wilmette D-39 school districts for using ballot language that purposely mislead taxpayers by understating by 300%, the property tax increase resulting from passage of a referendum. SB3314 makes this practice of duping voters illegal.”
“Unfortunately, the real legacy of the 97th General Assembly is the lack of any government pension reform,” said Tobin. “While lawmakers nickel-and-dime Illinois taxpayers with increased license plate taxes and numerous speed and red light cameras, they failed to reform the problem that is bankrupting the state and causing residents to flee in droves.”
“Last year, 74,000 productive citizens fled Illinois to states with lower taxes.”
The tax survey lists the state’s Taxpayers’ Friends and Taxpayers’ Enemies. “Regrettably, there are many more taxpayers’ enemies than taxpayers’ friends,” said Tobin. “And we have listed all from both lists.”
“The scoring methodology of our surveys has remained unchanged since we published our first non partisan Tax Survey of the 83rd General Assembly in 1983. All significant tax-increase and tax-cut bills are included in the Survey, as well as certain spending bills.”
Click here to view the 15th Tax Survey of the Illinois General Assembly.
“A state lawmaker achieves a perfect score if he or she votes for each tax cut and against each of the tax-increase and spending bills included in the survey. Such a lawmaker is a friend of taxpayers and received a perfect score of 100%. On the other hand, a lawmaker who votes against tax cuts and for every tax-increase and spending bill included in this survey receives a score of 0. He or she is an enemy of taxpayers.”
“There are 5 taxpayers’ friends in the Illinois House, all Republicans, and, amazingly, not one taxpayers’ friend in the Illinois Senate.”
“In the Illinois House, taxpayers’ enemies include Lisa M. Dugan (D-79 Kankakee), Daniel V. Beiser (D-111 Alton), and Frank J. Mautino (D-76 Spring Valley).”
“The Illinois Senate list of taxpayers’ enemies consists of 4 Republicans and 13 Democrats. Included are Joseph T. Meeks (D-15 Calumet City), with the worst tax score in the entire Illinois General Assembly, as well as Mike Jacobs (D-36 Moline), Gary Forby (D-59 Benton), Michael W. Frerichs (D-52 Champaign) and David Koehler (D-46 Peoria).
“Illinois Gov. Patrick J. Quinn (D) had a failing score of 43%. In addition, in the previous session, he championed and signed into law the huge, back-breaking 67% increase in the state personal income tax, all the money of which was pumped into the unsustainable, lavish, gold-plated pension funds of retired government employees.”
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CHICAGO—The plan offered by Springfield’s “bipartisan pension committee” to cut Illinois’ government pension costs is ineffectual and a public-relations stunt, charged the president of one of the nation’s largest taxpayer organizations.
“The committee’s solution is to eventually cut the cost-of-living increases (COLA) of government pensions to half the size of the consumer price index,” said Jim Tobin, President of Taxpayers United of America. “That sounds nice, because the current COLA is a compounding 3%. But if the inflation rate rises to 6%, the increase will go back up to 3%, with full compounding. If the inflation rate rises to 11.03%, as it was in 1974, the COLA for retired government employees will be a compounded 5.5%. This plan may sound good when quoted by the media, but it will do nothing to fix the pension problem, and may even make it worse.”
“One solution that would help to cut the ballooning government-pension pension deficits is to eliminate the cost-of-living increase. These retired government employees don’t need it. Their pensions already are sky-high. For example, the top 200 Illinois State Police retirees all collect more than $102,000 a year, and the average retirement age of this top 200 group is 52.”
“The New York Times reported that Chicago average annual pension benefits range from about $34,000 for a general-services retiree to $78,000 for a former teacher with 30 years of service. The top 200 Chicago government-teacher pensions are all over $115,000 per year. Compare that with a retiree in the private sector with an average Social Security benefit of $14,800 a year.”
“Real pension reform must include placing all new government hires in 401(k) plans, eliminating the cost-of-living increases, increasing the retirement age to 67, increasing government-employee pension contributions by 10%, and requiring employees and retirees to pay half of their medical insurance premiums. Paying half their medical insurance premiums alone would save $230 billion over 35 years.”
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CHICAGO—The president of Taxpayers United of America (TUA) today called upon DuPage County taxpayers to fight tax increases allowed by HB1522, sponsored by DuPage County State Rep. Ron Sandack (R-81, Downers Grove) and signed by Gov. Patrick Quinn (D). HB1522 allows DuPage County to enact a Rain Tax on all properties in the county.
“Sandack sandbagged DuPage County taxpayers,” said Jim Tobin, TUA President. “This bizarre bill allows ‘stormwater utility fees’ on all properties in DuPage County, including homes, businesses, schools, churches and forest preserves. This could be the largest tax increase in DuPage County history.”
“In addition to higher taxes, a fee-waiver scheme would ‘persuade’ property owners to install and maintain expensive ‘green’ infrastructures on their properties. To make things worse, once these are installed, unelected county bureaucrats would control these infrastructures and, therefore, that person’s property.”
“One can easily predict the widespread corruption that would result from granting fee-waivers. DuPage County politicians are no strangers to corruption.”
“I urge DuPage County taxpayers to attend the Tuesday, Aug. 27 DuPage County Board meeting at 6:45 pm, at the DuPage County Complex, 421 N. County Farm Road, in Wheaton, Illinois. Taxpayers should let the DuPage County politicians know how strongly they oppose any ‘Rain Tax,’ and that any board member who votes for such a tax will be flushed from office on a tidal wave of votes.”
