LAW PROFESSOR TO PRITZKER: DON’T USE CONSTITUTION AS EXCUSE TO AVOID PENSION REFORM

By on March 19, 2020   /   Latest  
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A notable law professor dismantled the argument of Ill. Gov. Jay Robert “J. B.” Pritzker (D), who argued that pension reform involving reduced government pensions violates the U.S. Constitution’s contracts clause.

Mark D. Rosen, University Distinguished Professor of Law at IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law, writing in Crain’s, stated that Pritzker is wrong, and that a long line of U.S. Supreme Court cases holds that the Constitution’s prohibition on impairing the obligation of contracts is not absolute.

“Pritzker’s argument is not based on law, but is the result of pressure by government-employee unions and government bureaucrats,” said Jim Tobin, president of Taxpayers United of America (TUA).

The Court had stated that “we must attempt to reconcile the strictures of the Contract Clause with the essential attribute of sovereign power…necessarily reserved by the States to safeguard the welfare of their citizens.”

Rosen states that “Common sense suggests that maintaining the state’s viability so it can provide adequate education and health care and public safety might likewise be sufficiently important to allow impairments.”

Rosen concluded, “…Pritzker should not invoke the U.S. Constitution as an excuse for not considering a state constitutional amendment.”

“Rather than bankrupting the state’s middle class with a huge graduated income tax increase this November, it’s time Pritzker was honest with his Income Theft Amendment,” said Tobin. “Illinois government pensions cannot be fixed with tax increases. True pension reform has to be based on reforming the lavish, gold-plated government-employee pension plans.”

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Turning Point

By on March 18, 2020   /   Blog, Latest  
Yesterday was a good day for taxpayers. Despite the naysaying and the heckling from tax thieves, taxpayers have just won a string of very important victories. Every Home Rule referenda in Cook County was soundly defeated, along with two government school property increase referenda in Will County.

Taxpayers in Lynwood Illinois handing out vote no Home Rule fliers.

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Yesterday was a good day for taxpayers. Despite the naysaying and the heckling from tax thieves, taxpayers have just won a string of very important victories. Every Home Rule referenda in Cook County was soundly defeated, along with two government school property increase referenda in Will County.

“These are all great results,”, said Jim Tobin, president of Taxpayers United of America (TUA), commenting on the March 17 election. “Our hard work in Burr Ridge, Westchester, and Lynwood have paid off. Every Home Rule referendum was trounced by overwhelming majorities.”

“Ever since tax thieves bulldogged a $5,000,000,000 income tax increase through Springfield, they have pushed for even higher taxes on the middle class. Taxpayers are furious at these constant tax hikes. Homeowners bristle at the very idea of another property tax increase.”

“Taxpayers have fled these outrageous taxes in droves, and quite a few have lost hope. One supporter of TUA went so far as to write me a letter, telling me to give up, that Illinois is a lost cause. I didn’t give up though, and neither should anyone else! When it comes to tax increase referenda, taxpayers win.”

“I have fought tax increases in Illinois for over 40 years. Including the 3 new Home Rule referenda victories, with the property tax referenda victories in Peotone and Oswego, we have now racked up 437 taxpayer referenda victories. Illinois taxpayers are nowhere near out of the fight.”

“I sense a turning point coming in Illinois. Illinoisans are done with new taxes, but government employees are demanding more The lavish pensions Speaker Madigan and his cronies have promised are outgrowing the amount of money they can steal from taxpayers. The only way they can keep the gravy train rolling is with a graduated income tax increase.”

“The $5,000,000,000 income tax increase was not enough, and neither is the proposed graduated income tax increase. This ‘Fair Tax’ as called, is nothing more than thievery. It is in fact an Income Theft Amendment, a graduated income tax increase on the middle class.”

“Now that the March 17 elections are over, the November 3 Income Theft Amendment is now our major focus. We beat Home Rule, we defeated, property tax increases, and now we are going to beat back the Income Theft Amendment as we did before.”

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TO GOV. PRITZKER: TAX CUTS, NOT TAX HIKES!

By on March 17, 2020   /   Latest  

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As Illinois inches closer to recession, Illinois Governor, Jay Robert “J. B.” Pritzker should look to the past to see how historical figures weathered similar crises. Unsurprisingly, tax increases are not a part of the solution.

In 1920, there was a much shorter depression than the one that started in 1929. In its initial stages, this depression was every bit as severe as the more famous one that would begin nine years later.

From 1920 to 1921, the estimated gross national product plunged 24% from $91.5 billion to $69.6 billion. During that same period, the number of unemployed people jumped from 2.1 million to 4.9 million or roughly 12% of the workforce. Home and farm foreclosures and bank failures spiraled, and calls for federal relief came from every corner of America.

Unlike Herbert Hoover and FDR, however, then-President Warren G. Harding had both the wisdom and the courage to resist these pressures. Harding understood that depressions were the unavoidable result of speculative bubbles created by monetary inflation.

There were no huge government bailouts to save failing businesses or banks, no grand federal make-work programs to employ the unemployed, no massive regulation of the economy to reign in the markets, stifle investment or impede trade.

To fight the recession, Harding called on Congress to dramatically reduce both taxes and spending. Federal spending was cut from $6.3 billion in 1920 to $5 billion in 1921 and to $3.2 billion in 1922. Federal taxes were also reduced from $6.6 billion in 1920 to $5.5 billion in 1921 and to $4 billion in 1922 with budget surpluses each year used to reduce the federal debt.

The results were astounding. By 1922, GNP had recovered to $74.6 billion and unemployment fell by nearly 50% to 2.8 million (6.7%)!

Today, Illinois stands on the brink of total economic collapse, and, yet, the Democrat Governor, Jay Robert “J. B.” Pritzker, has put on the November ballot an Income Tax Increase Amendment to the State Constitution that would saddle Illinois taxpayers with a huge state income tax increase.

The wisdom of Pres. Warren G. Harding is in very short supply in 2020. If Illinois is to survive as a viable governmental entity, taxpayers must send “J. B.” a message by voting down his November 3rd Income Theft Amendment. If that happens, hopefully our rotund governor will come to his senses and tell the state legislature that Illinois needs some badly-needed tax cuts.

Source:http://www.taxpayereducation.org/2010/06/warren-harding-and-the-great-depression-that-wasnt/

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