On May 24, 2011 at 10:00 a.m. Judge Mary Mikva will hear and determine whether a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction should be issued against Oak Park School District 97 and its individual members to enjoin them from attempting to collect the new property tax increase approved by the voters on April 5, 2011. The hearing will be at the Daley Center, 50 West Washington Street, Room 2508.
Noel Kuriakos, an Oak Park property tax payer, and Taxpayers United of America, one of the largest taxpayer organizations in America, filed a lawsuit against the School Board and its members on April 26, 2011, challenging the legality of the ballot used in the April 5th election. The referendum question failed to include the State multiplier in calculating the estimated increase, thereby understating that increase by at least two-thirds of the actual increase. Read more →
CHICAGO–The President of Taxpayers United of America (TUA) today urged Ill. House Speaker Michael Madigan (D) and Ill. Senate President John Cullerton (D) to do whatever is necessary to block the $110 million item that Gov. Patrick Quinn (D) slipped into the state budget for acquiring land for a proposed airport in Peotone.
“The state is spending recklessly and should not be borrowing money for projects that taxpayers don’t want, that the state can’t afford, and which are destructive in nature,” said Jim Tobin, TUA President. “This is a boondoggle designed to benefit only politically connected contractors, bond brokers and attorneys associated with the project.” Read more →
CHICAGO – “With Chicago boasting the highest gas prices of any city in the country,” said Jim Tobin, President of Taxpayers United of America (TUA), “taxpayers may be surprised to learn that their pain at the pump isn’t helping the roads in Illinois.”
Instead, the biggest portion of their gasoline tax burden is directed towards the state’s general fund, to pay for the salaries and lavish pensions of government employees. That’s because the biggest portion of the gasoline burden is the Illinois sales tax. At 6.5% statewide, the sales tax is now taking over 20 cents from every gallon of gasoline purchased, and the money doesn’t make it back to transportation. Read more →
