TUA’s work fighting home rule was mentioned in the Breeze Courier Online.
CHICAGO — Officials in five suburban-Chicago villages, Barrington, Lake Zurich, Lynwood, Crestwood, and Matteson, have placed referenda on the November 4, 2014 ballot for voters to approve Home Rule status for these villages. According to Taxpayers United of America (TUA), Home Rule means higher taxes.
“I like to call it ‘Home Ruin’”, said Jim Tobin, president of TUA. “Why would anyone want to give up their right to vote on property tax increases?”
“Home Rule always means higher taxes because it removes the cap that limits the amount that bureaucrats can increase property taxes. It gives bureaucrats a blank check and how many government bureaucrats would you trust with a blank check bearing your signature?”
“Home Rule also gives local government authority to tax nearly any product or service they want. What they don’t tell you is that such taxation drives consumers to neighboring communities where the taxes on products and services is lower.”
“And if high taxation isn’t enough, Home Rule is used extensively to add regulations, fees, and licensing that create even more red tape for business and entrepreneurs.”
“We are helping taxpayers in each of these communities by revealing the truth about home rule and how damaging it is. We are working with local activists and organizations to educate voters on Home Rule.”
“Government needs to live within its means and cut spending when revenue declines. Eighty percent of Home Rule and other local taxes go to pay government employees and their benefits. By adding new taxes, government bureaucrats ensure their own high pay and lavish pensions.”
“Illinois currently has more than 11,054 annual state pensions over $100,000 and more than 78,526 government pensions over $50,000 a year. It is mathematically impossible to raise enough taxes to sustain the defunct state pension system and yet every unit of government continues to try.”
“Illinois has one of the highest foreclosure rates in the country and you have to wonder how many people could have stayed in their homes if the property taxes weren’t so high – the second highest property taxes in the country.”
“We are urging voters in these 5 communities to retain their right to vote on property tax increases by voting no on Home Rule on November 4, 2014.”
TUA’s work fighting home rule was mentioned in a letter-to-the-editor to the Southern.
To the Editor:
West Frankfort, please don’t make the same mistake the people of Mount Vernon made. Don’t choose to be over taxed and over regulated by a handful of people on your city council. Take back you right to vote on local taxes and ordinances. Take back state tax caps on property tax increases. Follow the lead of Harrisburg, Anna, Westmont, Rockford and Kenilworth. These towns stopped their city council members from running a-muck, by stopping Home-Rule.
Jim Tobin, of Taxpayers United of America (TUA), and Robert S. Redfern of near by Fairfield, have been fighting Home-Rule for decades. Tobin has said many times that Home-Rule is one of the most financially disturbing schemes Illinois politicians have ever come up with. Home-Rule literally, gives a town unlimited taxing powers.
In 2012 the Illinois Association of Realtors and RVOICE worked to stop Home-Rule because it can lead to new inspection fees, and transaction fees on real estate; and hig! her property taxes, leading to more regulations, and red tape for their realtors, all without voter approval. As someone living under Home-Rule, and seeing tax increases and wasteful sending in my town of Mount Vernon, I would urge you to not make the same mistake the uninformed voters of Mount Vernon did in not taking the time or did not care about democracy and their right be heard. West Frankfort this may be your only chance to stop the madness of out of control government, Vote to END Home-Rule this Nov. 4.
Steven Casper Sr.
Mount Vernon
TUA’s Illinois pension project is featured in this letter-to-the-editor from Journal-Standard.com.
Several things. The $3.3 million Highland College back-door referendum. The name alone sounds suspicious. The money taken in from real-estate taxes is a great barometer of the financial health of the county. This is called the “levy,” and that is what governing bodies should run on. Any bond or referendum that passes is an extra tax beyond the levy. Highland has made it a practice of retiring one bond and replacing it with another bond. With the help of our politicians, this process in many cases has been reversed to the “back door.” To force this on the ballot, we need more than 6,000 signatures, and we have only 30 days from the publication — due Sept. 22 — to get them, which is nearly impossible.
The campaign is on. We support Bruce Rauner over Pat Quinn. We support Jim Oberweis over Dick Durbin. We support Bobby Schilling over Cheri Bustos. What do these three gentlemen have in common? They are all private businessmen. They know how to run and manage a business.
The main difference is that a private business expansion is limited by the profit that it makes. Government is limited by how much money it can extort from you, the taxpayer.
Another way you can tell who to vote for is to support whoever the public unions are running down. The $200-billion public union pension debt cannot be sustained. Our politicians are hiding under their desks on this question, as this is how their re-election coffers are filled. Wisconsin’s pension and health care was not nearly as bad as Illinois’, yet Gov. Scott Walker made it so teachers would pay in a little bit more to each fund and save their jobs.
Taxpayers United of America’s public pension study shows that in 2012, Illinois state workers earned an average $63,669, versus private-sector workers at $52,000 — along with job security and a pension that private workers can never hope for!
The Stephenson County Tea Party welcomes its representative Rae Ann McNeilly to address these issues and how to save the Illinois public pension system at 6:30 p.m. Sept. 23 at 111 E. Mason St., Lena.
— Bill Dietz, Lena
