Massive Gas Tax Increase From Springfield

By on December 26, 2018   /   Illinois, Items of Interest, Latest, Taxpayer Alert  

There is a terrible secret that has leaked from Springfield. Lame duck tax raisers are planning to pass a 30 cent gasoline tax increase on January 7 or 8 as a farewell gift. This tax gouge will give Illinois the highest gas taxes in the nation.

Information started to break as the Mayor of Chicago Rahm Emanuel and a union of tax thieving mayors called for a massive fuel tax increase to fund what they described as “infrastructure projects.”

We know better than to believe that.

This state gas tax increase will heavily damage the Illinois economy, and chase even more taxpayers out of the state. For the year ending in 2018, Illinois continued a 5-year population decline and lost an additional 45,000 residents.

The bill will be voted on either the 7th or the 8th of January, so we do not have much time. We do not have the bill number, and we do not know in which chamber the bill will originate.  The only information we have is that it will happen on those dates, and the sources of this information are credible.

We must take this threat seriously and we need all hands on deck to defeat this. I strongly urge you to call your state representative and state senator and tell them to vote NO on any new gas tax. You can contact them by going go to http://ima-net.org/illinois-legislator-e-contact-lists/ to get their phone numbers and email addresses. If you do not know who your local politician is, you can find them and their contact information with an interactive map here. https://www.illinoispolicy.org/maps/

This is a fight that we can win. France, one of the highest taxed countries in the world protested a recent gas tax similar to the one being proposed in Springfield. They donned yellow vests and took to the streets demanding the government reverse the tax. They won! The tax was reversed.

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TAXPAYER ALERT!

By on November 20, 2018   /   Illinois, Items of Interest, Latest, News Releases, Taxpayer Alert  

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Dear Taxpayer,

The Springfield tax-raisers—of both political parties—are planning to hit taxpayers with another tax increase, and this one is a cowardly sneak-attack that you must fight immediately in order to stop it.

As you are reading this, the state’s car rental companies are working with Illinois lawmakers to override Gov. Bruce Rauner’s veto of a bill that would tax and regulate the promising peer-to-peer car sharing industry. The Chicago Tribune and the Sun Times have already reported on this anti free market bill, but pro bureaucracy lawmakers seem hellbent on pushing it through.

The state’s car rental companies, which are facing competition from startups, are behind this proposed legislation in order to crush competition.

Peer-to-peer car rental companies allow individuals to rent their car out. Currently, there are more than 6,100 car owners in Illinois who rent their vehicles out to others.

Lawmakers want to override Rauner’s veto to Senate Bill 2641, by passing requirements for companies like Turo and their members to provide detailed cost estimates, abide by stricter vehicle recall requirements, and pay an additional 5 percent state tax with the possibility of additional local taxes.

Lobbyists for rental companies said this money goes to infrastructure and that rideshare companies should have to pay the same tax. However, rental companies are exempt from paying sales tax on the vehicles they buy, a break worth an estimated $200 million a year.

The Illinois State Senate took one step closer to eliminating peer-to-peer car sharing in Illinois by overriding a bill vetoed by Governor Rauner. Prodded by Enterprise-Rent-A-Car, the Senate passed a bill that would regulate individual car owners using a company like Turo as a rental car company.

The Senate acted without a single hearing regarding this stealthy tax increase. Now the battle moves to the Illinois House of Representatives.

Please contact your Illinois House Representative and tell him or her to vote NO on Senate Bill 2641. It’s urgent that you call your legislator today. The Springfield office switchboard is 217-782-2000.

Thanks for helping stop this sneaky tax hike!

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Home Rule is Home Ruin

By on September 25, 2018   /   Illinois, Latest, Taxpayer Alert  

From the Taxpayer Education Foundation

“Home Rule means Home Ruin.”
– Jim Tobin, President of Taxpayer Education Foundation (TEF).

In 1970, Illinois adopted a new constitution that designated any municipality with a population greater than 25,000 as a home rule unit. In addition, municipalities can vote to adopt Home Rule, or repeal Home Rule if they already have it. “Illinois Home Rule gives unlimited taxing power to bureaucrats,” said Jim Tobin, President of Taxpayer Education Foundation (TEF).

In some cases, Home Rule even takes away citizens’ right to vote on vital city issues and limits citizens’ voice in government mayoral and council elections. “Taxpayers are effectively muzzled, except at election time, and even then, their choices are limited,” according to Tobin.

The Constitution of the United States of America does not mention local governments. Local governments are created by and regulated by the states. This means that to speak about cities or other forms of local government in the United States is to speak about fifty different legal and political situations.

The Illinois version of so-called Home Rule strips citizens of control over local politicians’ power to tax, to regulate, and to incur debt. The Illinois version denies citizens the right to have a local charter or constitution to protect taxpayers from abuse or incompetence by office holders and from the hazard of easy access to public funds for developers, lawyers, bankers, and government workers.

Illinois bypasses the people of the community and puts all the power of local government into the hands of politicians. That’s why students of government and political science have described the Illinois version of so-called home rule as the most insidious form of government anywhere in the United States of America. It is government by personality instead of government by principle.

Without the controls of a local charter or constitution, and with citizens stripped of their right to vote on city issues, so-called Home Rule in Illinois empowers politicians to:

1) Raise taxes without citizen permission.
2) Impose new taxes in the form of fees, licenses, and regulations.
3) Expedite seizures of private property.
4) Give city property to private interests without competitive bidding.
5) Take greater control over citizens’ lives, livelihoods, property, and liberty.

The solution: Local taxpayer groups in Home Rule municipalities need to mount a massive educational campaign to alert the taxpayers in their areas, and must run a well-organized petition drive to place the issue of repealing Home Rule on the local ballot. Taxpayers United of America has used TEF’s Home Rule research to educate the public for nearly four decades, resulting in 206 victoriesagainst Home Rule in Illinois. Dismantling Home Rule unlimited taxing power will take research, education, and organization to fight back against the bureaucrats – but it can be done.

*This synopsis is largely based on an excellent, extremely thorough analysis of Home Rule by John Gile, who was the chief spokesperson for the repeal movement in 1983 that repealed Home Rule in Rockford, IL.

The full report can be found at http://citydesk.us/homerule.html

 

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