Letter: State’s financial quagmire persists

To the Editor:

I just read that along with the nine states that already have no state income tax, there are 10 states phasing out/eliminating theirs. These are all conservative, fiscally sound states governed by conservative leaders. A stark contrast to Pritzker and the “tax and spend” liberals running Illinois.

Temporary taxes and fees have a way of becoming permanent here, yet our state’s financial quagmire persists.

The Illinois tollway system was supposed to be eliminated in 1973, with highway maintenance to then be funded by gas taxes. Instead, liberal lawmakers made the Tollway Authority permanent in 1968. Even with the Authority’s bloated current budget of $1.5 billion, we still have the country’s highest gas tax, as well.

When Illinois created the state lottery, liberals promised that its revenue would fund education. While the lottery money does go into the Common School Fund, the state is playing a shell game with it because it takes the money that was previously going to education and uses that money for other liberal pet projects – a net gain of zero for education funding.

In 1989, Illinois instituted a “temporary” increase in the state income tax from 2.5% to 3%, which was to expire in 1991. Lawmakers made it permanent in 1993. In 2011, the state instituted another “temporary” increase of 66% from 3% to 5%, which was to drop to 3.75% in 2014 and to 3.25% in 2025. In 2017, lawmakers made it permanent at 4.95%.

Welcome to Democrat paradise.

DeVere Headrick

Oswego