July 15, 2020
Dear editor;
Governor JB Pritzker’s graduated tax proposal on the November 3 ballot is in the news. I worry about giving carte blanche to the spendthrifts who put our State into such a financial crisis.
Without detail for specific tax rates for various levels, the end result could well be taxing more folks than only those earning more than $250,000 annually. Why couldn’t the governor propose a specific plan in analogy to the current fixed rate income tax? It makes me wonder why not?
Although, property tax is not exactly the same problem. For one thing, it is county assessment followed by jurisdictions supporting levies which were approved by each entity. I have an example from the property tax bill I paid last month. East Aurora School District 131 tax looked to be about the same tax I paid last year, until I looked at how it was portioned between Pension and School District. The pension nearly doubled, but was offset by the School tax going down somewhat. The numbers: $164.00 to Pension and $915.00 to School. The tax rates are .71 for Pension; 3.95 for School. It equates to pension fund 18% of the total. Last year’s tax was Pension nine percent of the total.
My point is the devil is in the details which can be averaged, hidden, and, even unpredictably given carte blanche principle.
For reasons of being vague and opaque, my opinion is to vote no to the fair tax proposal.
Mary Goetsch, Aurora