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IllinoisLeader.com columnist Ralf Seiffe is Illinois' very own Charles De Gaulle (pictured) when it comes to resisting the "tax swap"/tax increase proposal to fund education winding its way through Springfield.

Tuesday, May 17, 2005

By Ralf Seiffe

OPINION - It’s not often the French have a point worth repeating but this is a good point and a good time to remember the age-old Gaullist call to resist government.

The occasion is the likely passage of House Bill 755, the apparent successor to HB 750. Positioned as legislation which raises funding for Illinois schools and lowers property taxes in exchange for a 66% increase in income taxes, it is, rather than good for the kids, an instrument of public funding for the Illinois Democrat party.

Consider these points.

Illinois does not have a "structural funding problem". It has a spending problem because Illinois lawmakers do not know when to say no. In fact, saying yes to the special interest groups is the fastest and most certain way to increase their political power.

This is a tax increase that will put Illinois off any short list of companies looking for new locations. There is simply no way Illinois can compete with a total state corporate income tax of near 10%. Compare that to other growing states or to foreign locations actively soliciting Illinois’ jobs with flat taxes and tax holidays.

The claim that this legislation will provide property tax relief is a fraud. Revenues are intentionally set up to convert to General Funds when the growth in Medicaid and Pension shortfalls kick in.

Remember that the state has more than $100 billion in bills it can’t pay and any new revenues coming to them will be used to reduce unfunded pension liabilities and other overdue bills. If there is any left, Springfield pols will buy more influence with the state’s purse not reduce property taxes in the provinces.

The shell game with the bill’s title appears to be designed to keep taxpayers from being able to form a resistance to this new gouge. The bill with this number originally addressed parental notification of police line ups on school grounds. It is now flooded with amendments that have the fingerprints of the educrats and politicians that support the tax increase.

The sponsors appear to have learned the disingenuous tactics local referenda supporters use like low-balling the real tax rates their initiatives allow.

There is a limit to the taxes and political overhead Illinois’ economy will stand. We have already hit that point if job creation is any indicator. Our economy looks like a place the recession came and stays still, while our competitors have been busy creating new jobs.

The best estimate is that Illinois should have created about 200,000 new jobs in the last couple of years but the heavy hand of Springfield (and Chicago) have managed to stop any progress. What we need is a massive tax decrease not this sorry excuse for civic imagination.

Even if you believe in increasing the funding level to a system that’s insatiable, this tax increase doesn’t help the children.

Instead of funding individual children like we do in higher education, this money goes to school administrations. We already have too much of that; Illinois has more than 800 school districts and they employ 800 sets of administrators.

Florida, by contrast, has less a dozen school districts. If you want to help children, pink slip the administrators and increase classroom salaries to attract gifted and effective teachers.

By passing HB755, we do not accomplish the bill’s ostensible purposes of increasing income taxes to correspondingly diminish property taxes.

If this bill passes, we’ll surely get the income taxes but we’ll also expand the educational price fixers and their wholly owned subsidiary, the Democrat Party Educrats will continue to lever their enhanced position to sponsor tax after referenda after tax and enforce the Democrat’s larger agenda.

Worse, passing this measure will cover over the real education problem Illinois faces and put off any chance to reform of the clearly failing Political/Education Monopoly Complex.

So, Illinois taxpayers, Aux Barricades!

The only question is who will step up in this dark hour and organize the lowly taxpayer?

Who among the potential gubernatorial candidates will reject the Democrat’s claim of 65% support for this triumph of public relations? Which one of them will see that stopping this bill is an excellent opportunity to create an issue on which to move to the head of the pack? Which one will recognize that spending $50,000 now, to defeat this bill, will have the effect of spending $300,000 six weeks from now?

It is also an opportunity for the state party’s new leadership to define Republicans as the party of low taxes and effective government. If they take the challenge, they will have taken the first public step towards restoring the Party to its primacy. If they don’t, they will cement the party’s junior status.

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Ralf Seiffe advises business start-ups and product launches from Chicago, Illinois and is a political analyst and columnist for the Illinois Leader.