New taxes and higher fees headed for Orland after the election?

They're talking candidly about how Lt. Gov Pat Quinn will either help or be the victim of massive income tax and fee increases in the state after he takes over as acting governor from his former colleague and running mate Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

Isn't that the way? Always raise taxes and fees in a sneaky way?

Quinn takes the fall and then Mike Madigan's daughter Lisa Madigan, the Illinois Attorney General, will point fingers of blame at Quinn and spend, spend, spend like there's no tomorrow.

And now, I read this in the Southtown/Star from Orland Park Trustee Brad O'Halloran, the chief ally of Mayor Dan McLaughlin and the strongest link in the 19th Ward Chicago Machine chain:

O'Halloran said the board had asked village staff during budget sessions last spring to explore ways to increase revenue and cut costs. But the timing for the proposal does not seem right now.

The village of Orland Park was going to raise the fee on vehicle stickers, and then backed down after we blew the whistle on the plan that was to be presented, quietly, to the village board next week. But fear of a public backlash obviously derailed that increase.

Read the sentence above. " ... the timing for the proposal does not seem right now."

Ah, O'Halloran and McLaughlin are up for re-election April 7. The key word in this is the word "timing."

They have hiked property taxes, raised fees for water related services, cut programs, imposed fees on previously free programs, and are watsing a fortune on that 143rd Street Bermuda Triangle project to nowhere.

Why stop on a puny little vehicle sticker hike?

Oddly, the huge property taxes really hammered everyone, but it is always the small thing that people actually pay themselves out of their checkbooks that wrankles the public. We have to write the check to buy the stickers. My property taxes are taken automatically out of my mortgage payment, a year later for the year of the hike.

I'm glad at least one newspaper is writing about the tax hike proposals. The village officials know they don't have to be accountable. They don't have to explain anything. Few people attend the board meetings. None of the board meetings are broadcast on Comcast Cable TV (instead we have those worthless parades that people barely show up for, running over and over again and the PR flak kissing up to the officials interviewing them all the time as if the public isn't worth anything.)

Orland Park needs accountability and if the elected officials we have now won't give it to us, then we need to insure that there is an independent voice either running the village as mayor or on the board of trustees. Someone who will stand up to bad policies and tax hikes and wasted spending and poor leadership and lack of accountability.

We all know what the problem is. The question is, are we going to fix it or continue to let the Chicago Machine run our community like a Soviet satellite banana republic?

It only took a little fear to stop them from raising the vehicle stickers. Imagine what might happen if people stood up and said something?

Hey sheep! Wake up. Start the mantra :) ... "Baaa ram mo. Baaa ram moo. (From the movie "Babe!") You raise taxes you'll be in deep doo doo."

-- Ray Hanania
www.OrlandParker.com