Can we suburbanite taxpayers sit back and do nothing?

Can we suburbanite taxpayers afford to sit back and do nothing?

We are facing a tsunami of tax increases from Chicago, Cook County, and the State of Illinois. At a time when we, the taxpayers, have to tighten our belts to make ends meet -- cutting back on family travel, working more, trimming back on meals, savings, new cloths, and trying to cover the basics of life, the politicians are doing just the opposite.

They get their top-notch healthcare. They get their steadily increasing salaries and benefits. They get their perqs, including bodyguards and chauffeurs like Mayor Daley, Alderman Burke and other big shot politicians who don't feel they have to answer to our needs.

They get their family members jobs. Their friends jobs.

And they do it with our money. taxpayer money.

Gov. Pat Quinn, a patsy for Illinois House Speaker Michael J. Madigan, is proposing a whopping 50 percent increase in the Illinois Income Tax. Quin didn't start out by saying he planned to tighten the state's fat, obese, overweight belt. No. He started by saying we have to raise taxes.

They said the alleged corruption of disgraced former Gov. Rod Blagojevich cost us millions. But have the losses stopped? No. Blagojevich was a distraction, to take our eyes off the ball. Our money and the elected officials failure to do their jobs.

Mayor Daley, who lies about his office indiscretions taking free jet rides from contributors and pals who put his wife to work, wants the suburbanites to pay more to bail out the inefficient, waste-bloated CTA. They keep saying how it will help the suburbs, but the fact is the suburbs get bones while Chicago gets the cash. Chicago doesn't get good service. Don't misunderstand what I am saying. They get lousy transportation service just like the suburbs. But Chicago gets the jobs. Well, pals of the mayor and his top aides and the alderman and the politicians, get the jobs.

And then there is County Board President Todd Stroger. He zapped up the sales tax with out even a blink of the eye. Oh, the politicians who were running for higher office, like larry Suffredin, screamed in taxpayer agony. And then when they lost and went back to the County "Bored" room, they flipflopped and supported th etax increase.

Now Quinn wants to jack up taxes.

And what are you going to do about it?

On Monday, March 30, Palatine Mayor Rita Mullins will keynote a community forum to fight increased local, county and state taxes. Mullins has proposed seceding Palatine Township from Cook County. It's not easy to do, but the proposal has caught the attention of the lazy politicians who tax and tax and then lie.

The forum is at the Orland Park Civic Center, 14750 S. Ravinia Road (1 block west of LaGrange/Mannheim Road). Doors open at 6 PM. The fight the taxes revolution starts at 6:30.

Be there. It's free.

Go to www.RadioChicagoland.com and check out the activism page and read about more steps you can take to fight the tax increases.

-- Ray Hanania
www.RadioChicagoland.com

At least one newspaper is talking truth about Orland Park's budget problems

It amazes me how easily local newspaper reporters have allowed Mayor McLaughlin and the Orland Park Village Board to tell residents, "Don't worry, everything is intact." There is a $4.8 million budget shortfall, a word the village doesn't like, and no one seems to really care, and the only real answer so far is to cut the property tax rebate by 35-40 percent.

The biggest mistake is in accepting the false claims by the village that "everything is okay" with the property tax rebate and that increases in fees are okay because there are other places that charge far more. Isn't that why Orland Park is BETTER than other communities?

The truth is, things are not going to be okay, even though Mayor McLaughlin is on record only a few months ago patting himself on the back claiming Orland Park is financially sound and has no problems.

The Regional, at least, has outlined the cuts in services and the increases in costs that the Village is considering. And increases in fees are soft tax increases because "fees" are a form of taxes.

The Regional's mistake was to play the property tax rebate at the bottom of their story. It's the LEDE! It's what people really care about. The real headline that every newspaper missed is this:

Village Proposes Major Cut in Property Tax Rebate

Every paper has been afraid to say that. Too bad. That's the real story out here. That's what everyone is talking about. That's what concerns everyone.

How about some real reaction from real residents of the Orland Park, instead of printing word-for-word the press releases issued from McLaughlin's office? I can read the same press releases on the village web site (which is very good because the village has one of the nation's top IT Departments and staff). Why do I need to read them in a local newspaper. Word-for-word?

The village has a $3 million hole in the pension fund and they need to take it out of the capitol budget so they are going to cut the property tax rebate by as much as 40 percent -- that's huge -- and shift the savings to the pension funds.

That's outrageous! Do the math, people. You're getting screwed. But maybe you don't care. Or more likely, you think there is nothing you can do about it.

There is something you can do about. Make your voices heard. Tell the village that just because some things are great in Orland Park (some dude in New York working at Money Magazine says we're one of the best places to live, not as great as last year but still on their list, way down), it's not acceptable for them to hide behind that to do things that are not so great.

Orland Park is one of the best places to live not because of the government doing their job, but because of the people who live here. We're a great community.

Although nothing has been formally approved by the village yet and all the proposals from our newly hired village manager Paul Grimes are just that, proposals, you, the community, can still stop the changes. Each and every trustee has to vote on the changes. You can make your voices heard.

Recreation Department fees may increase 10 percent. That's huge.

Costs for other services are going to increase, too.

They're not talking about the routine increases that the news media has failed to cover like the increases int he Water Bill -- 60 percent of which are unrelated to the increase in the cost of water. (That's only 40 percent of the bill.) The village is increasing fees for sending you the water bill, and collecting garbage, sewer services and rain water drainage.

I say if the village board can't protect the property tax rebate, then they don't belong in office any more and we should find someone else. And Paul Grimes can go back to where he came from. He's starting to sound more like a Chicago Machine Bean Counter than someone who understands what makes Orland Park what we really are.

Ray Hanania
www.OrlandParker.com

TALL GRASS CARTOON: Orland Park's budget woes ...

Click image to enlarge

Orland Park's sudden budget woes
"Tall Grass Cartoons"
July 1, 2008
Village of Orland Park
Read the post below on the story.
By Ray Hanania
http://www.orlandparker.com/

Chicago media and politicians silent on tax but loud on free Senior CTA services

It's amazing that the debate in the "Chicago" newspapers is about criticism that Gov. Rod Blagojevich wants to give senior citizens a free ride on the corrupt and inefficient CTA system, and the unreliable and sparse service of METRA.

It should be on the fact that Chicago's powerful politicians have once again bullied the six-county region into raising the sales tax .25 percent to bailout the CTA, rather than forcing the CTA to cut its waste, fire those loser bureaucrats and question the excessive benefits that CTA and all government workers get from taxpayer-funded government service.

The state and city revenues from the sales tax already go up, when prices go up. But the revenue isn't increasing fast enough for Mayor Daley or Mike Madigan, who is battling Gov. Blagojevich over who is and who isn't the governor of Illinois. Madigan wants to be the governor without running for office.

Here are some facts:

-- While residents of the suburbs are paying to bail out the bloated, corrupt, and inefficient CTA, residents of Chicago pay nothing to help the suburban public bus system. Yet, about 20 percent of the riders are Chicagoans, off-setting the claim that suburbanites "burden" the CTA and therefore suburbanites should share in bailing it out.

-- Half of the revenue from the increase in the sales tax, proposed by Julie Hamos who is a suburbanite whose district includes the only part of the CTA that goes into the suburbs. The remaining revenue would be given to the collar counties for "transportation needs or public safety." Yeah, right. More money for roads that should have come from the state but Chicago legislators won't approve increases for the suburbs. In reality, the suburbs will end up paying more to use METRA.

-- Oh yeah. Metra will be raising its rates by 10 percent. The 10 percent hike takes effect Feb. 1.