Hi Daniel
Happy New Year! I
hope you are doing well.
I read the article in the Sun-times today about politicians
and property taxes which features you. I
didn’t know that property taxes were a big part of your agenda.
Did I ever tell you my plan for property taxes? I’m sure I did, but maybe that wasn’t on your
mind much back then. I first really got
interested and involved with property taxes a long time ago when I had been out
of work for a while and then had to pay them.
The inherent unfairness of taxing someone on a nonliquid asset while having
no real income got me to thinking.
Rich people want to be able to spend more on their kids’ education,
and poor people don’t have enough money for many basic things. I think rich people also like high property taxes
as a way to keep rich neighborhoods rich.
My proposal:
The state first determines a basic amount per student to
provide an adequate, good education. Let’s
say $7,000 per student. This amount would
be collected through the income tax.
Now, and this is very important this money must be raised
and collected totally apart from the general fund. I would say, first figure out what percentage
of general revenues now goes toward education.
So we then, for example, would say, of the 5% current state income tax, 4%
goes toward the general fund and 1% is the education tax.
Add up the number of students in the state, multiply by $7K,
and the education portion of the state income tax is adjusted to add up to that
amount. Say, add 2%, so the education
tax is now 3% of income.
Now every school taxing district will know that they are
receiving $7K for every student in their district. They know how much they will receive from the
state, and this amount is then deducted from the property tax bills.
If a richer area wants to spend more on education for their
students, they are free to raise their taxes any way they see fit. But everybody has at least the basic
education funding that the state considers adequate.
There is also another very important part of school funding
that needs to be addressed, and seeing that you are running for governor, this
can give you a good boost.
People who want to send their kids to private schools now
currently have to pay tuition and still pay enormous amounts to the state for
public education. I believe this is the
main reason so many Catholic schools are going out of business. A lot of people can’t afford both property
taxes and tuition. And they shouldn’t
have to.
Anyone who pays tuition to a private school should be able
to deduct that amount from their property or their income taxes, depending on
which way you want to go. But nobody should
have to pay both. But the amount of
their deduction should not exceed what they would owe in taxes. for education.
The plan is simple and fair.
Some may consider the plan regressive, where poorer people are affected
more by an income tax increase than richer people. The easiest way to fix that is by raising the
standard deduction.
I know you favor a progressive income tax. My biggest concern with that is that the
state will then see this as an unlimited source of new revenue, when the state
really needs to cut its spending in a major way. Too many agencies with too many employees
making too much money and with unrealistic, unsustainable pension liabilities.
You could make that the main part of your platform, if you
really want to win. Tell the people that
you want to change the State Constitution to be able to change the pension
plans to make them more realistic and in line with actual revenues. And more in keeping with people get in the
real, I mean private, sector. I get
about $12,000 a year of taxable pension income.
Thanks so much! I
hope you actually read this and found it helpful.
I wish you well. I
don’t normally vote Democratic, but if you agree with my plans, I could
certainly reconsider.
Larry Craig
