Who get's the Sparta road bill?

FYI ... Rauner previously vetoed funds to repair the road at the WSRC. Does this bill go with the electric bills and taxes? Latest info is yes!

Of the WSRC line items, Rauner vetoed one that earmarked $157,045 for “infrastructure improvements” at the WSRC. According to Department of Natural Resources spokesman Chris Young, that amount was to go toward road resurfacing inside the complex.

http://www.randolphcountyheraldtribune.com/article/20150701/NEWS/150709909


Merlo out.

 

The State of Illinois web site claimed the State parks (9) needed almost $1,000,000 ($1 million) dollars in repairs that were considered to be safety issues and concerns by the State's own admission ... This being said (publicly) and posted on the State web site how could they even think of opening the parks to the general public knowing full well and saying there are safety issues (that need to be addressed) without putting the state itself in jeopardy of legal ramifications and multi million dollar law suits ..? I searched the site and could not find any specific problems that needed to be addressed but in a file drawer someplace it will probably exist ... There was not a break down of which parks needed what done to them but more or less a blanket accounting of safety issues that were presented as "must be " done issues ... This can get and turn UGLY at best for all involved ... WPT ... (YAC) ...

 

With the state of Ill. in such bad financial straits what contractor would do improvements with just hopes of getting paid ???


Regards....Gerald

 

The ATA .....

 

BUDGET + TAX / Article
February 5, 2016
Streamlining the way Illinois buys goods and services could save the state $500 million annually.

Gov. Bruce Rauner and Republican lawmakers say reforms to the procurement system would speed the process, save money and get the state and its taxpayers better results.

Illinois has four chief procurement officers as well as a Policy Procurement Board, the governor said.

“We’ve got everybody involved,” Rauner said. “it’s a convoluted process where nobody’s in charge.”

Sen. Chapin Rose, R-Mahomet, a member of the Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability, spoke at Rauner’s news conference, citing examples of how complex the system is and how its benefits can be hard to measure.

In one case, he said, three national providers with “phalanxes” of bid specialists and lawyers were the only vendors bidding on a $3 billion, multi-year prescription drug contract. After a months-long first round of the bid process, all were rejected for technical errors, he said.

Rose said his question to the procurement officer on whether any money was actually saved was met with, “Absolutely — we don’t know.”

Rauner said he supports putting the governor in charge of the procurement system and increasing the duties and the authority of the auditor general’s office when it comes to the procurement process.

The governor is backing legislation by Rep. Dan Brady, R-Bloomington, and Pamela Althoff, R-McHenry.

“Let’s get reforms done so we’ve got the money rather than only proposing bills to spend more when we’re basically out of cash,” Rauner said.

“Procurement has been one of the largest sources of waste and abuse in our state,” he said. “It’s frustrating — the level of incompetence and inefficiency in the system, and we really need to change this as quickly as we can.”

The governor said money saved from procurement reform and dumping expensive yet inefficient state properties such as the James R. Thompson Center in Chicago could fund a big portion of higher education costs, including the Monetary Award Program (MAP grants) and help for community colleges.

Backers say the legislation, House Bill 4644, would:

• Establish a pool of prequalified vendors for certain purchases;
• Reduce the burdens on universities through exemptions for certain education-related purchases;
• Create a preference for buying supplies and services from Illinois businesses.

Allow Illinois to “piggyback” on other state’s purchases and more freely participate in purchasing cooperatives.
“We look forward to exploring their ideas,” said John Patterson, spokesman for Senate President John Cullerton, D-Chicago.

Steve Brown, a spokesman for House Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, said House Democrats would look at the proposals, but he also advised caution.

“Scandals in previous administrations, both Republican and Democrat, led to the procurement policies that are on the books now,” Brown said.

One of the duties of the Procurement Policy Board is to advise the Legislature, Brown said.

“In the wake of scandals, I think they (lawmakers) would be slow-moving to make changes that the Procurement Policy Board doesn’t sign off on,” Brown said.

The Procurement Policy Board is made up of five members, one each appointed by the four legislative leaders and one by the governor. The governor’s appointee serves as chairman.

 

BUDGET + TAX / Article
January 27, 2016
Without fundamental reforms, the tax hike state Democrats want to impose will only drive Illinois further into decline.

The state of Illinois has $7.1 billion in unpaid bills as of Jan. 26. The state also has $111 billion in pension debt.

But wasn’t the state’s historic 2011 tax hike supposed to fix that?

At the time, Illinois’ Democratic leaders promised as much. But Illinois is still sitting on a mountain of debt and unpaid bills.

The 2011 income-tax hike partially sunsetted Jan. 1, 2015, as required by law, giving taxpayers much-needed relief – according to the Tax Foundation, in the wake of the 2011 income-tax hike, Illinoisans carried the fifth-highest tax burden in the nation.

The tax-hike sunset was a good thing – instead of fixing Illinois’ problems, the 2011 income-tax hike did nothing but give irresponsible politicians more money to feed the state’s pension monster. In fact, nearly $0.90 of every tax-hike dollar went toward government-worker pensions. But despite the influx of $31.5 billion from the tax hike, the state pension shortfall increased by a third.

State politicians enacted none of the foundational reforms necessary to fix Illinois’ finances, even as taxpayers were forced to hand over an additional week’s pay to fund the tax hike.

Now, Illinois’ top Democratic leader, House Speaker Mike Madigan, is spreading the word that Illinois needs to reinstate higher income-tax rates.

In December 2015, the powerful speaker of the Illinois House of Representatives said at an event held at the City Club of Chicago that hiking Illinois’ income-tax rate back to 5 percent – up from the 3.75 percent rate Illinoisans pay now – is the best way to fix Illinois’ budget woes.


Madigan should learn from the fallout of the 2011 income-tax hike.

Politicians may be tempted to think that asking people to hand over more money will be an easy fix to what ails the state – but this path would simply doom the state to continued decline. In 2012, the year after Illinois enacted the income-tax hike, the state lost 66,922 taxpayers and their dependents on net to out-migration, according to the Internal Revenue Service. They took $3.8 billion of taxable income with them. In 2013 it was another 81,117 people and $4.1 billion of taxable income. These numbers are the worst in recorded state history.

Since the 2011 tax hike, major credit-rating agencies, including Moody’s Investors Service, Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services and Fitch Ratings, have downgraded Illinois’ credit several times. Illinois now has the lowest credit rating of any state in the nation at just a few levels above “junk” status.

It would be naïve to think the same won’t happen again if politicians continue to ask for more money without reforming the way the state does business. Without reforms, Illinois can’t afford another income-tax hike.

 

BUDGET + TAX / Article
February 4, 2016
Special Service Areas levy taxes on Chicagoans over and above the already steep taxes and fees imposed by the city.

Special Service Areas, or SSAs, are expected to raise in excess of $25 million in 2016 from the taxpayers within their boundaries. The taxes levied for SSAs come on top of the property taxes and over 30 different additional taxes and fees imposed by the city, which already make Chicagoans the most heavily taxed residents of any city in Illinois. What are SSAs? Put simply, SSAs are taxation without representation for pet projects throughout Chicago – and the people who pay for these special taxing districts have little say in how they’re set up or run.

People who own or rent property in any of the 53 designated SSAs pay additional taxes that they may not understand. Through SSAs, the city and aldermen can tax property owners within given areas to raise funds for additional maintenance and service. Even though there are 53 SSAs in Chicago, virtually none of the residents or business owners within these vast swaths of the city know they exist.

For example, in 2003, then-Alderman Manny Flores was concerned that city services were not adequately addressing the needs of the 1st Ward, particularly for garbage pickup, graffiti removal, snow removal and the retention of local artists. Flores worked with the Wicker Park Bucktown Chamber of Commerce to create SSA No. 33. Through the use of taxpayer funds (currently, residents of SSA No. 33 are taxed at a rate of 0.304 percent for a total annual amount of $1,050,554), the chamber of commerce, which the city designated as the service provider for the SSA, conducted an inventory of trees, added and replaced trees, installed art projects, sponsored events, cleaned sidewalks and streets, and added trashcans and bike racks. But the city is already supposed to cover such services through the many taxes it imposes and administers, in part through the aldermanic menu program.

Another layer of taxes

The Illinois Constitution grants municipalities such as Chicago the authority “to levy or impose additional taxes upon areas within their boundaries in the manner provided by law for the provision of special services to those areas and for the payment of debt incurred in order to provide those special services.”

SSAs increase the already extensive list of government units within the city. The SSA program creates a new taxing body within specified boundaries where the additional tax revenue is used to pay for services such as sidewalk maintenance, landscaping, security, snow removal, decorative trash receptacles and local business advertising. SSAs furnish these services in addition to those the city already provides.

How SSAs are born

SSAs are a prime example of taxation without representation, as there is limited, if any, daily oversight from elected officials. The process by which an SSA comes to fruition is favoritism at work.

1. First, a sponsor agency, typically the future provider of services (e.g., the Lincoln Park Chamber of Commerce, the Chicago Loop Alliance, Back of the Yards Neighborhood Council) holds several public meetings to “gauge community support.” (In truth, these meetings are scarcely attended by members of the public.)
2. The sponsor agency then completes an application that includes information such as economic analyses and demonstrated public support among the owners and lessees of property within the affected area.
3. The mayor, with input from the local aldermen, appoints commissioners to serve as stewards of taxpayer money. Taxpayers do not get to vote for these stewards; nor do taxpayers have any say over who controls their money.
4. These stewards, in turn, select and work with city-approved providers, who tend to be local chambers of commerce or neighborhood councils, to manage the day-to-day affairs of the SSA.
5. After the selection of all the parties, the City Council holds a sparsely attended public hearing before passing the relevant scope-of-services ordinance.

At the time of creation, the Department of Planning and Development sets an upper limit for the tax rate for the SSA. During the duration of the SSA, the tax rate can increase annually to meet the needs of the SSA but cannot exceed the set upper limit. SSA budgets can be as high as $2.4 million and as low as $9,000 and must be approved by City Council. SSAs are expected to raise in excess of $25 million in 2016.

Unelected commissioners and appointed service providers have discretion over the budgets in their SSAs. Thus, while residents have the opportunity to voice concerns over SSA spending at various times throughout the process, the ultimate decisions lie with those unelected commissioners and service providers.

What can taxpayers do?

Taxing bodies overseen by unelected individuals provide ample opportunity for corruption and cronyism. In November 2015, the city attempted to create a new SSA in the Jefferson Park neighborhood with the expressed support of local 45th Ward alderman, John Arena. However, instead of the usual quick passage, residents and business owners forced a delay on the matter by detailing possible fraud and inaccuracies in the process. The item remains in legislative limbo and may never pass out of the Finance Committee. (The alderman’s staff, though, is confident that it will eventually pass.)

It is often difficult for taxpayers to determine which taxes they pay and when, and to what ends city officials use those taxes. It is even more difficult when the taxing body is not managed by elected officials accountable to their constituents. Knowledge of these taxes will lead to a more informed and active citizenry, which is a good first step toward easing one of the highest tax burdens of any major city in the country.

 

BUDGET + TAX / Article
January 28, 2016
Instead of spending reform and policies to promote economic growth, Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan proposes the same high-taxing, big-spending plans that got Illinois into its current fiscal mess.

Illinois House of Representatives Speaker Mike Madigan has spent the last year selling Illinoisans on a tax-hike Band-Aid for a gaping financial wound.

It’s the same failed approach former Gov. Pat Quinn took – evidently, Democratic leaders have failed to learn from the state’s past mistakes. Madigan has focused on an additional tax hike even though a recent study from the Tax Foundation shows that Illinois’ 2011 income-tax hike saddled Illinoisans with the fifth-highest tax burden among the 50 states, and the second-highest tax burden in the Midwest. Even worse, Madigan’s idea of restoring the 2011 income-tax rates would likely impose on Illinoisans the highest tax burden in the Midwest and fourth-highest in the country.

The major drivers of Illinois’ budget problems are an underperforming economy, massive taxpayer out-migration, and unaffordable spending promises. But to hear Madigan talk about it, Illinois has gone without a state budget for seven months because Illinoisans don’t pay enough taxes. And the speaker’s fix is all too familiar in Illinois: another big tax hike without any economic or spending reforms.

According to Madigan, the conversation about Illinois’ income tax should begin at the 5 percent rate that Illinoisans paid from 2011 through 2014. Madigan’s budget necessitates that the average Illinois household pay an additional $800 per year in income taxes.






As of fiscal year 2012, Illinois’ tax burden was the second-highest in the Midwest, just behind Wisconsin, and the fifth-highest in the country, behind New York, Connecticut, New Jersey and Wisconsin. But that was before Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker enacted a series of tax cutsin the Badger State.



Since fiscal year 2012, Wisconsin has cut more than $1 billion per year in state and local taxes. In January 2015, Illinois’ tax relief came in the form of a partial sunsetting of the rates imposed by the 2011 income-tax hike: to 3.75 percent from 5 percent. This is the very tax hike Madigan wants to reinstate.

Local governments in Illinois have been busy raising taxes, too.

Take Chicago and Cook County, for example. In 2015 alone, the tax bill for the average Chicago household went up by $1,100 per year just from city and county tax hikes. And after all that, Chicago aldermen are discussing the possibility of another property-tax hike of a few hundred million dollars per year in 2016. A state income-tax hike on top of these added local tax increases would create a dramatically higher overall tax burden.



Increased economic growth is the best way to raise revenues. But out-of-control taxing and spending have driven Illinois into a fiscal black hole, and have contributed to the state’s lack of competitiveness for new jobs and opportunities. Yet Madigan acts as if the only way Illinois can balance its budget is if Illinois taxes even more and becomes the most tax-burdened state west of New York. This is not a thoughtful approach to public policy, and it ignores the plentiful opportunities for spending reform. Here are some of them:

• Allowing local governments to opt out of collective bargaining and determine public-sector wages and benefits
• Reforming the state’s workers’ compensation law
• Reforming state and local government-worker pension systems
• Reforming the state’s procurement process
• Exempting local governments from the state’s prevailing-wage law

Years of reckless policies have put Illinois in the nation’s biggest fiscal hole, and it’s time politicians stopped digging the state further into debt. Illinois needs spending reform to correct the policy mistakes that have put Illinois in such dire straits.

Illinois’ tax-burden ranking was as low as No. 34 in 1998, but it shot up to No. 5 as of fiscal year 2012. An income-tax hike would make Illinois the most heavily tax-burdened state in the Midwest and among the top four most tax-burdened states in the U.S.

 

BUDGET + TAX / Article
January 27, 2016
Without fundamental reforms, the tax hike state Democrats want to impose will only drive Illinois further into decline.

The state of Illinois has $7.1 billion in unpaid bills as of Jan. 26. The state also has $111 billion in pension debt.

But wasn’t the state’s historic 2011 tax hike supposed to fix that?

At the time, Illinois’ Democratic leaders promised as much. But Illinois is still sitting on a mountain of debt and unpaid bills.

The 2011 income-tax hike partially sunsetted Jan. 1, 2015, as required by law, giving taxpayers much-needed relief – according to the Tax Foundation, in the wake of the 2011 income-tax hike, Illinoisans carried the fifth-highest tax burden in the nation.

The tax-hike sunset was a good thing – instead of fixing Illinois’ problems, the 2011 income-tax hike did nothing but give irresponsible politicians more money to feed the state’s pension monster. In fact, nearly $0.90 of every tax-hike dollar went toward government-worker pensions. But despite the influx of $31.5 billion from the tax hike, the state pension shortfall increased by a third.

State politicians enacted none of the foundational reforms necessary to fix Illinois’ finances, even as taxpayers were forced to hand over an additional week’s pay to fund the tax hike.

Now, Illinois’ top Democratic leader, House Speaker Mike Madigan, is spreading the word that Illinois needs to reinstate higher income-tax rates.

In December 2015, the powerful speaker of the Illinois House of Representatives said at an event held at the City Club of Chicago that hiking Illinois’ income-tax rate back to 5 percent – up from the 3.75 percent rate Illinoisans pay now – is the best way to fix Illinois’ budget woes.


Madigan should learn from the fallout of the 2011 income-tax hike.

Politicians may be tempted to think that asking people to hand over more money will be an easy fix to what ails the state – but this path would simply doom the state to continued decline. In 2012, the year after Illinois enacted the income-tax hike, the state lost 66,922 taxpayers and their dependents on net to out-migration, according to the Internal Revenue Service. They took $3.8 billion of taxable income with them. In 2013 it was another 81,117 people and $4.1 billion of taxable income. These numbers are the worst in recorded state history.

Since the 2011 tax hike, major credit-rating agencies, including Moody’s Investors Service, Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services and Fitch Ratings, have downgraded Illinois’ credit several times. Illinois now has the lowest credit rating of any state in the nation at just a few levels above “junk” status.

It would be naïve to think the same won’t happen again if politicians continue to ask for more money without reforming the way the state does business. Without reforms, Illinois can’t afford another income-tax hike.

 

If anyone takes the time to read the above articles it would not be difficult to see why the State of Illinois has to separate itself from any and all involvement with the WSRC in Sparta, Ill ... The State is going to hell in a hand basket as the deficit keeps on growing ... Illinois cannot afford to send out notices to residents that generate big returns for the State such as License plates and the clean air program to mention only two of several ... When is the grand again, ..? WPT ... (YAC) ...

 

Jeez Bill....... You are really raining on my current "let's move to Illinois, honey" campaign.... Are you seriously saying we should look at another place to move?

 

Dan,
Go the other way any way, but far away, the taxes are going up faster than the sun in the morning in Illinois ... My Brother got a notice that his taxes were going up 40% on a house that has dropped in estimated value by approx 20% ... If it moves, breaths, eats, sleeps, drinks etc, they are going to tax it ... WPT ... (YAC) ...