Recent news articles report that pressure is building in Springfield for legislators to increase taxes in 2007. Many believe that Illinois, faced with a massive debt surpassing $100 billion, has very little choice but to go forward and increase state revenues. However I believe that a combination of restraining expenditures, imposing a moratorium on new spending and—most importantly--creating the type of business climate that expands our tax base is a more logical next step.
What is truly remarkable in is the utter lack of public outrage over the State's unbridled spending that has put us in tremendous debt. According to the Civic Committee of Chicago, every Illinois citizen—man, woman and child—is on the hook for $8,800 to pay off our current debt. Yet, many are talking about adding new expensive programs in 2007. Why? Spending is easy; restraint is hard.
Illinois has been shifting its economy from industry and agriculture to one that is service based. Over the last 15 years, our state has jettisoned more than a quarter million manufacturing jobs and replaced them with 300,000 (mostly) temporary service jobs that offer lower wages, few benefits and a cloudy future.
Walk along the streets of any of our major cities where for decades industry hummed and workers enjoyed the fruits of a middle class life. Workers could afford home ownership, to send their children to college and assure a retirement that was–if not golden—at least comfortable. Not anymore. Hundreds of thousands of jobs vanished--all too often without any concern. While some jobs did go to foreign countries, many simply moved to other states where the prospect of prosperity existed: lower costs, lower taxes, and more appreciation for what they mean to a state's economy.
Because of this, there has been a steady decrease in tax dollars flowing to State coffers as new jobs pay lower wages and the companies that provide them are making smaller profits. Then, instead of devoting resources to lure higher-paying jobs to our state and expand the tax base, legislators create new expensive programs to help people who have lost those good-paying jobs—thereby treating the symptom, not the disease. An example: when Honda and considered building a major new plant in the Midwest, Illinois failed to convince them to come here, and then state officials refused to divulge their incentives to the public. So not only did we fail to get those good-paying jobs, the public was told the whole thing was none of our business.
Where's the outrage over that?
We cannot continue to blame previous administrations or bad luck any longer—the problem must either be fixed or we must accept the continued loss of jobs that help our workers live the American Dream. If elected officials will put the same level of energy into attracting high-paying jobs, like those in manufacturing and information services, that they expend raising the minimum wage, we will have the kind of results that will put our state back on the right track. And when our tax base does expand, our leaders should first put our state's financial house in order before offering up new ideas to saddle future generations of Illinois citizens with even greater debt.
The New Year offers us a chance to change the course of our state. As a people, we should demand a full-time effort from our leaders to improve the job creation climate in Illinois. Our future and our prosperity depend on it.
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