Prairie State Wire

Jim Dodge laments that the so-called “doom loop” could be picking up steam.

“What I mean by that is that the decades of bad decisions and policies put into effect by the Democratic legislature are showing no signs of slowing,” Dodge told the Prairie State Wire. “If we keep raising taxes without honestly first trying to shrink the cost and size of government, we will only be accelerating the demise of a great state.”

Dodge sees the ongoing push for a statewide property tax hike as another clear step in that direction. Economists with the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago released a report in May that claims a nearly 50-percent increase in property taxes over the next 30-years would be more than enough to pay down the state’s pension debt.

Illinois State Treasurer Mike Frerichs

A homeowner would pay $5,000 more in ad valorem taxes for a home valued at $500,000, the DuPage Policy Journal reports.

“Government’s answer to everything is to reach for the revenue lever,” said Dodge, who is running as a Republican for state treasurer against Democratic incumbent Mike Frerichs. “As a state lawmaker, your job should always be to keep from raising taxes on people, especially when none of these tax-raising plans are comprehensive enough to make it a good deal for the taxpayer. With Springfield, the expenditure reduction side of the equation is always missing. As a lawmaker, you shouldn’t be able to ask for another dollar unless you can prove you’ve been cost effective with the money you’ve already been given.”

The tax increases might not end there, as Ford, Lake, Kane, Frankfort and Will counties all have a 1-percent sales tax referendum on the ballot this November.

In Will County, the added revenue has been earmarked for local school districts, with more than a dozen schools endorsing the referendum, the Illinois Policy Institute states. The hike would put some residents in the same 10.25-percent tax-burden bracket as residents in Chicago, home to the highest combined sales tax rate in the country.

In Frankfort, the sales tax rate would jump from 7 percent to 8 percent.

“Democrats have largely controlled levers of power in this state for decades and until they are removed from power they’re not going to learn,” Dodge said. “These crazed policies damage the economy and hurt real families. Something has to change.”