Tax Frustration

WSJ on property-tax frustration building across the country. Look at the black spot by us on the map. In Illinois. Tribune story on pocketbook issues, editorial on stopping Cook County tax increases.

Meanwhile, in Springfield, they're gambling on casinos to bail us out. Bad bet:

Yet gambling opponents say too many politicians fail to grasp the social costs. Gamblers lost $1.9 billion last year at Illinois' riverboat casinos, an amount that would rise astronomically with the expansion eyed for Illinois.

Tazewell County State's Atty. Stewart Umholtz, a Republican who has closely monitored the East Peoria riverboat, points to a growing list of prosecutions of public officials and private citizens who stole money to support their gambling habits. That includes a now-former mayor of Pekin convicted of official misconduct for using a credit card to get cash advances to spend about $1,800.cash advances to spend about $1,800.

It is no coincidence that one of the governor's major fundraisers was a high-roller, just indicted for tax-fraud. Gambling and corruption go hand in hand. Please, bite the bullet and cut costs. And in Congress the Dems still haven't fixed the AMT which will hit this high-tax blue state hard.

Related posts: Common Sense Strikes Wilmette, Pocketbook Politics