Illinois keeps relying on the failed trickle-down theory of government spending

Illinois is a strange place to live.

Baseball teams deliberately lose games and their fans enthusiastically support that strategy. Elected officials get indicted by federal grand juries, but get re-elected. The state (as a financial strategy) fails to make its pension payments, generates billions of dollars in debt and then passes tax hikes so it can spend more money.

People who don’t live here don’t understand it.

Heck, people who do live here can’t explain it.

Elected officials don’t even try.

I’m one of the many folks who have said for years that Illinois needs to raise its income tax. I have also said I favor a graduated income tax structure, like the one the federal government has, instead of the flat tax rate that has been employed by this state.

The flat tax is unfair.

So is the state’s property tax system.

And this year, under new Gov. J.B. Pritzker, Illinois set out to reform all that stuff and more.

It passed a law legalizing recreational marijuana, which will raise millions of dollars in new tax revenue. It approved a law legalizing sports gambling and increasing the number of casinos in the state.

As for property tax reform, the state will create a task force to study the issue.

Oh, and gas taxes in Illinois will double from 19 cents to 38 cents a gallon. License plate fees will also increase.

We need the state to come up with more money for public education. Because this state has failed to adequately support public schools, property taxes are among the highest in the nation.

We need to repair roads and bridges and spend more on public transportation.

We have to do something to address that growing pension debt.

But I understand why so many people in this state are angry, disappointed and frustrated.

Nationally, Republicans talk about the trickle-down theory of economics, which basically contends that if the richest folks in the country make more money, some of that will trickle down to working class people.

In Illinois, the Democratic Party theory seems to be if you give the politicians more money, some of it will eventually trickle down to the government programs that actually benefit taxpayers.

We’ve had two governors in recent history go to prison, but somehow that doesn’t seem enough.

No one has ever been held accountable for the massive pension debt.

No one in state government has ever been held accountable for failing to adequately fund the public schools.

Michael Madigan, the state Democratic Party leader, has been re-elected Illinois House speaker a record number of times by members of his party. The state’s financial failure spells success for him.

The graduated income tax plan will require the approval of voters. And good government people are already clamoring for its passage.

It’s fair. It’s best for the state. It has to be done to pay the bills.

As for reform, well, take a look at the measure backed by Cook County Assessor Fritz Kaegi. Kaegi was elected because the system for assessing property taxes was found to be politically corrupt and inexplicable. He asked the state legislature this year to reform the way property taxes are assessed on corporations and big businesses in Cook County.

That plan died in the Illinois House.

That’s where Mike Madigan, whose law firm makes money by getting property tax breaks for those businesses, sits as speaker. Madigan recused himself on the reform legislation, we are told.

The state desperately needs more money. Some of it will ultimately trickle down to public schools and maybe the state will actually hire a couple of new people to investigate claims of child abuse.

Billions of dollars will go to road construction and hopefully those roads last more than a year before they fall apart.

Maybe, in the end, if the graduated income tax is passed, some money will trickle down to pay the pension debt.

If not, it won’t matter. No one is ever held accountable for spending tax money in Illinois.

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