Those who benefit most should pay the most in Illinois taxes

Phil Kadner was on the money with his assessment of the tax problems of our state.

A key factor in all taxation is to make it fair. Unfortunately as Kadner pointed out, those who are in the position to pay the most toward government goods and services control the government to manipulate the tax laws so that they can pay small amounts or nothing at all. Under the latest federal tax revisions, the corporate tax was reduced from 35% to 21%. In actuality, hardly any corporations were paying 35% taxes. Most paid around 19%, so now they will pay significantly less.

One ad says Illinois taxes are among the most unfair in the nation. Asking a family of four with an income of maybe $35,000 to pay taxes at the same rate as a family making $100,000 seems to bear that out. Yet there are those in Illinois who continually try to sell this to Illinois residents.

Illinois has found ways to waste money for decades. Legislators are more worried about keeping their jobs than making hard choices in the best interests of the people. Our last government preyed upon the poor and powerless by cutting funding to programs, claiming that was how Illinois had to function to deal with its financial problems. Yet by failing to negotiate a budget with the Legislature, a billion dollars were added to the debt due to penalties and late payments to creditors.

It appears the state government’s approach was “we will make the deal now and worry about how to pay for it later.” It’s later. Hopefully partisan politics and the Chicago vs. Downstate nonsense “feud” can be eliminated and actions taken to benefit everyone in the state, no matter their race, creed or location.

Daniel Pupo, Orland Park

What has changed?

Leave it to the evangelicals to force the Old Testament religion of Christianity down high school students’ throats by bringing bills before the state legislators to encourage or allow Bible study in schools. Kentucky is in the forefront, and some 10 other states are dealing with such legislation. I seem to recall that Bible study was well-covered in Sunday School — what has changed?

No one seems to notice that our students really need civics classes much more than religion in our schools; numerous studies have exposed just how ignorant our society is of the principles and procedures that encompass our government. Is this perhaps the GOP’s way of keeping our citizens ignorant of our government’s purpose and operation?

And wouldn’t these citizens who favor such classes scream out if teaching from the Quran were held in our public schools?

Lee Knohl, Evanston

Setting relations back

Louis Farrakhan set black-Jewish relations back. I cannot call him “Minister” because no truly religious person spews hate, intentionally or not. Hopefully, most people will ignore him and regard him as insignificant. He is no Rev. Martin Luther King. What Farrakhan has done calls for a positive response from people of goodwill. As for Father Michael Pfleger, what a disappointment he turned out to be.

Alice M. Solovy, Highland Park

Totally shocked

I’ve got to say, as someone who has always supported Rev. Michael Pfleger, I am totally shocked by his embracing of Minister Louis Farrakhan, and not just the physical embrace.

What’s Pfleger’s plan here? Is he pandering to certain elements of his parish?

Since Donald Trump became president, there has been a serious spike in anti-Semitism, and I’m taken aback at Pfleger’s very public alliance with Farrakhan, which seems to be a slap in the face at Jews, like me, who have always endorsed his public stances.

It’s all very stunning and disappointing.

Bob Weil, Highland Park