Lawmakers don’t understand real life

The recently released Education Week Research Report assigned grades to all fifty states education performance; Illinois received an overall score of 73 and ranked 40th in the country. My property taxes are more than $6,900 in Lake County for a 1,900-square-feet house on an acre of land; 68% of my taxes go to the schools.

This value does not include my tax payments to school pensions and that ridiculous Fox Lake Library expansion. What a sad return on an investment. On a fixed income, I can’t afford to live in Illinois, but we can’t sell this house due to high property taxes, no jobs and the volume of homes on the market.

Our politicians recently found the solution by raising our income tax so we can pay un-revocable pension agreements to retired state employees who earn more in retirement than many working people make in income.

I really don’t understand how politicians can say they “represent” the people of Illinois. They obviously only represent certain state employees in Illinois and are clueless about the plight of barely solvent Illinois residents.

Randy Grosvenor

Grant Township