No good reason for such high taxes

Taxes and more taxes; when is enough -- enough?

Government is rotting from the inside out because local officials lack the will for budgetary restraint: It is this level of restraint, not taxes that must be raised!

Voters must demand that lawmakers weed out wasteful spending and enact budget reforms before citizens are forced to dish out more tax dollars. Among the reforms that lawmakers must consider if they are ever going to try to solve the budget crisis are: scaling back lavish employee health and pension benefits, bringing about transparency and accountability in the tax dollars are spent, and developing a formal budget stabilization policy to eliminate boom-and-then-bust budgeting.

It is no secret that many of our government entities are rife with waste, fraud and abuse of tax dollars. Citizens should not be forced to bear the burden for frivolous spending and fiscal management by elected officials.

For the most part, elected officials will listen to constituents or at least those constituents who speak the loudest. Unfortunately, it appears that most the noise being made is from special-interest groups like unions, taxpayer-funded lobbyists, single-­minded/single issue community groups, etc.

When government oversteps its bounds, and in Illinois they have, it is up to citizens to bring government back into line. Call your elected officials and let them know you're fed up, ask them to enact real budget reforms, transparency and accountability measures. Most important, go to the polls; get your neighbors to go to the polls; get involved! Remove those elected officials who have chosen to represent the minority special interests over the majority's will.

Joe Calomino

State Director

Americans for Prosperity

Chicago