Tax policy center of 27th Senate race

Peter Gutzmer refutes his opponent's claim he's out to raise taxes.

State Sen. Matt Murphy's ad campaign includes a 30-second cable TV spot likening the Democrat to Gov. Rod Blagojevich and Cook County Board President Todd Stroger, citing Gutzmer's support for raising taxes on local businesses and increasing the sales tax.

"They're taxing our economy to death," the voice-over says as a smiling Gutzmer appears between the unpopular duo. "We can do better."

Gutzmer says Murphy is pandering to voters, recycling arguments from a close 2006 race when the two first faced off to replace Wendell Jones in the state's 27th Senate District. Back then, Gutzmer said he'd consider a tax swap, which would raise state taxes to replace local property taxes for school funding.

"We still had a growing economy, a stable housing market, plenty of job opportunities and a stock market that was still rising," said Gutzmer, a resident of Hoffman Estates and firefighter and paramedic in Elk Grove Village. "At the time people were screaming about property taxes."

Now Gutzmer's calling for a status quo, adding he doesn't see a circumstance that would sway him to support a tax increase of any kind, at least not until some "political and economic stability" is achieved.

Murphy defends the TV ad, saying the state of the economy is bound to improve during the next four-year term.

"His whole '06 centerpiece was on raising taxes," said Murphy. "He felt so passionately, and I've heard nothing that leads me to believe he wouldn't want to again."

A Palatine trial lawyer, Murphy recently filed a bill that would roll back the Cook County sales tax hike that went into effect July 1 and make any future tax increases subject to voter approval - legislation Gutzmer said he could support.

Murphy also endorses lowering income taxes and the sales tax on gasoline as ways to grow the economy and bring in businesses and jobs.

"Everything we do in Springfield is very shortsighted. It's all about next year," Murphy said. "You need to attract and stabilize your jobs climate or else we'll be Michigan in five years."

But Gutzmer says future growth wouldn't offset the initial loss in revenue, and questions Murphy's proposals for meeting pension obligations and commitments to other programs.

The 27th Senate District stretches from the Chicago Executive Airport on the east to the Cook-Kane county line on the west. It includes most of Palatine and parts of Arlington Heights, Barrington, Barrington Hills, Buffalo Grove, Hoffman Estates, Inverness, Mount Prospect, Prospect Heights, Rolling Meadows, South Barrington and Wheeling.

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