More questions for our state leaders

Your article on June 29 "State budget mess leaves plenty of questions" did not ask the right questions. The questions I would have preferred answers to were as follows:

1) Why are services no better than they were in 1969 when the state income tax was instituted and the sales tax was 4 percent?

2) Why after raising the income tax 20 percent, increasing sales taxes to around 10 percent, instituting a lottery that was supposed to solve our education funding problem, legalizing riverboat gambling, increasing tolls that were supposed to be eliminated when the bonds on the roads were paid and implementing countless corporate, cigarette, alcohol and utility taxes does any politician believe our problem is due to inadequate revenue?

3) What has the combined average annual inflation rate and population growth rate been in this state since we instituted the income tax? Why have spending increases dwarfed this rate?

4) What have been the programs that were started during this time and which programs received the most spending increases? Did these programs benefit all or just a select few? Which programs benefited only the politicians and their ability to stay in power?

5) What effect on business development, population growth and job creation will these tax increases have in the long term?

6) How do states such as Florida and Texas function without state income taxes? Why do states such as New York, Michigan, California and Illinois never have enough revenue though they have high tax rates? Why are the people of these states never better off after years of ever-increasing spending?

7) What resident of this state actually believes that if these hacks get their increase that they will not overspend again and require more revenue increases in the near future?

John Vercillo

Elk Grove Village