Pass tax increases, but trim government

It's not every day that school-age children take to the streets chanting, "Save our schools, save our teachers." However, that's exactly what occurred March 26 in Glendale Heights.

This occurred a day after the Queen Bee Elementary District 16 board voted before a standing-room-only crowd to make sweeping teacher reductions to close a projected budget deficit for the next school year. We in District 16 became acutely aware of the funding crisis facing numerous local school districts, caused in large part by the horrific budget crisis engulfing Illinois.

We can debate the causes of this budget crisis for years to come - but suffice to say there has never been a more important time for our elected officials in Springfield to act in a courageous, bipartisan fashion to raise revenue sources in support of our state, and more importantly to affirm our commitment to our children and their schools.

Whether you support Governor Quinn for re-election is immaterial. What does matter is that you support the governor's call for additional tax revenues to shore up the finances of this state, and perhaps more importantly to improve the future prospects for our children by preserving the bedrock of our local communities - our schools - through a fully financed public education system.

A combination of tax increases - including a two-point rise in the state income tax rate, a modest half point increase in the sales tax rate on nonessentials and a doubling of driver license fees can go a long way toward restoring Illinois to fiscal health and in preventing draconian cuts in education funding.

But we cannot rest there. Illinois has thousands of local units of government, suggesting there are many administrative and back-office redundancies that increase costs. Reducing such redundancies and their associated costs must be our next step.

Robert W. Starinsky

Glendale Heights