There’s no courage in raising taxes

There’s no courage in raising taxes

Matt Flamm, in his Feb. 1 letter, said that Illinois lawmakers “deserve our respect” for raising our taxes. Really? By 67 percent? He said they deserve our respect because they had the courage to raise revenues to pay our debts. How about showing the courage to cut costs before straddling the voters with a 67 percent tax increase? Or is that asking too much?

Maybe it’s just me, but I can’t respect legislators who spend themselves into billions of dollars of debt over many years, even when they may be well-meaning. I can’t respect a governor who says he won’t raise taxes more than 33 percent, and then weeks after the election, agrees to raise taxes 67 percent. I can’t respect legislators who raise taxes under the cover of a lame-duck session, before they make every effort to trim the state’s budget.

I don’t think anyone feels it’s right for the state to delay paying doctors, social services or hospitals money that they are owed. But I don’t think many people feel it’s right to raise taxes 67 percent before there has been a legitimate effort to rein in our spending. I made it clear in a past letter that many of us would have been open to taxes being raised if our legislators had first been trying to cut costs in every corner of our state budget. I would have respected them if they had had the courage to do that first.

R.J. Young

Inverness