Top reasons to vote no

After 30 years of business ownership in Illinois, I will soon be retiring. Whether that retirement is in Illinois or elsewhere is to be determined.

We were mailed a little blue booklet from Jesse White's office explaining the upcoming proposed amendment of the Illinois Constitution.

I will be voting no for the first two reasons in the booklet under "Arguments Against ..." which read:

"1) The Amendment gives the legislature power to increase taxes on any group of taxpayers with no limits and no accountability and without any requirement to use the additional revenue to fund essential needs ...

2) Taxes and spending are out of control. The Legislature should not be allowed to keep raising taxes until they get their spending under control."

During the "Great Recession," my company had to make difficult cuts to avoid outspending the revenue coming in. The state's been outspending revenue for years. When does it stop?

Question: why can the legislature propose to amend the Illinois Constitution to generate more taxes, but they can't seem to amend the Illinois Constitution to fix the main reason we're in so much debt, which is the Illinois pension system? According to illinoispolicy.org, debt is $203 billion for state and local retirement benefits and rising. The worst in the nation.

And more:

To truly fix Illinois' financial woes, two things need to happen:

1) Term limits - Michael Madigan is the poster child for why we need term limits and a big part of why Illinois is in so much debt.

2) Campaign reform - until politicians stop taking money from corporations, unions and special interest groups, they will never truly represent the taxpayers of Illinois.

John Janisch

Bartlett