Where did all our money go, Mr. Gov.?

The new governor is on his campaign to push the new tax increase. One of his pitches is that all Illinoisans will have to pitch in.

Illinois owes excessive amounts of money to agencies all over the state and we must pay our debt, which is only the right thing to do.

If the state has not been paying these bills and we as citizens of this fine state have been paying our taxes faithfully, what happened to our money? If the bills were not paid and the money was still coming into the state where is it going?

Make this fair for everyone. An excellent move would be to put all government personnel on a 15 percent cut in pay. Next, freeze the retirement fund and have them contribute to their 401(k) and pay into social security. How much money would be saved if the pension was not funded? This would put all Illinoisans on a more even playing field. And reduce our deficit extremely.

In real life if the company I worked for did not have the money to put in the fund, could the company raise the taxes of the state employees?

Ed Jarina

Rolling Meadows