Let's shut down the money machine

I would like to encourage the Arlington Heights village board to follow Palatine's lead and consider secession from Cook County. I see nothing negative about this idea. Our Cook County Board is out of control.

As I understand it, the process would be very hard to accomplish. This idea has been around for more than 20 years and has never materialized. Corruption and Cook County go hand and hand. You can also add in Chicago along with the Daley administration. The Feds are all over Daley's and Blago's administrations and I believe it is only a matter of time.

Stroger's politics and ethics are not acceptable. A more realistic solution here is to get some legislation passed that allows the recall of people like Stroger and Blago. I do not believe it is in the Illinois Constitution to do this at this time. We all need to contact our state representatives and demand this legislation to be put in place.

You need to call and call again. You need to send letters. You need to send e-mails. You really need to get in your representative's face, so to speak, and demand to be heard. Illinois coffers are dripping in red and our leaders just keep giving money away that the state does not have. This is Governor Blago's specialty.

The end results for people like us are more and more taxes. This is just the beginning of the tax increases, and I'm sure there will be more. If the leaders of Illinois are looking for money, a good place to look would be in their pension amounts given to their employees. The private sector does not offer such extraordinarily large pensions and benefits.

Ronald Navara

Arlington Heights