Letter: Mental health board is not needed

Illinois taxpayers pay the highest property taxes in the nation. On Nov. 8, citizens of Wheeling Township will have an opportunity to say no to another property tax increase over and above the yearly increases that are already baked into the system.

A referendum will appear at the bottom of our ballots which if approved, will create a new taxing opportunity under the direction of our township government.

Many of us have had firsthand experience with mental health challenges in our families or those of close friends and are sympathetic to the need for funding mental health care. However, increasing our property taxes is not the answer.

Rather, proponents of this referendum should be lobbying their representatives in our already existing federal, state, county and village governments to review their budget priorities and find additional funding for mental health care if there is a legitimate need.

The federal government has a multi trillion-dollar budget, our state government has a $42 billion budget and our village governments have multimillion-dollar budgets, all funded by our tax dollars. If a mental health care crisis truly exists, then our elected representatives need to make the hard decisions to address that need.

Here are points about the property tax increase referendum which its proponents have failed to share with you in their many letters to the editor.

The referendum creates a new taxing opportunity for Wheeling Township residents, that could ask the township to increase property taxes up to an additional $8.57 million dollars. That new budget could then be increased each year in perpetuity.

As a result, the cost to an average taxpayer could be much higher than claimed by tax increase proponents.

We don't need additional taxes. We need the already high taxes we currently pay to be allocated to properly address the needs of our community. Vote no on the mental health property tax increase.

Dan Patlak

Wheeling