It is rather obvious that pubic education in the state is having a general financial crisis. Several years ago, the state lottery was highly publicized as a lucrative avenue that would pour dollars into the funding of public education. Holding true to their word, our state legislative bodies ear-marked 50% of the income from the lottery for funding of public education. All financial issues for the public schools seemed to be on the way to being a worry of the past. Then the reality of what our legislative bodies actually did, came to light. It is reported that at the same time that they allocated 50% of the lottery money to fund education, they removed some of the prior sources of educational funding that just so happened to pretty well match the addition of the lottery funds. Public education basically walked away with a wash in funding and finds itself in the same financial boat it was in prior to the implementation of the lottery.. Source: Excerpt from a public information comment web site.
It has been circulated that federal government representatives do not pay into the same retirement system that you do or at the same rate that you do. The reason is that they have their own flavor of a retirement program. It has been reported that this retirement system is funded by our tax dollars. It has also been put forth, that the average annual annuity is somewhere in the area of $47000/year or $3800/month. The working general public will most likely draw around $1000.00 or less per month. Has the fox put itself in-charge of the hen house? Source: Internet email circulation...revised (I hope the anonymous emailer can now sleep at night...anonymity has a way of making cowards courageous)
As of July 1, 2000, the state of Illinois eliminated the state's share of sales tax on motor fuel and gasohol through December 31, 2000. This was intended to give cover for the legislature in case the price of gas did not come down by 5 percent of the wholesale price, or about 5 cents per gallon. Before the members of the legislature injure their arms patting themselves on the back, it might be useful for motorists to see what the FULL TAX burden on a gallon of motor fuel actually is. Motor fuel taxes vary widely across Illinois largely because of local levies. The motor fuel taxes are highest in the northeastern part of the state, peaking in Chicago. Here is the list for Chicago:
Gasoline |
Diesel | Taxes |
| $0.184 | $0.244 | Federal Excise |
| $0.193 | $0.215 | Illinois Excise |
| 5.0% | 5.0% | Illinois Sales Tax |
| 1.25% | 1.25% | Local Sales Tax |
| 1.0% | 1.0% | Home Rule Counties |
| 3.75% | 3.75% | Chicago Sales Extra |
| $0.010 | $0.010 | Home Rule Munic. |
| $0.060 | $0.060 | Cook County Extras |
| $0.050 | $0.050 | Chicago Extra |
| $0.618 | $0.689 | TOTAL |
| $0.563 | $0.639 | TOTAL less 5% state sales |
As can be seen from the list for Chicago, the 5 cents per gallon is less than 10 percent of the total levy in taxes. It is left to the reader to evaluate what he or she gets for the cents per gallon in taxes. Source: Excerpt from an editorial by Jim Johnston (retired Amoco senior economists and policy advisor to The Heartland Institute) in the Courier News 11/19/2000.