BND readers sound off on property taxes and politicians

Property taxes help the mayor’s buddies

The BND is absolutely right, making development deals with public money shouldn’t be like playing Jenga. But, the people elected to protect your welfare aren’t qualified or smart enough to make intelligent business decisions. Eckert ran a custodial service before getting elected mayor. The TIF idiots only became aldermen for the free medical offered by the city and $1,000 for each monthly meeting. The city lawyers do what they are told. Frankly, in Democratic-controlled Belleville and St. Clair County, the politician’s first question to any developer is, “What’s in it for me?” Once everyone is satisfied with the under the table negotiations, the political dummies do their thing. They know the Democratic voters, like they have always done, will remain in the dark and clueless. Support your annual local property tax increases so Eckert has more of your money for his buddies.

Patient care or bean counters?

Apparently, CEP, ER docs and hospitalists will not lose their jobs after all. Rumor has it that the local HSHS hospitals have courted the high quality CEP physicians and nurse practitioners to staff the hospital ERs, ICUs, and inpatients, starting April 1. Kudos to HSHS to recognize that quality care is worth the cost. With the Memorial Hospitals is it about the care of the patient or the Barnes bean counters taking over medicine?

Eckert’s rationale for his failures

I was looking for the BND funny paper section until my wife told me to read Mayor Eckert’s comments on public aid. She was right, Eckert’s rationale for his failures has to do with state requirements and the law. Eckert claims he’s raising your property taxes in 2018 because the actuarial calculation of the Illinois Public Pension Code made him do it. This is the same Public Pension Code which leaves the Illinois Teacher’s Pension $115 billion in debt. Eckert says the Illinois Public Aid Code requires him to levy taxes for $240,000 for welfare. When the township was eliminated, wouldn’t you have thought there would be a large savings from eliminating unnecessary and duplication of services? Not with Eckert. It turns out Illinois has a political code, requiring incompetent mayors to raise your property taxes every year.

Not paying for it again

Mayor Eckert says the taxpayers don’t understand how the Belleville bozos fund the police, fireman and city pension systems. I have absolutely no respect for fat, local politicians, who cheated their workers by not funding their retirement pensions. I don’t think much of the people who continually vote for these politicians either. I believe Eckert and the rest of the Democrat politicians, who allowed the pension plans to go unfunded, should be prosecuted for perpetrating a fraud on their workers. My taxes already paid to have the pension funds funded once. I’m not going to pay for it again.

Turn airport into homeless shelter

We have a spot for the homeless in St. Clair County. Why not house them all in the MidAmerica terminal building?

Searching for common sense

The best-dressed East St. Louis Township Supervisor Alvin Parks has let his mouth get him in trouble again. Just threatening to break an elderly female trustee’s finger off is apparently a very serious offense. It may have been disrespectful but was it intended literally? My training instructor at basic training once told me that he was going to rip the smile off my face and shove it down my throat. He didn’t say, “Just kidding,” immediately afterward but I figured it out. A little common sense in East St. Louis would go a long way.

Union jobs require union dues

Why did Mark Janus apply for a “union job” and not expect to pay any union dues? Union dues are part of having a union job. My advice to Mark Janus and everyone else who does not want to pay union dues: don’t apply for a union job. Problem solved.

Too cold for the mayor?

I’d like to thank Mayor Eckert for standing us up for the ringing of the New Year bells at the square by the clock. A dozen of us braved the cold weather to “ring it in” but our mayor didn’t show up. Must have been too cold for him.

Republicans won’t help retired people

Thank you, Mr. Bost and the Republican Congress. As a retiree I will not gain any tax advantage, the reason I am thanking you is that you spent zero time on drug costs. I am a Part D subscriber and my medications will have me in the doughnut hole by July. I just want to thank you and all the Congress for not helping the retired people who are on Part D. I hope you and your business friends enjoy all the tax breaks while the older generation suffers. You can say what you want but, you do not support your Social Security constituents. Why will you not do something about high drug prices?

Dems let GOP do the heavy lifting

No sooner had tax reform passed when the Schumer-Pelosi-Durbin-Duckworth machine issued their dire prediction that “they’re going after Social Security and Medicare next.” Democrats are like that — they let the Republicans do the heavy lifting like reforming these programs to match modern demographics so that they’ll be here when the child born today is 65, and then tell you that Republicans want to “change them as we know them.” Easy, lazy and self-enriching. Vote Democrat?

Competent leadership at SWIC

With Southwestern Illinois College President Georgia Costello finally retiring, the SWIC board may finally be able to hire competent leadership. Georgia Costello was selected to run SWIC because her husband was U.S. Representative Jerry Costello. A few political favors called in to get the wife a cushy, six-figure income job. Now that SWIC is bleeding money and enrollment is down, it needs competent management to eliminate the deadwood and shape the college to meet today’s needs. Say good bye to the politician’s wife and let her sail into the sunset with her $118,000 a year retirement. Like the state of Illinois, SWIC is on the decline and it needs intelligent leadership to survive.

It’s a vicious cycle

For decades, Democratic lack of leadership and common sense has put Illinois into a vicious cycle. What is the definition of a vicious cycle? It’s repeating a situation or condition in which one problem causes another problem that makes the first problem worse. For Illinois, raising taxes because Democrats aren’t funding your state pension causes the more intelligent, higher-wage people to flee Illinois. People flee Illinois and the tax revenue goes down. Politicians have to raise taxes to make up for the revenue drop, while more smart people leave Illinois for lower taxes and better jobs. It’s a vicious cycle, which won’t end until the Democrats are thrown out of office or Illinois finally declares bankruptcy. On the other hand, Illinois has higher welfare benefits than surrounding states. Guess where the influx of new Illinois residents are coming from?

Democrats prove to be dysfunctional

There continues to be a preponderance of evidence illustrating how dysfunctional our Democratic politicians really are. Chicago hasn’t funded their teachers pension in eight years. Madigan continually underfunds state pension funds to the tune of $250 billion. Kern pumps tens of millions into a worthless airport, while the Sheriff’s Department and other social services crumble. Belleville TIFs build sewers to nowhere and pay to upgrade politically friendly businesses while police and firemen pensions go unfunded. There are no excuses for intentionally cheating employees out of their retirement. Yet that’s what Illinois Democrats have done to their employees. What is the Democratic solution for their intentional mismanagement of your tax money? Raise your local property taxes every year and raise you state income tax every year.

Democrats ruined pensions

Illinois has 660 pension funds, no doubt managed by friends of Democrats. Management fees are skimmed right off the top to pay for a board, lawyers, and investment advisers. Moody’s Investor Services estimates Illinois pension systems debt, for the five main pension systems, is $251 billion. That’s $52,000 for every voter household. Your property taxes and state taxes are going to climb every year to make up for Democratic fiscal incompetence, and the funded pension hoax Democrats played on state employees and voters. After Enron, private sector entities are required by law to fund their pension systems. Naturally, governments and unions made themselves exempt from the funding requirements. I feel sorry for the future pensioners, who will see their pensions cut severely. You can thank Trump’s strong economy for increasing the value in your underfunded pensions.

How much is IDOT spending?

How much are Illinois taxpayers paying for the massive project that IDOT has been working on between Albers and Germantown on 161? They have been there a month. It is a massive concrete bridge and seems to be a bit much for one family’s driveway. Was this really necessary or would a prefabricated concrete structure from the local company in Germantown that specializes in prefabricated concrete been sufficient? This project could have been done cheaper and faster with the same quality using a prefabricated structure. Is there any way to find out if IDOT can publish the expenses on this project?

This story was originally published January 7, 2018 at 7:00 AM with the headline "BND readers sound off on property taxes and politicians."