While I understand that the State of Illinois is in dire financial shape, I do not see why politicians, like yourselves, think it is wise to balance the budget on the backs of the very people who voted for you and who have done everything they were asked to do during their working lives.
To attempt to take away or diminish the pensions of State Employees will not balance the budget, only increasing state taxes will do that. Why not employ a graduated income tax so that everyone pays his/her fair share?
As a retired educator and a tax payer, I think this would be a fair way to put the state back on its feet. I would willingly pay more taxes to help balance the budget.
Please tax the top; not mom & pop!
Esther Allman
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All great democracies have committed financial suicide somewhere between 200 and 250 years after being founded. The reason? The voters figured out they could vote themselves money from the treasury by electing people who promised to give them money from the treasury in exchange for electing them. The United States officially became a Republic in 1776, 231 years ago. The number of people now getting free stuff outnumbers the people paying for the free stuff. We had one chance to change that in 2012. Failure to change that spells the end of the United States as we know it.