Over the last year, some state politicians have been busy issuing press releases, conducting press conferences, and producing television commercials about how great Illinois’ finances are.
In reality, our state’s finances are still a mess and by many measures the worst in the nation. Illinois has the worst-in-the-nation bond rating and the lowest pension funding ratios despite the highest combined state and local taxes in the nation.
Tell Illinois legislators to fix our broken finances.
The inaccurate portrayal of our state’s finances by politicians delays the necessary and hard decisions we must make before it’s too late, especially on the issue of pension reform.
- Only in Illinois, do politicians celebrate our worst-in-nation state bond rating. (A) (B) (C)
- Only in Illinois, do politicians tout protecting the taxpayers while having the highest state and local tax burden in the nation. (A) (B) (C)
- Only in Illinois, do politicians rejoice in paying off an emergency federal loan when we were the only state who needed it. (A) (B) (C) (D)
- Only in Illinois, do politicians claim they are protecting taxpayers after raising taxes and fees 24 times in 3 years. (A) (B) (C) (D)
- Only in Illinois, do the same politicians who hiked a trailer fee by $100/year, reduce it by $82/year then tout about the “savings” to taxpayers. (A) (B) (C) (D)
- Only in Illinois, do politicians claim eliminating an education tax credit scholarship program for low-income kids, is a corporate tax loophole. (A) (B)
- Only in Illinois, do politicians claim they’ve “balanced the budget” every year when it hasn’t been balanced since 2001. (A) (B) (C)
- Only in Illinois, does it take a once-in-a-century pandemic and massive federal bailouts to maybe balance the budget. (A) (B) (C) (D)
- Only in Illinois, do politicians tout pension reforms when we have the worst-funded pensions in the nation. (A) (B) (C)
- Only in Illinois, do politicians close corporate loopholes but not the ones they personally benefit from. (A) (B) (C)
- Only in Illinois, do politicians ask for over $44 billion in federal bailouts. (A) (B) (C)
- Only in Illinois, do 88 legislators join a Property Tax Task Force and it results in zero enacted bills to reduce property taxes. (A) (B) (C)
- Only in Illinois, there are over 7,000 units of local government 1,800+ more than any other state. (A) (B)
- Only in Illinois, does corruption cost Illinoisans $556 million per year (A) (B)
- Only in Illinois, does 28.5 percent of the state budget go to pensions and the only recently passed pension “reform” makes the situation worse. (A) (B) (C) (D)
We cannot let out-of-touch politicians ignore our state’s serious financial problems with political spin not grounded in reality. AFP-Illinois’ is focused on telling Illinois voters the truth about the state’s finances, and proposing real solutions to our problems.
Contact your elected official now and let them know you do not think Illinois finances are in great shape and they need to get to work to lower taxes and reduce spending.
Click here to demand fiscal accountability from Illinois legislators today.