Dwight Kay has one basic question for lawmakers concerning the proposed statewide property tax now being floated as a way of paying down the state’s spiraling pension liability.
“I thought taxpayers had already paid into the pension system with one of these earlier taxes that was imposed,” Kay told Metro East Sun. “Where did all that money go? People can’t afford and aren’t willing to just keep pumping money into this system and seeing nothing change.”
A trio of economists from the Federal Reserve Bank in Chicago recently recommended levying a special state property assessment estimated to be about 1 percent of actual property value annually for 30 years.
Dwight Kay
“That would be devastating,” added Kay, the Glen Carbon Republican running against Rep. Katie Stuart (D-Edwardsville) in the 112th District. “We have elected officials in Springfield who have deemed the system of constantly raising taxes to be necessary, and they don’t care about the impact being felt by voters. They don’t face any repercussions that I can see.”
Currently, property taxes across Illinois stand at an average of 2.67 percent, the highest level in the nation. The average is nearly double that at over 5 percent in a working-class community in south Cook County.
Kay said he is much more in step with a resolution recently introduced by Rep. Jeanne Ives (R-Wheaton) opposing any new statewide property tax.
“By and large, I don’t think politicians in Springfield care about what the general public thinks,” Kay said. “I think they only care about what protects them; and until we change the makeup of the Congress, that isn’t going to change. We’ll just continue to see a system that is steadily bleeding the taxpayer.”
The 112th House District includes parts or all of Edwardsville, Glen Carbon, Collinsville and O'Fallon.
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