Chambana Sun

Dan Caulkins views all the ongoing policy decisions coming out of Springfield as the height of insanity.

“The first thing that has to happen in this state is for us to get our spending under control,” Caulkins told the Chambana Sun. “After that happens, we can decide what our priorities are in terms of pure spending, but to keep going as we’re going is absolutely senseless. We can’t just keep collecting and stealing money from people without changing anything about the way we’re operating as a government.”

Caulkins’ ire was recently raised by ongoing talk of a statewide property tax hike that has the endorsement of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, which saddles residents with a 50 percent higher tax bill over each of the next 30 years.

Jennifer McMillin

Touted as a way to pay down the state’s pension debt, the DuPage Policy Journal previously reported the plan would raise annual taxes on a $500,000 home by roughly $5,000, which is more than enough revenue to erase the largely unfunded pensions, according to estimates by a team of economists with the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.

Running against Democrat Jennifer McMillin in the 101st House District, Caulkins counters things are far from being completely clear-cut.

“In terms of the immediate future, this will crush any ability the state has to recruit new employers,” he said. “With no new jobs and companies leaving at a more rampant rate than they are now, people will become unemployed and more of them will leave in order to find gainful employment.”

The tax increases might not end there, as Ford, Lake, Kane, Frankfort and Will counties will have a referendum on the ballot for a proposed 1-percent sales tax increase.

Most of the revenue from sales tax increase proposal for Will County has been set aside for local school districts, with more than a dozen schools supporting the referendum, the Illinois Policy Institute reports. This would put some Will County residents in the same ballpark as the 10.25 percent rates in Chicago, home to the highest combined sales tax rate in the country.

The hike would raise rates in Frankfort from 7 percent to 8 percent.

While Caulkins has no problem with the people of those communities deciding if they want to have higher sales taxes, there is nothing logical about another statewide property tax hike, he said.

“It blows my mind that any elected official would be proposing something this crazy given the state of Illinois,” he said. “Nothing about raised property taxes resonates as being in the best interest of the people.”

The 101st House District spans parts of Champaign, DeWitt, Macon, McLean and Piatt counties.