Will County Gazette

Patty Smith laments how lawmakers in Springfield have lost touch with reality when it comes to connecting with the people they represent.

“Most people’s position on tax hikes is that no one should be going to Springfield talking about increases,” Smith told the Will County Gazette. “All the focus should be on what we’re going to do to grow the economy and bring jobs and people back to Illinois and gets things turned around.

Running against Rep. Stephanie Kifowit (D-Oswego) in the 84th District, Smith said the only thing more shocking than proposing additional tax increases is that it comes at a time when the state already has a tab for at least $100 million in wasteful government spending, according to a new Illinois Policy Institute report.

Rep. Stephanie Kifowit

The debt includes expenditures like $13.1 million for an arts council chaired by the wife of Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan wife and pork projects that include $10 million to rehabilitate Chicago’s privately owned Uptown Theatre.

All the spending comes at a time when state taxpayers are saddled with the second highest property tax rates in the country and pay one of the highest combined tax burdens in the country.

“The majority party that includes Madigan and all his cronies that support these policies need to be focused on getting spending under control and putting people before politics and special interests,” Smith said. “The people of Illinois want and need tax relief. The only way to get out of this mess is to take steps to grow the economy.”

In a time when the state has experienced population losses in each of the last four years, a recent Center for State Policy and Leadership at the University of Illinois Springfield and NPR Illinois survey found more than half of Illinois residents have considered leaving the state because of taxes.

With spending on government worker pensions and employee health insurance growing by an average of more than 400 percent over the last two decades, IPI researchers noted much of the state’s wasteful spending is stoked by structural problems.

Statistics also show that state and local government account for an additional $97 million in frivolous spending. That figure excludes school districts, which make up one of the largest single items in the state budget.

“Right now, we’ve got too many politicians in Springfield for the wrong reasons,” Smith said. “We’re supposed to be there to serves people, not all the self-serving you see. It’s the reason why we need term limits. Generally, people there too long lose contact with people that are based in reality."

The 84th House District includes Aurora, Naperville, Oswego and Wheatland.