Tax increase? A sampler of readers' insights

The talk in Springfield this spring is of raising taxes. Advocates of a tax increase say that one is needed to provide adequate services and that citizens would be willing to pay higher taxes. Opponents of a tax hike claim the public is opposed to higher taxes. The battle is being fought with budget analyses, press releases, rallies on the Capitol steps and by public opinion polls.

Each subscriber, or the next one on the list, was called between May 11 and May 13, and asked for an immediate response to the question: "Do you think the General Assembly should raise taxes? Why or why not?" No cue on a specific tax or a particular spending program was given. Respondents come from Chicago, Robinson, Harrisburg, DesPlaines and points between. Together the answers are statistically meaningless. Individually they are insightful.

What follows could best be described as a sampler of public opinion on the question of raising taxes. Half of the people we talked to said that taxes should be increased, and each who did cited education as the service that needed the money. Springfield stockbroker Richard Newtson says he is troubled by U.S. Secretary of Education William Bennett's comments on the state of Chicago schools. "You don't like to see that stuff. They obviously need help and it all starts with money," Newtson says. Newtson says he could favor a tax increase for schools: "I would want the lion's share of it to be pointed in that direction. I'm not naive enough to think that other portions of state government and state supported systems are not also in need of increases. I would like the lion's share of it to be directed toward education."

Another Springfield resident also sees needs for education. Mary Masters begins her answer by saying she has a pro-education bias. She has taught and was a member of the Board of Regents from 1967 to 1973. "I'm for increased taxes if we get our money's worth since money is the bottom line for everything. I think it's terribly important for everybody's future for the children somehow to learn — and learn something about our culture. They can't compare anything else with it unless they know what they're comparing it with. I think we've been doing a poor job of that lately, and I hope with more money we can do better.'' But there is support beyond our Springfield readers for a tax increase for education. Anne Evans, a retired office manager and former school board member from DesPlaines, says, "I feel the need for some tax raise is probably pretty much there, because we have problems with school financing especially for Chicago and also for the inequities throughout the state. We keep cutting back the money we spend on education. If we don't have the money to spend there, we really need to raise taxes. I would be happy to see some cuts in other places, but I don't think the state has that many places it could cut. So it looks to me like some income tax raise is probably necessary."

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David Shipman, an attorney from Evanston, sees needs in the state's public university system. "I think revenues need to be increased and probably the state income tax is going to be the most appropriate means of increasing revenue. My principal reason for saying that, and I think the impetus for a tax increase, is needed funding for state education and in particular university systems to remain competitive with competing state universities and to provide adequate educations for Illinoisans."

Michael Cullinan, a Tremont road contractor, also sees a need for higher education. "I'm not opposed to a tax increase. I'm particularly impressed by the argument of higher education in the state and how that is very important. . . . I think that it is extremely important that the state continue to have the fine higher education system that we have. And then of course the lower sharing of education dollars within the secondary school systems throughout the state, I think, is important."

Also counted among the supporters is Robert Blanchard, Robinson, a reporter with The Robinson Daily News: "I think they should raise taxes, primarily for education."

That is half the sample in the yes column. Others are just as adamantly opposed to a tax hike. George Johnson of Cicero is a private security analyst and the Republican candidate in the ninth legislative district, where he opposes Democratic Sen. Earlean Collins. "We don't need a tax increase at this time. What we have to do is reform our school system so it's not burning money up. Our jail system has completely collapsed. Putting in new prisons will not solve the problem," he says. Johnson describes voters as hostile to the notion of a tax hike. "I'm definitely a Republican that's not for a tax increase," he says. "We have to do a lot of tightening the belts and straightening things up."

Chicago attorney Jeff Fisher is leery of claims by Gov. James R. Thompson that a tax increase is needed. Fisher argues that Thompson ran for election in 1982 and 1986 on claims of the state's fiscal soundness, then proposed large tax increases in 1983 and 1987: "There's an old quote, I don't know who said it, 'Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.' . . . He [Thompson] campaigned last time on theme of leadership. It said, 'Jim Thompson, because he's a leader.' . . . I'm very skeptical of what the governor says, for no other reason. I don't know what to believe and I would rather side with saying that it should be something that really be looked at with detail, before an increase is granted by the legislature, rather than just on the say-so of the governor."

More than Thompson troubles William Minneman, a computer consultant from Bloomingdale, who came to Illinois 10 years ago after living in Kansas and Michigan. "My impression is this state, certainly more than any other in my experience and probably more than the majority of other states, wastes a good deal of the money it does raise," he says. "The kind of services provided at the State of Illinois Center in Chicago is abysmal. So is the level of service provided, the kind of work done on any public roads. Just the way in which any public money being spent must include some just unacceptable percentage for what can only be called graft, off the top." Minneman counts himself a "no" on tax increases. Before he could agree to one he says, "I would want to see changes in the way the money is spent to get more services for every dollar collected, much more than we're doing now."

And then there are the maybes, those who might support a tax increase but were unusre in mid-May. They and others were waiting for Gov. Thompson to make a specific proposal. "The whole thing is like a wet balloon you're trying to get your arms around," says John Thayer, director of public affairs for the Sundstrand Corp. in Rockford. Thayer says it is too early to tell whether he would support a tax hike: "You tell me what the proposal is in terms of taxation and what the additional benefits might be for business and I could possibly give you an answer."

John Burian, Tinley Park, a professor of political science and criminal justice at Moraine Valley Community College, is willing to consider a tax increase. "I have a concern with state government that sometimes we go to the coffer when there is no justification to do so. If there is no other way to maintain our programs, then maybe taxes are the best answer. But I'm not too sure of that."

Roy Uzzle, a Harrisburg businessman, township board member and Democratic precinct committeeman, wonders who to believe. "Who knows whether we need it. The governor says yes. The comptroller says no. We've got a state representative and a state senator who said last October 'heck no.' This year we've got a state senator who feels pressure, and they're saying they're trying to lean toward it now." Uzzle says spending for roads and prisons is at an all-time high. "If you've got to have the money, you've got to have the money. If we're sure that every spending restraint has been made, sure we have to have it."

Our random and unscientific survey shows the greatest support for a tax hike from those who feel education needs more money. We also detect a measure of skepticism among our sample, a skepticism that bordered on cynicism in some cases. And we see, as of May 13, a substantial measure of uncertainty. Because no one had come up with a concrete tax plan either as to which taxes should be raised or for what the money should be spent, answers were sometimes imprecise.

What does our effort mean? Perhaps it says that education has made best made its case. Perhaps it illustrates the diversity of feelings on the issue.□

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