Jeff Trigg has an interesting posting on my hometown, Deer Creek, Illinois. Apparently, the state has decided to levy new waste water taxes against several Illinois towns, including Deer Creek. While Deer Creek may be able to scrape up the cash if they really try, they'll still have to eventually take it out of the pockets of those who reside within the Village to make the payment each year. That means either levying a new tax or tacking it onto the monthly water bill. Neither option is going to make people happy. This is a sorry way to do business and the State should know better. Jeff explains what's up here:
The Bloomington Pantagraph has another editorial about the new waste water taxes stuck to many towns in Illinois. Deer Creek, IL (hometown of James Landrith) has refused to pay their $5,000 state tax and the Pantagraph thinks that is just fine. I'm with them on this. The Libertarian Party of Illinois was the first group to publicly criticize the Governor and General Assembly for this new tax during a Peoria press conference on July 9th. This was my press release that got us (me) in a few papers and media stories. This story has really taken off since then.
To put the $5000 in perspective for the Village budget, consider this. When my father, a full-time Caterpillar employee was Deer Creek Village (Acting) President, his pay for that job (which consumed quite a few hours monthly dealing with a lot of thankless tasks) was around $10 a month. That didn't even cover the gas money he spent monthly driving around town to deal with whatever.
Further, at that time there were only two city employees, who mostly handled the water and sewer system and random maintenance issues around town. There was also one part-time cop, who was employed full-time elsewhere when not on duty in the Village. Assuming that things haven't changed that much since then, there is no way that Deer Creek could afford that new tax, even if they wanted to pay it.
I sincerely hope they can continue to buck the system on this one with Jim Hackney's leadership. Heck, the town's water tower is a hand-me-down from Sunnyland (Washington).
Thanks for the mention. At the request of the Illinois Policy Institute, I wrote an op-ed we will be shopping around this week. This is an excerpt that puts the cost in perspective.
Several cities have decided to tell the Governor that they are flushing their bills right down to the sewers where they belong. Deer Creek, Illinois has refused to pay their $5,000 bill. While $5,000 doesn?t seem like much, their population is just 605 people with only 227 households according to the 2000 census. That $5,000 amounts to $22.00 per household in Deer Creek, and the village council has decided to stand up to Governor. Naperville has also decided to boycott the state?s sewer tax.