Speed Camera News Phil Kadner: When government leaders pick at taxpayers’ bones
Ban the Cams note another article on the subject see http://warondriving.com/post/11736576172/rahm-emanuel-wants-speed-cameras-in-chicago
http://southtownstar.suntimes.com/8325912-522/when-government-leaders-pick-at-taxpayers-bones.html
Phil Kadner: When government leaders pick at taxpayers’ bones
Phil Kadner
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| (708) 633-6787 October 20, 2011 7:34PM
Updated: October 21, 2011 10:34AM
They’re nickel-and-diming us to death.
It’s an old expression but describes what public officials are doing to the people they are supposed to represent.
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, President Barack Obama’s former chief of staff, doesn’t seem to see the Occupy Wall Street protestors. He obviously thinks the Tea Party folks are a group of conservative kooks.
But both of those factions represent a growing discontent with a government that seems totally out of touch with the people.
Emanuel this week revealed that he’s thinking of using red-light cameras to issue tickets to motorists who speed through school zones.
I’ve fielded enough calls from angry motorists to know that red-light cameras are fueling peoples’ rebellion against Big Brother.
To appeal a ticket from a red light camera, you’ve got to appear before an administrative judge. That’s a judge who works for the municipality that’s obtaining revenue from red-light camera tickets.
It doesn’t matter if these “judges” are fair, there’s an appearance that they are merely in the business of making money for the town.
Sure, people can appeal those decisions to a real traffic court judge, but most folks can’t take two days off of work (one for the municipal court, another for the traffic court) and the fines increase dramatically if a person loses in traffic court.
If Chicago launches this red-light project, you know other cities will soon follow. And eventually it will spread beyond school zones, all in the name of making our streets safer.
It has nothing to do with raising revenue for struggling governments, the elected officials will say. Does anyone believe them?
Government rapidly is losing the trust of the people it serves.
I’ve been a longtime advocate of paying taxes for government services.
But in this economy, it is difficult to make that argument when government leaders seem intent on squeezing every dime out of taxpayers without making real cuts to government spending.
Millions of people have lost their jobs. Others, who continue to work, have seen their incomes reduced.
Property taxes have gone up as property values have gone down. The state income tax in Illinois has increased.
Emanuel is going to increase the cost of water to both Chicago and suburban residents. Even the cost of parking in the city keeps going up.
Emanuel, who made millions of dollars in less than two years as the managing director of an investment house, may not understand that the average guy doesn’t have any extra income.
Other elected officials in Illinois make millions off their connections to law firms, insurance companies and real estate agencies.
And I’m not even estimating their incomes from crooked deals.
Every day, it seems these politicians find another way to take a chunk out of the hides of taxpayers. What they never seem to notice is that they’re getting down to bare bone.
People are hurting. Governments aren’t helping. Instead, they’re cutting programs that help the poor, the sick and the elderly.
What they give us in return are contracts to fix city streets, bridges and federal highways.
“We’re creating jobs,” public officials say.
I can’t help thinking they’re creating billion-dollar deals for their campaign contributors in the construction business and friends in the bond industry.
I realize cutting the fat out of government is difficult.
I’ve warned voters repeatedly that politicians will eliminate low-level government employees, who actually help people, not the people with clout.
The real fat cats, who make most of the money that government spends, never have to tighten their belts.
But their comes a time when true reform is going to be thrust on government if it doesn’t start to reform itself. The pressure is building from both the left and the right of the political spectrum. People are fed up.
A $100 ticket for speeding in a school zone, a $400 increase in property tax, a few dollars more for parking or riding the train to work, and the school is asking for another $100 in lab and book fees.
The list goes on and on.
In the meantime, wages remain stagnant. Jobs are hard to find. Interest rates on savings deposits are near zero.
But for politicians in this country, it is business as usual. When they look at voters, they see cash machines.
If that doesn’t change soon, instead of thousands of people marching in the streets, there will be millions.
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