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On taxes . . . Whenever Mayor Tim Davlin wants to make a point about
his administration’s record on taxes, he trots out a bar graph
showing that Springfield has some of the lowest municipal taxes of
similarly sized central Illinois towns. His critics don’t quibble
with those numbers; instead, they point out that in the past four years
residents have seen a temporary sales-tax increase become permanent, the
first installment of electric-rate hikes (34 percent over two-and-a-half
years) to fund the new power plant, and another buck tacked onto their City
Water, Light & Power bills to pay for new warning sirens.
Tim Davlin
• Taxing questions — With uncertainty looming over the construction of
a second lake, the mayor’s not saying “no new taxes” this
time around: “What do you do when you have 25 tornadoes, as opposed
to only two, and it completely takes out our water system? What’s to
say you don’t raise taxes and we need a new lake and our water rates
go up?” Davlin asks. “What do you call that — a tax or a rate increase?”
• Davlin’s no
dummy — Why not consider even a
small tax increase, given the nonstop demand for additional city services
from aldermen? The mayor answers: “I don’t hear 51 percent of
the people saying, ‘Raise my taxes.’”
Bruce Strom
• Leggo your Blago — The day of Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s budget
address, which the mayor attended and during which the gov unveiled his
controversial gross-receipts-tax plan, Ald. Strom tried to link Davlin with
the unpopular-in-these parts governor: “I’m not surprised that
Mayor Davlin was there cheerleading for Gov. Blagojevich’s historic
tax increase.” Afterward, Strom called on Davlin to reject the plan
as potentially harmful to Springfield businesses. The mayor, during a
recent debate, agreed that the effects of the GRT here would be
“devastating.”
• At least he can say he didn’t raise
taxes — At the time the City
Council was considering a temporary sales-tax increase in 2004, Strom
offered an alternate plan that involved increasing the city’s
sales-tax rate to 1.25 percent permanently and the telecommunications tax
from 1 percent to 3.5 percent for one year (that measure failed).
Citizens decide elections. For this reason, from now
until Election Day, we will let candidates explain in their own words where
they stand on issues that matter to you. Let us know your issues. Contact
R.L. Nave at rnave@illinoistimes.com
This article appears in Mar 22-28, 2007.
