Lake County Gazette

Illinois mayors and city managers are fed up with the capital's hold on their municipal budgets, and the latest tax grab from Gov. J.B. Pritzker's office may just be the last straw.

This time the state is looking to use $150 million in tax revenue normally disbursed to municipalities. The money is in the Local Government Distributive Fund, and Pritzker said it's all in an attempt to fund his 2022 budget, increase tax revenue, close loopholes and give back to city governments. 

Many officials aren't buying it. Crain's Chicago Business recently reported that more than 100 mayors launched a campaign against the governor, demanding that the state not take the funds. 

On Chicago's Morning Answer, Wirepoint's Ted Dabrowski said it was good to see mayors start to push back against the tax grab. 

"They said, 'don't take our money.' The math doesn't work anymore," Dabrowski said. He stated that Highland Park Mayor Nancy Roedering was one of the many to speak up and say that enough is enough. "These unfunded mandates, the pension mandates and the collective bargaining mandates, they really handcuff local governments' hands to do anything on budgets. Everything is mandated by the state."

Dabrowski said that Pritzker's plan to take more away from city and village coffers would be destructive in places that can't afford to lose money and be told what to do by the state government. He pointed out the significance of Highland Park Mayor Nancy Rotering, a Democrat, being fed up with the Democrat governor's decisions. 

“The math doesn’t add up with this,” Rotering told Wirepoints. “We’ve cut what we’ve needed to; we’ve continued to balance our budgets. That should not be an opportunity to find more money off the backs of Illinois municipalities.”