Do you know? If I had to guess, I would say that at least 95% of Chicago residents don’t know where their tax dollars go.
A fellow Toastmaster gave a speech, “It’s All About the Money.” He opened by asking the audience, “If I asked you for money, wouldn’t you want to know what I’m going to do with it?” Of course, we would. He went on to ask, “Well, why don’t you do the same with your government officials?” Very true.Very thought provoking.
These people take our money and we don’t know what they do with it. The sad thing is – we never ask. AND it’s public information. AND budget meetings are held for residents to find out what’s going on. But we still don’t know.
Although my time is very limited, I’m going to take the time to check it out and to see how much money is spent on certain things. We are putting money in and I’m sure we are not getting the return on our investment. Don’t believe me? Look at some of the services provided on the North Side that you don’t get on the South Side. I cannot go into specifics because I have not done ample research, but just looking at the differences in the community dynamics, I promise you, South Siders are coming up short! But we pay taxes.
Anyway, to get you started on your journey, here is the link the documents at the City of Chicago’s Office of Budget Management. I’m on a mission t find out where my money is going and I encourage you to do the same.
(polls)
Most of Illinois has no clue either. What people up north may not understand is that funding is first cut from anything south of Chicago. We have state tax, city tax, in some case, county tax, just on groceries alone. Then, the taxes hidden in gas, cell phone bills (state tax and city tax), electric, cigarettes, alcohol, housing, cars, etcetera. Illinois could probably hit even if politicians took a fair pay cut for the next ten years.
I went to the City’s budget office to inquire about a budget book and walked out with three thick books and a guide on how to read them. But, what kills me is we accept anything, like my TM member said, and we never ask questions and they are taking our money. Once I figure out the city, I’ll check out state and federal next. I’ll let you know how things go.