“I thought Illinois was progressive ....”
They are progressive....they progressively take more and more of your $$$ until they run out of other people’s money.
Chicago is now out of other people’s money.
You nailed it. Just another way to separate the taxpayer from their dollars.
Most states, federal and state gas taxes are close to enough to maintain the roads.
But lots of gas taxes go to other projects, such as mass transportation in cities.
In addition, politicians prefer to spend the gas taxes on new roads rather than maintenance.
Chicago is the economic powerhouse driving the state. (This role has been played all over the world, there is no empire without cities.) It has provided the majority of income for the whole state since about 1860.
Chicago’s Outfit/Machine elects these thieves and Chicago pays the taxes for them. Those taxes go to the personnel the Outfit puts in place and wind up in the pockets of the Machine Demons.
For most of the City’s history the Wolves and Vultures have not destroyed the economic base they fed upon. Now it is just whack-a-doodle hatred and ignorance.
All the Chicago haters should consider that if Chicago goes down, the state goes down.
We need to understand the trend of the last 1500 yrs - the overall removal of people from the countryside to the cities. This means more and more power for cities. Republicans better figure our a way to get the cities’ votes or watch their minority shrink.
Eliminating Illegalism is the key to reducing Demon power. It was in 1850 and is still true.