By Dawn Melchiorre, A+ Illinois Research Assistant
Crain’s Chicago Business’
recent
editorial “
Businesses
– and students – need a tax break” (
March 7, 2005) urged state lawmakers
to adopt a new state school funding model that “allocates both costs and
benefits equitably” in our state.
Crain’s points out that the current system to fund schools “shortchanges
children in low-income school districts” and perpetuates the “economic divide in
our state.”
The editorial also cites recent
data that show
businesses
in
Chicago
now pay the fifth-highest property taxes, hampering
job creation and economic investment in the
Chicago
region.
The editorial urges state and county
officials to take stronger leadership on these issues and further acknowledges
that meaningful school funding reform likely will need to include an increase in
personal and corporate tax rates as well as some expansion of the sales tax base
(both of which are proposed in Senate Bill and House Bill 750).
To read the editorial, please visit the Crain’s Chicago
Business website at www.chicagobusiness.com. A
subscription to the Web site is required.