Faith in Government? ... Illinois Teaches a Valuable Lesson

Who should we trust to take care of us and make things better for all of our fellow citizens? ---- ourselves and each other or our government officials, both elected and appointed? We the unwashed masses representing the commoners or the chosen elites who purport to be all knowing and always claim to be acting in our best interests?


My vote is for self-reliance and voluntary assistance, other than in the areas of national security and necessary public services. By necessary public services I mean those where government can perform them better than a free market of consenting adults is capable of providing same for themselves. But only those.


And I also believe that we should live within our means and that incentives (including the amount of taxes levied) matter, both for us as individuals and as members of a broader community and society.


But those fundamental beliefs don't make me unaware or unwilling to help those in need. I'm all for that. Very much so.


Emerson's essay on Self-Reliance and the importance to each of us of being a non-conformist when making individual choices was written more than 150 years ago. It still rings true to me today.


In Illinois, Tax Increases Become an Article of Faith is subtitled 'Praise the Lord and pass the new progressive tax that will finance public pensions.' It's worth reading if only for its entertainment value:


"In Illinois—a state plagued by epic budget woes, a pension crisis, byzantine taxes and the nation's second-highest unemployment rate—politics is rarely associated with godliness. Four of the past seven governors, most recently Rod Blagojevich, have been sent to prison. Locals will tell you that corruption is practically a sport. But on April 8 more than 500 Illinoisans showed that they, at least, were keeping the faith.

Donning orange T-shirts reading "Faith in Action," a coalition of religious groups flooded the state capitol in Springfield, singing hymns, shouting "Hallelujah," and praying for higher taxes on the rich. Their goal: replacing the state's long-standing flat income tax with a new, progressive "Fair Tax."

"The gospel tells us that 'For everyone to whom much is given, much will be required,' " Rev. Jason Coulter, a Chicago pastor and board member of the Community Renewal Society (which organized Faith in Action) told me. "I'm called by my faith tradition to speak truth to power when I see injustice being done. And a flat tax is an injustice."

                

"This is a moral imperative," said Rev. C.J. Hawking, executive director of Arise Chicago, a workers' rights group. "There are over 400 passages in the Bible that talk about God's special concern for the poor. Our current tax system, which favors the wealthy, is so off kilter, so skewed, and so contrary to the vision God has set before us."

More than 250 religious leaders have signed a public statement demanding a progressive tax. . . .

For those who hold their faith and their preferred tax policy in different spheres, this image—along with its subtext of class warfare—is a bit jarring. "The Bible tells us to care for the poor. It doesn't say a thing about marginal tax rates," Jonathan Greenberg, an ordained rabbi and the director of external relations at the Illinois Policy Institute, a free-market think tank, told me. . . .

Robert Gilligan, executive director of the Catholic Conference of Illinois, noted that "some faith communities are being propelled into this debate to provide moral cover in order to raise more revenue for state programs. The thing is, we've seen this movie before. We're in a state where fiscal responsibility has not been paramount." Mr. Gilligan asked: "Where is this additional money going to go? How can we be sure it will go to help the poor and vulnerable?"

The argument that the Fair Tax will help the poor is, at best, murky. Illinois's last income-tax hike, in 2011, was touted as a temporary fix to raise $31 billion for the state's astronomical debts and struggling schools. In reality, the bulk of the money—$25 billion—went to state-employee pension coffers and interest payments. The state budget is still $3 billion in the hole. Not coincidentally, high-profile members of public-employee unions like the Illinois SEIU are actively engaged—some as "faith leaders"—in the fight for a progressive tax.

"These are people who put their faith in government to do what communities and churches should be doing," Mr. Greenberg said. "There's just this strange faith in government in general—which, as the corrupt and incompetent government in Illinois clearly demonstrates, is a seriously flawed faith." Brian Burch, the president of Catholic Vote, an Illinois advocacy group, put it another way: "They're substituting the state for God."

When asked whether additional tax revenue would really be used to help the poor, supporters like Rev. Hawking and Rev. Coulter tend to change the subject. When asked whether a progressive tax might backfire by driving wealth and jobs out of Illinois, both doubted anyone would leave. Besides, Rev. Hawking told me, "minimum wage earners," not the wealthy, "are the real job creators." The numbers, which show Illinois ranking second in the nation in outbound moves and losing more than $30 billion in adjusted gross income between 1992 and 2010, suggest otherwise.

One thing is clear: Christian, Jewish and Islamic scriptures all call on us to help the poor. Less clear is whether that vital help should be increasingly outsourced to rambling behemoths like the Illinois state government."

Summing Up

Here's my take.

What happened to the idea of the separation of church and state?

And since money is fungible, why would anybody believe that tax dollars raised by self-interested politicians would be used to do "God's work?"

Thanks. Bob.