Your Tax Dollars for Private Business

How many people in Oak Forest are aware that their tax dollars are being used to finance private business? The city has a Facade Assistance Program which is financed by your tax dollars, this was confirmed at the city council meeting. What does this mean to you and me? This means we pay for things like those listed below.

• Upgrades/retrofitting existing signage, including electrical systems 
• Installation of façade materials and landscaping 
• Soft costs such as architectural/engineering costs, landscaping plans and permit fees

Private business is receiving, for lack of a better term, corporate welfare, from the city. The sums are no small expenditure, a business can get up to $10,000 according to the city and their website. The business covers two-thirds of the cost, but the city will provide the rest. Is this the best use of our tax dollars in these economic times where both citizens and the government are adversely affected by the economic climate? I think not, the city is already hurting with a deficit. If you own a business and you want or need to have improvements to your business, then do as the rest of us do, budget and save.

The reason for the program is certainly laudable, but it is not the function of government to fund private property or business. If one business gets help from tax dollars, won’t other businesses think they are also entitled to help? Government should stick with what they have been empowered by the people to do, and I do not recall any government entity being granted the power to fund private business. Government should keep us safe, protect our rights, repair and keep roads, use tax dollars for the common benefit of the people. In my opinion, government should be as small as possible.

We do not want our government in the position of selecting those who get and those who do not get. Remember if the government can give you something, they can take it away. Let’s not get on that slippery slope.

I call for an end to this and similar programs; and I request the citizens of Oak Forest contact their alderman or alderwoman and demand that they end this and similar programs.

For more information visit http://www.oak-forest.org/community/ProgramsIncentives.asp