After deadlock on the Environment and Land Use Committee, zoning ordinances for marijuana-related businesses in unincorporated areas of Champaign County are going to the board for vote. Proponents laud the potential tax windfall from potential businesses, while opponents fear children will be tempted to use the drug.
Lets consider the
facts. Illinois legalized recreational marijuana earlier this year.
The Champaign Board voted to tax marijuana-related businesses.
Selling marijuana to minors will continue to be illegal. Even if
marijuana sale is disallowed in these communities, citizens will be
able to purchase marijuana elsewhere; Champaign and Urbana are only a
short drives away.
The Champaign County
Libertarian Party supports the right of people to choose for
themselves what to do with their bodies. We support businesses and
markets and the consensual exchange of goods. In light of evidence
against increase youth usage in case studies around the US, we see no
downside to allowing marijuana businesses. For these reasons, the
Champaign County Libertarian Party urges board members to vote in
support of pro-marijuana zoning ordinances.
Note: This new blog series will address, from a Libertarian perspective, policy issues facing Champaign County residents, and those of Illinois state more broadly. It will examine upcoming or recently passed laws, and inform you about how your elected officials voted on them.
Campaign season 2020 is underway in Champaign County: mailers are arriving by foot carried by the faithful letter carriers, political swag is beginning to fly off tables at local events, and yard signs will soon begin sprouting in lawns all around town. At least one such mailer detailing Rep. Carol Ammons’ agenda and key legislative record has already been making the rounds. I thought this would be a good chance to reflect on her representation and voting record over the 2019-2020 term to date.
Rep. Ammons’ recent mailer.
Rep. Ammons has been an ally on two issues that Libertarians care about deeply; namely, criminal justice reform and legalization of recreational marijuana use (see Sec. 1.7 of the LP party platform here). I applaud her efforts to provide transparency of public complaints of policing (HB2503), work to improve independent legal review of the polygraph process (HB2569), support for lowering the burden of appearing in court for persons held in State confinement (SB1890), and creation of criminal ramifications for law enforcement officials guilty of fraud (HB2112, HB2111). She also co-sponsored the recently passed bill legalizing recreational marijuana use in Illinois (HB0902), which was a landmark achievement in US legalization efforts in that it provides provisions to free non-violent drug offenders.
Bills co-sponsored or voted for by Rep. Ammons.
That said, much of her voting record has been in opposition to the values of liberty, freedom to operate, personal choice, smaller government, and fiscal responsibility. As evidence, I will briefly review bills she has supported — and explicitly calls out in her flyer — as they represent examples of the worst type of government.
Rep. Ammons supported the “Prescription Drug Pricing Transparency Act” which places new regulations on the healthcare industry within the State of Illinois at a time when health insurance costs continue to rise at rates greatly outpacing income and GDP growth. HB 156 burdens insurance provides with reporting requirements related to prescription drug coverage. Additionally, the law requires drug manufactures to provide justifications for increases in drug prices. While on the one hand this legislation does not change the right of manufacturers and insurers to price costs of insurance, it is clearly meant to publicly shame companies for their business practices.
Enter HB 471, a bill that amends the “Illinois Insurance Code” which empowers the State to reject ACA health insurance premium rate increase. By nebulously defining “unreasonable rate increases” it essentially allows the state to impose price controls on health insurance plans. Many might think this is good policy considering the rapidly rising health insurance costs; however, this bill will likely decrease choice among an already sparsely populated market. Insurer participation in the health exchange marketplace has continually dropped since the passage of the ACA from a peak of 5 insurers on average in 2015 to 2.35 in 2019, and as things stand today 15% of Illinois enrollees only have a single insurer option [1]. This is unsurprising considering the high costs of compliance. Price controls will only exacerbate the problem. As a case study, Land of Lincoln Health closed operations in 2016 after $7.1M in losses, despite $160M in government grants [2]. Along with decreasing choices, enrollment in the exchange has been declining at a rate between 7% and 9% per year from 2016 to 2018 [3]. I highly doubt adding price controls will solve these problems, and my prediction is that HB 471 will eventually require further Illinois subsidies to prop up failing marketplace plans.
In economic policy areas, Rep. Ammons voted for efforts that will weaken employment in Illinois, while raising overall State spending. She supported the “Lifting Up Illinois Working Family Act” (SB 1) that increases the minimum wage to $15/hour over 5 years, the bloated appropriates bill (SB 262) which adds between $574M and $1.3B to the state deficit [4], and an amendment to the Illinois tax code (SB 687) that raises corporate tax rates by a percentage point and creates a steep progressive income tax. While individuals and families making less than $100K per year will see similar or slightly reduced tax rates, higher earners will face steep taxes ranging from 7.75% to 7.99%. This is the second tax increase in four years, after the increase from 3.75% to 4.95% in 2017.
Ramifications of Illinois corporate and individual taxes have been felt for years. Corporations have been leaving Illinois for years [5] due to high costs of business as have individuals [6]. In fact, Illinois has the second highest rate of emigration surpassed only by New Jersey, based on data from moving companies [7,8]. This trend will likely continue given the increased corporate and individual tax rate increases, resulting in worsening financial situation within the state.
To put a cherry on the cake, Rep. Ammons supported broad subsidies for R&D and apprenticeships via SB 1591 and SB 191. The former amends the Illinois tax code to extend R&D tax credits to 2027 of up to 6.5% for certain expenses and creates and Apprenticeship Tax Credit of $3500 per employee (up to $5M per company!). While innovation is important, rather than increasing tax rates followed by subsidies, why not just let businesses keep more of their money? The latter bill creates a “21st Century Employment” grant program for community colleges that requires the state to pay at least 60% of proposed training costs. While no specific dollar amount is allocated for the training program—which is itself irresponsible governance—we can estimate the deficit due to the apprenticeship tax credits of up to $48.7M (based on the 13,900 apprenticeships identified in a 2016 report [9]). Rather than require the State to sponsor apprenticeships, why not let the plethora of unions in Illinois pay for them? That is part of their raison d’etre after all.
Overall, these hallmark proposals
supported by Rep. Ammons are misguided. They include bad governance, increased
regulations and price controls, tax hikes, and payments to special interests. I
expect this will result in decreased competition, further flight of taxpaying
corporations and individuals alike, and a worsening condition in Illinois. I
give Rep. Ammons a D- for the
2019-2020 term so far.
Added a nebulous definition of “unreasonable rate increase” which subjectively determined by a State committee
Requires all ACA healthcare exchange plans to file rate increase proposals with the Illinois Department of Public Health which will then determines whether to allow or deny them
United Van Lines, “2018 National Movers Survey: New Jersey Tops List of Outbound Moves while Western ad Southern States Lead Inbound Moves”, Jan. 2, 2019. Accessed: Aug. 8, 2019.
A recent report from the Inspector General found that the Illinois Dept. of Children and Family Services (DCFS)
played a role in 102 children deaths in the past 3 years. 102 deaths
that don’t include Tanaja Barnes of Decatur, 2, in 2019. She froze to
death in her home as her mother’s boyfriend refused to pay for heat.
102 deaths don’t include AJ Freund of Crystal Lake, 5, who died being
beaten at the hands of his drug addicted parents. Those parents had
repeated contact with DCFS from Tanaja’s and AJ’s births.
JB promised to expand DCFS role in child upbringing during the campaign. He promised to increase the birth-to-three services of the during the campaign. This includes expanding home visits because it “increased school readiness, reduced child maltreatment and reduced lifetime arrests and convictions.” He also promised to create a mobile and online portal to provide information from the state so the state can reach all new parents. This will require ever increasing budgets for a state agency that consistently fails its mission today.
DCFS staffers face high workloads and, unfortunately for the children, it can result in the death of those in their care. The majority of DCFS workers are not evil, thrive on forcing drama, or incompetent. The ones that are cause dire consequences. The majority of children who come into contact with DCFS will not be taken from their parents. The ones that are face peril not only from our legal system but also those charged with their care. This agency is in drastic need of reform and formal policies that will guide a good working culture.
The agency contractors who were in contact Tanaja and AJ will not face criminal charges for their actions. In these cases, the contractors didn’t attempt to falsify reports. They did falsify reports in the case of Semaj Crosby in 2017. This contract employee, to date, has not been charged with any crime. This is wrong. If a prisoner dies in custody and a police officer falsifies the report, that officer is accountable of any number of offenses at the very least, filing a false report. The DCFS worker who falsifies a report and a child dies, faces being fired but no jail time. Given that current employment law prohibits employers from given information as to why a former employee is released, this seems like a small consequence for doing such an important job so poorly. The contractor will likely not face any financial harm at all for a 17 month old baby that is crushed under the living room couch.
This agency needs reform, not more contact with more parents who will fear their children being taken away. The agency needs to be accountable to those it assumes the care of, not a union that protects those who cannot be trusted to tell the truth. The agency needs a stable director, not a political flunky who is unwilling to make tough choices fighting that union or worse, do their bidding. If the agency is unwilling to do so, it should be dissolved and its charge handed back to law enforcement with full capacity. 102 lives and no agency employees being held to account. One can only imagine the cost for expanding DCFS’ reach into every Illinois family.
On April 23, the Village of Mahomet annexed three
subdivisions against the wishes of a vocal contingent of homeowners in those
subdivisions. The Briarcliff and Summit
Ridge subdivisions were developed outside the existing limits of the village explicitly
for a country feel and lower taxes. Many
of those residents attended study sessions explaining to elected Mahomet
trustees that they purchased their home, in part, because it was not in the
Village. Village officials have been
concerned with increasing revenues and increasing the Village’s population
count for the upcoming 2020 Census.
A Federal Census should NEVER be a reason to annex property
into a city or village. Nor should property
owners be forcibly annexed into a city or village. These homeowners are now facing increased
property taxes and fees that they didn’t want.
These homeowners are now forced to purchase services from a provider
they didn’t choose. These homeowners are now taxed without elected
representation as the homeowners couldn’t vote in the 2019 Village of Mahomet
election. These communities would have
been better served to be annexed after a referendum vote on annexation. We doubt this would have passed given the
large number of negative comments given in public meetings.
This is taxation without representation. We believe the annexation statutes should be
changed to require subdivision annexations to go to a direct vote of the
proposed annexation residents. These
residents should be allowed to have their say at the ballot box, not railroaded
in a village hearing or ask for relief in a court of law. The statutes should also be changed to
require cities and villages to annex properties PRIOR to a municipal election
so newly annexed residents can elect their officials, not have them foisted
upon them.
