“AS WE POUR THE WATER DOWN WE STAND UP AGAINST TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION!”
Today Kenny Johnson, candidate for state representative of the 26th District, hosted a Chicago-style “Boston Tea Party” to give taxpayers a chance to show their outrage at proposed Chicago and Cook County tax hikes totaling more than a billion dollars.
“Enough is enough!” Johnson and the demonstrators shouted. Among them: Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr.; Cook County Commissioners Forrest Claypool and Larry Suffredin, and Chicago Alderman Bob Fioretti.
Today’s demonstrators lined the bridge at Michigan Avenue and Wacker Drive waving signs declaring, “Get Your Hands Out Of My Pocket,” “No Taxation Without Representation” and “We Deserve Better.” Then, in the spirit of the colonists who dumped tea into Boston Harbor instead of allowing themselves to be gouged by a British tax on one of their staples, they poured bottles of water into the Chicago River.
“We–the taxpayers–are not represented when taxes on ordinary citizens rise so high and so fast that hardworking people may be drowned,” said Johnson. “We–the taxpayers–are not represented when our taxes go to fund waste, fraud and corruption INSTEAD of schools, jobs and safer streets.”
Congressman Jackson said, “Last year the mayor opposed a living wage ordinance to help some of our hardest-working families, and this year he proposes a huge tax increase to make things even harder for those same families.”
