McHenry County State Rep. Jack Franks is the only Democrat who made the “Taxpayer Friends” list of National Taxpayers United of Illinois.

He scored 69% on NTU’s Tax Survey, tying with Republicans Sandy Cole, Bill Mitchell,  Ruth Munson, Dennis Reboletti, David Reis, Keith Sommer and Jill Tracy.

The rankings were based on 2007-2008 legislative votes.

Two GOP state senators got the same score:  Gary Dahl and John O. Jones.

The brainchild of founder Jim Tobin, who used to give Governor Jim Thompson fits, the rating of legislators is regularly used in political campaigns.  And, in the interest of full disclosure, Tobin was my lieutenant governor candidate when I ran for governor on the Libertarian Party ticket against Rod Blagojevich and Jim Ryan in 2002.  We also worked together to kill Lee Daniels’ and Pate Philip’s 1993 bill to allow tax districts to sell bonds without a referendum.  We won in the first time, but lost when Daniels became House Speaker.

[Trivia question:  What 2002 gubernatorial candidate’s fund raiser(s) has still not been convicted–or even charged–with a Federal felony?

[Hint:  It’s not one of the power party candidate’s.]

This year, National Taxpayers United of Illinois has selected thirteen bills on which to judge state senators.  I’ll list below, just in case you want to look them up here (the descriptions provided are from NTU; if not provided, you’ll have to look up the bill for yourself):

• House Bill 664, a property tax cut increasing tax exemptions for seniors, vets, the disabled, etc.
• SJR Constitutional Amendment 92, graduated income tax



• House Bill 656, doubling CTA (I usually call it the RTA) sales tax hike, but as the Sun-Times headline clearly shows, Tobin is correct
• House Bill 656 with amendatory veto to provide free rides for seniors
• House Bill 405, allowing increase in park district taxes for aquarium, park and museum maintenance with referendum
• Senate Bill 345 allows counties to raise sales taxes for public safety and roads (Senate sponsor Bill Peterson)
• House Bill 1562 allows school boards to raise taxes without a referendum to pay lawyers
• House Bill 1921 imposes a 25 cent tax on every disposable lighter (Jack Franks co-sponsor)
• House Bill 556 increases the cigarette tax by 75 cents a pack
• Senate Bill 837 doubles Chicago’s 911 tax
• Senate Bill 835 allows 101 counties to raise local sales taxes to pay for school construction and maintenance, referendum required
• Senate Bill 835, veto override vote
• House Bill 3866, legislative pay raise

In the House, the legislation used to judge state representatives was the same as the senate with these two exceptions:

• HJR Constitutional Amendment 42, a 100% income tax hike that would have doubled the personal income tax on those with over $250,000 in income
• House Resolution 402, which condemned the Gross Receipts Tax

So,if Franks received a 69% rating, how did the other local legislators stack up?

State Senator Pam Althoff got a 54% score.

Senate colleague Dan Duffy is not ranked because the ratings only considered 2007-2008 bills, but the man he replaced Republican Bill Peterson came out with 46%.

State Rep. Mike Tryon received a 54% rating, the same as his state senator.

State Rep. Mark Beaubien got 31%.

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Local legislators ranked are seen above.  Jack Franks is on the top of the story.

Grouped together at the bottom are State Senator Pam Althoff, State Rep. Mark Beaubien and State Rep. Mike Tryon.