Preserve Tax Exempt Financing - Sample Letter #1
Dear Congressional Representative:
I am writing with great concern about the issue of tax-exempt financing for local governments. I
represent the [Village/City of _______________] as the [Mayor/Chair]. It is my understanding that given
the serious budget issues that face our federal government, there is discussion to either significantly
limit or eliminate outright tax-exempt financing options for state and local governments.
As an elected representative within your congressional district, I cannot state strongly enough my grave
concerns for this discussion.
As you know, the cities and villages of Illinois provide our citizens with many of the services that our
communities need to create the quality of life that our citizens have come to expect. Our [city/village]
provides so many essential services that our citizens depend on such as streets, parks, libraries, electric,
gas and water/sewer projects. The idea of removing our access to tax-exempt finance to support these
essential services continues to put even more strain on our already tight local budgets. We too are
aware that the U.S. and local tax payers feel that they already pay enough in rates and taxes to support
these services.
If Congress decides to remove the century old tax exempt status of units of local government, or limit
the use of tax-exempt finance by cities and villages in Illinois, then our local government will have to
make even tougher decisions on the maintenance and operation of such things as parks and libraries
and reducing other valuable customer services that are vital to our communities. There are many
benefits that local control and local ownership provides our citizens; including having local officials to
address personally with their concerns. If Congress removes our tax exempt status, even more local
control will be stripped from our citizens.
The short term impact of removing the tax-exemption from local governments is likely a reduction in
overall quality of our local services. In the long term, it could be the outright elimination of the delivery
of some of these vital, quality of life services.
While we realize there are many difficult fiscal decisions to be made in the coming years, the decision to
cut or eliminate local government’s tax exemption status is one that simply moves the federal budget
challenge to the local level.
Please support your Illinois cities and villages. Please do not vote to limit or stop local government tax
exempt status.
Sincerely,
[Honorable ___________]
cc:
City/Village Council