You can get up off the floor now. I assume most of you have opened your real estate tax bill. Ours did not go up much, just a few dollars over last year’s bill.
I don’t like real estate taxes. I don’t like the idea of paying a tax on what your property should be worth if you sold it today.  
I did notice that almost 70 percent of my bill goes to education at different levels. I often dream about the state having enough sense and money to set a per student funding rate that actually pays the costs of educating a child. But there would need to be a major overhaul of the state income tax system to do that.
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You have lost your chance to see the 600 pound meteorite at the Flagg Township Museum.
No, it was not sold, stolen or lost. Seems it isn’t a meteorite either.

Museum became curious about the stone that was found in a farmer’s field near Creston. For years it has been labeled as a meteorite, but some NIU staffers looked at it and determined it to be a glacial erratic. So, instead of traveling millions of miles through space it may have come from Thunder Bay in Canada, or even Minnesota or Wisconsin.
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One state budget proposal calls for an increase in gas taxes, car registration fees, and driver’s license fees.
I think an increase in gas taxes is needed to help repair Illinois roads. Drive on anything not a toll road and you will encounter bumps and giant holes that could swallow a 600 pound glacial erratic. The increase would also be indexed to keep up with the cost of inflation. 
Part of the proposal I don’t like is increasing the cost of registering an electric vehicle to $1,000. I know electric vehicles use roads buy don’t pay gas tax to maintain the roads, but $1,000 seems a little extreme and would possibly deflate the EV market, putting more cars on the road that use gas, which contributes to climate change. 
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New tariffs went into effect this week on tomatoes from Mexico. The new tariffs could increase the cost of tomatoes to consumers. Lucky for us we have locally grown tomatoes from MightyVine. There are no extra tariffs on these, my friends.
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Congratulations to Jeff Leon of WRHL who was recently inducted into the Illinois Basketball Coaches Hall of Fame. Jeff has been broadcasting games for over four decades.  

Terry Dickow is a retired elementary school teacher with lots of opinions, some you will like, some you won’t. He can be contacted at terrydickow@gmail.com.