After increasing hotel taxes to finance Comiskey Park, the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority announced last summer it had enough of a surplus to consider building a new auditorium and conference center facility at Comiskey. That seemed a justifiable use of tax funds. After all, Comiskey Park is clearly underused. We are all for anything the facility might come up with to bring more people to Comiskey, and the $1.6 million to $2 million it would cost to complete the project, we were told, would come from surplus taxes collected from hotel users.

That same pot is now being eyed to help the Bears renovate Soldier Field. Since 1992, the hotel tax has generated a $35.1 million surplus.

While investing the money in Soldier Field might be a good way to spend the excess taxes, the authority's idea is a good example of why many citizens balk whenever government insists it needs to raise taxes.

Seldom do surplus taxes make their way back into the taxpayer's wallet.

Moreover, at the same time the authority is seeking ways to spend surplus tax dollars, Illinoisans are beginning to feel the pinch of fees raised to finance infrastructure improvements under Gov. Ryan's Illinois FIRST project. And those who patronize Chicago eateries for take-outs will be hit with the city's new litter tax.

Obviously, government will always find a reason to raise taxes. Hopefully, in the future, when various taxing bodies discover that they have raked in more taxes than they need for their stated purposes, they will look for ways to reduce the overall tax burden.