Chicago Tribune Editorial: No New Taxes!

The Chicago Tribune recently published an editorial that discusses ways that the state of Illinois should try to balance their budget without resorting to tax increases.

"Gov. Pat Quinn is 10 days away from a budget address in which he'll reassert that you should pay higher taxes. He'll say the State of Illinois cannot eliminate a $12.8 billion shortfall that's been years in the making without more of your money.

We haven't voted yes or no on this. For 13 months, though, we've published editorials such as "Before you raise taxes," "First, spend smarter" and "12 steps before a tax hike." Last week the Civic Federation of Chicago struck a similar chord in its state salvage plan: The Federation said that only if Illinois enacts changes to retirement benefits and rolls back much spending to 2007 levels, the group then would support raising income taxes on workers and employers. "Desperate times," says Federation President Laurence Msall, "demand reasonable approaches."

Clearly all that ills Illinois can be fixed with budget cuts.

Yes, there will be spending cuts for education (and rightfully so since state spending on education has grown 67% to $26b over the past 10 fat years), unionized state workers might lose some of their retirement benefits, etc.

In fact, there are so many places to look for savings that the entire budget "crisis" could and should be solved in a manner of days.