Pro-tax Marchers in Illinois

A crowd estimated at 15,000 descended on the capital of Illinois on Wednesday, demanding that lawmakers increase taxes.

"Thousands of teachers and other union workers descended on the state Capitol on Wednesday and chanted "raise my taxes" to try to pressure politicians to avoid major budget cuts.

The vibe was the exact opposite of what you'd find at a tea party rally. But the loud chants barely resonated inside the Capitol, where lawmakers are trying to exit Springfield in a couple of weeks without voting for a tax increase that could jeopardize their re-election chances in little more than six months.

"If you try to leave town without doing your job, we're going to chase you," warned union leader Henry Bayer at a rally that drew an estimated 15,000 people — the biggest at the Capitol since the era of the Equal Rights Amendment more than a quarter-century ago."

Frankly, Illinois lawmakers should accommodate the protesters. Any person demanding that their taxes be raised should immediately be sent a bill that allows them to pay much higher taxes than are being asked of them right now.

Of course, that's not what the protesters have in mind. These protesters were largely people already living off of public funds (state workers, unionized workers dependent on government contracts, etc.), so they in effect want lawmakers to raise taxes on everyone else in order to continue to fund their exorbitant salaries and benefits.

It's time for lawmakers in Springfield to finally show some backbone and say "no" to those who demand more and more from the already over-taxed people of Illinois.

If you live in Illinois, contact your representative and tell them to continue looking for ways to cuts costs, and inform them how any additional tax hikes will affect you personally.

Illinois "Watchdog" Group Proposes Massive Tax Increase

The Civic Federation, a self-styled watchdog group whose includes business and professional leaders from a wide range of Chicago-area companies and institutions, recently proposed increasing the state income tax by 60%, among other tax-raising proposals.

"The group says it would support a state income tax increase from 3 percent to 5 percent. It also recommends the state tax retirees’ pension and Social Security checks be taxed for the first time at the same rate as workers’ paychecks. They want another $1 increase on a pack of cigarettes and to eliminate $181 million in corporate tax breaks."

One has to wonder how many of the individuals and companies that are expected to pay more tax under this plan will actually stick around, rather than moving to a state that's less hostile to their interests.

Incredibly, the group attributes Illinois' fiscal woes to the states' historic under-spending on public employee pensions!

"“Illinois’ fiscal crisis has been many years in the making. It was caused by more than 30 years of pension underfunding and many years of spending unfettered by the state’s shrinking revenue resources,” said Msall."

I think the good folks at the Civic Federation know what the real solution is to Illinois massive budget deficit. The solution is for politicians simply to stop overspending the allowance given to them by taxpayers. Get spending back in line with the money given to them by taxpayers, and the problem goes away.

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.

Illinois Still Sorting Out Options on Deficit

Illinois politicians are still considering their options for the projected $12b deficit. For now, they seem to be leaning towards some combination of tax hikes and spending decreases.

"Mr. Quinn, a Democrat running for re-election in November, proposed cutting $2 billion in general-fund spending for the fiscal year, including $1.3 billion from education and $380 million from human services. The governor is also reviving his proposal to increase income-tax and corporate-tax rates to boost revenue. Last year, he pushed unsuccessfully to raise the individual income-tax rate to 4.5% from 3%."

A predictable but nonetheless interesting fallout of this debate is the fact that more than a thousand people rallied at the Capitol last week for tax increases at the state level!

Why do I have the sneaking suspicion that proponents of tax increases know that they themselves will have to pay more, but rather that others will have to do so.

As unpalatable as tax increases may seem to some, this type of discussion is being held exactly where it should be - at the state level. Any taxpayer in Illinois who is ultimately unhappy with seeing his (or her) taxes rise is then free to move to another state that is not so generous with other people's money.

Illinois Ready to Explode

The state of Illinois is facing a $11b budget deficit as politicians on the left and right debate whether spending cuts or tax hikes, or some combination of the two, are the way to go.

"A powerful civic group in Chicago is calling for an increase in the state income tax and some budget cuts from Springfield.

The Civic Federation says there is no other way to fix the state's finances than to raise taxes. The business organization blames the state's fiscal mess on years, if not decades, of mismanagement by Springfield politicians."

Wow, "no other way"?!? Sorry, that seems like a lame attempt to take both sides of this issue.

At least some politicians realize that tax hikes are not the way this issue will be fixed.

"House Speaker Michael Madigan, who is trying to hold on to his party's majority in the fall election, now questions the need for a tax increase. And Republican leaders, including Senate minority leader Christine Radogno, are not impressed by the Civic Federation report.

"I most certainly don't subscribe to the notion that the first line of defense is to raise taxes. I think that's entirely counter-productive," said Radogno.

For the past year, Gov. Pat Quinn has advocated for an income tax increase. His likely Republican opponent in the fall, Senator Bill Brady said,"the state cannot afford to raise taxes. Every time you do it, you lose businesses and jobs. We need to lower taxes."

Raising taxes to continue to feed an over-stuffed governmental bureaucracy is not the way out of the budgetary mess. The state of Illinois needs to show that it is serious in reigning in its chronic overspending before they even think of approaching residents about a potential tax increase.

Let's open the books to have an honest look at state contracts, union salaries and benefits, and the results of the misguided overspending on 'education', before deciding that giving even more money to the government is the "only way".