The Illinois legislature voted yesterday to address their state's fiscal crisis by significantly raising income tax rates on individuals and businesses:
...to avert the state’s “fiscal emergency,” which includes a budget deficit of more than $13 billion, about $8 billion in unpaid bills to social service agencies, pharmacies and others, and a sinking bond rating. ..
Under the legislation, the income tax rate would temporarily rise to 5 percent from its current rate of 3 percent, and the rate for corporate taxes would rise to 7 percent from its current 4.8 percent. As part of the deal, the state’s spending growth would be limited from one year to the next over the next four years — a provision Republicans complained did not cut spending enough...
As it was, the measure barely made it, passing 60 to 57 in the House and 30 to 29 in the Senate.
No Republicans voted for it.
The embedded graphic shows Illinois' rates compared to neighboring states (
source).
Unfortunately, my representative who is a fair and honest legislator, voted for it. The problem is that without structural changes made to state worker pensions, we're going to continue to have deficits.
ReplyDeleteWe already have a fairly high unemployment rate - we can now expect it to go higher.
All in all, we do need a combination of cuts and tax increases (like we do at the federal level). This just wasn't the way to do it.
This is pretty funny. Walker's also the same idiot who wanted to turn down rail infrastructure money, or rather divert it to the already over subsidized highway making/maintaining racket. Illinois promptly said that we'd happily take that money. The tax raise here in Illinois was a necessity, unfortunately it wasn't as progressive as I would have liked, but us progressives don't get anything these days.
ReplyDeleteFor a laugh here's the Illinois Senate President handing Scott Walker his ass on this issue: http://capitolfax.com/2011/01/13/cullerton-to-walker-bring-it-on