GayPatriot

The Internet home for American gay conservatives.

Good news for Indiana (as well as IA, WI, MO & KY)

by

Ill. lawmakers pass 66 percent income tax increase:

Democrats in the Illinois Legislature on Wednesday approved a 66 percent income-tax increase in a desperate and politically risky effort to end the state’s crippling budget crisis.

The increase now goes to Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn, who supports the plan to temporarily raise the personal tax rate to 5 percent, a two-thirds increase from the current 3 percent rate. Corporate taxes also would climb as part of the effort to close a budget hole that could hit $15 billion this year.

If you read further, you’ll see Illinois Democrats doing what national Democrats have been doing: blaming Republicans. Um, Mr. Madigan (the state’s Democratic House Speaker), your party controls all the levers of power in the Land of Lincoln, that means the buck stops with your guys.

Guess he’s just upset that Republicans voted against the package so that his Democrats have to take the blame.

And with corporate taxes rising, Illinois businesses may consider relocating in other jurisdictions.  I hear the new governors of Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin are working on plans to attract entrepreneurs.  Looks like the Illinois way of closing the state’s deficit may be the way forward for job creation in Midwestern states where Republicans rule.

Comments

  2. While researching something else I found out that in 1936 Pennsylvania enacted a ‘temporary’ alchohol tax of 10% to aid in flood recovery efforts from The Great Pittsburgh Flood of 1936. That tax is now 18% (75 years later) and generates $200 million for the general fund. Likewise, there doesn’t appear to be a sunset provision in the Illinois tax increase.

    One and a half cheers for Gov. Gregoire of Washington and Gov. Brown of California for starting to chip away at state spending. Opponents may complain that their efforts are a drop in the bucket, but we got where we are incrementally; it’s going to take incremental measures to get us out.

  3. Anyone who believes this is temporary is just plain stupid.
    I live in Chicago. Nobody can deny that there is going to a mass exodus of people and companies out of Illinois. What really pisses me off, is that there were ZERO spending cuts; in fact the a$$holes in state government led by A-Hole in Chief Madigan actually are going to continue to increase spending. Unbelievable. I love living in Chicago, but this has convinced me it’s time to go. I hope to have several job interviews in the coming weeks in Michigan and Texas.

  6. Well, this really sucks. I, too, enjoy living in Chicago, but taxes and spending are out of control. We already had the highest sales taxes, now they’re raising our income taxes, without ANY spending cuts. They had to bribe the black politicians from Chicago with more money for education to get this thing to pass.

    I work remote – which means I can live anywhere. It is time I seriously consider relocating out of Illinois.

  7. During WW1, the Wilson admin. passed a “temporary” war-time tax on telephones…a luxury at that time. We’re STILL paying that tax nearly 100-years later. And I can remember when they promised that a constitutional amendment allowing a NJ income tax would replace our even-then high property taxes…now we pay both at higher rates.

    There are no temporary taxes…government just expands to permanently spend that revenue.

  10. Aunt Ralph, you don’t seem to be understanding the math correctly. I’ll explain this as simply as I can, because lots people I know get this sort of thing confused as well. Before the tax was 3% of what one earns, now it is 5% of what one earns. Three is approximately 66% of 5, meaning that taxes have increased by 66% relative to what they were. Percentages tend to be confusing that way.

  12. It will be coupled with strict 2 percent limits on spending growth. If officials spend above those limits, the tax increase will automatically be canceled.

    So the tax will actually last about 15 seconds?

    We’re STILL paying that tax nearly 100-years later.

    Actually, that was done away with in 2006(?). There was a thing where you could get a credit on your taxes. I think it was $200 for individuals and $600 for businesses, or something like that.

  13. Khepri, Your premise is correct, however your reference number should not be 5%, but 3%.
    The previous tax was 3%, it is now 5%; this increase of 2%… is two-thirds of the original 3%, or 66%.
    It is therefore correct to say, the tax increased by 66%.
    And Rusty, the title is fitting:
    It is ‘Good News for Indiana’, where Governor Daniels (R, because it DOES MATTER) has received awards for his innovative and cooperative ways of both saving taxpayers’ money and enticing business to his state. Hell, perhaps Indianians helped lobby FOR Illinois’ tax hikes… LOL

  14. Let me make this math easier for dumb liberals. Previously, if you made $50,000 a year, you paid $1,500 in taxes. Under the new tax, you pay $2,500 per year. Math shows that to be a 66% increase, not a 2% increase.

    It will be coupled with strict 2 percent limits on spending growth. If officials spend above those limits, the tax increase will automatically be canceled.

    Unh-huh. Let me guess, somewhere there’s a provision in the law that exempts “Emergency” spending, right? So, Illinois Democrats can get around the cap the same way Pelosi’s Democrats evaded Pay-Go… by declaring ALL new spending to be “Emergency” spending.

  19. This is why Democrats want centralized, all powerful federal government. They know that people flee states when they get control and start implementing their punishing policies. So they want to implement their policies at the national level, so no one can run away. Of course, those with the means would start fleeing the country — maybe thats the way to get a freakin border fence built!

  20. Illinois isn’t a monolith –there are solidly good folks with terrific morals and right-centered thinking out in the farmlands of southern Illinois… the problem is they are more like their Indiana brothers than they are the old time corrupt Chicago machine, big labor pols in the north. And they’re in the minority for that state; maybe Indiana could annex them and contain the corruption that is synonymous with Chicago?

    No one should be saddled with Chicago’s big govt/big labor answer to state budget deficits… it’s the wrong question and answer… the right question centers on spending cuts, not revenue enhancements.

  22. I get job offers from California about every other week that I don’t even look at because there’s no amount of money that could get me to move there. But I’d jump at an opportunity to move to Indiana; almost did a few years ago, but the kids vetoed it.