Gov. Quinn, are you serious?  The Governor’s first plan would have increased the personal income tax in Illinois by 50%, taking the rate from 3 percent to 4.5 percent.  This plan was estimated to raid the Illinois taxpayers’ pockets to the tune of an estimated $3.2 billion.  After receiving heat for his initial plan, he tweaked it and through lowering personal exemptions, made it worse.  His current plan would take up to $4 billion from the taxpayers of the state of Illinois.  So when your plan is bad (raising taxes), you make it worse by raising taxes more?   

See ATR’s letter to Illinois’ legislature opposing any plan that would require a tax increase of any kind to fund it.

Illinois legislators have already gone astray this year; voting for tax increases on candy, alcohol, hygiene products, and more.  Hopefully, they will take a stand now.  Passing both the Illinois Senate and House, the Capital Plan, a spending plan costing $26 billion, will cost taxpayers nearly $600 million in the form of tax and fee increases (some of which are tax increases).  How can this be proposed when they are supposedly facing budget problems in the way of $12 billion?

In addition, horse trading is getting worse.  The Governor wanted the Capital Plan, that loads more taxes on the already over-burdened taxpayers of Illinois (bad plan), but now that he has it, said that he would not sign the Capital Plan unless the House and Senate pass his budget with income tax increases.  Again, after inflicting pain by seeking more spending and taxation, he says he won’t sign it unless they pass more tax increases.  Ideally, Governor Quinn would not sign the $26 billion dollar Capital Plan and the House and Senate would not pass any tax hike plan connected to the budget, in turn saving the taxpayers of Illinois.  The private sector would be better off if left alone. 

The people of Illinois have seen state spending increase from $31.3 billion in 1999 to a proposed $51.9 billion for FY 2010, a growth of over 60% if the Governor’s budget passes.  Illinois has an overspending problem and no tax increase is going to solve it. 

Photo credit to: (St Louis Garage)