Posted on 03/22/2009 5:45:53 AM PDT by reaganaut1
[T]his week new [Illinois] Governor announced plans to raise state income taxes by 50%. Pat Quinn [...] is proposing to raise the personal income tax rate to 4.5% from 3% and the business tax to 7.2% from 4.8%. [...]
Mr. Quinn ran as Mr. Blagojevich's Lieutenant Governor on a platform of no new taxes. But now he defends his huge tax increase by saying this will only hit those who have the "ability to pay." Of course, employers and the wealthy also have the ability to leave -- which they have been doing. In the last decade 736,000 more Americans have left Illinois than have entered, according to U.S. Census Bureau data.
Over the last six years, Illinois has ranked 45th out of 50 states in job creation, according to the American Legislative Exchange Council. In 2008, 175,000 jobs vanished -- a medium-sized city of lost jobs. Mr. Quinn's tax increase will mean 50% higher taxes for nearly every small business, subchapter S company and corporation in the state.
This is a state that does almost everything wrong economically. It is not a right-to-work state and is thus heavily unionized, repelling new business investment. It has the fifth highest minimum wage among the states, the fifth most trial-lawyer friendly legal code, the sixth highest workers' compensation costs, and the 11th highest property taxes. It has one of the highest inheritance taxes, at 16%, so retirees flee to states with no death tax [...]. A rare Illinois advantage has been its relatively low income-tax rate, but that will shrink or vanish under Mr. Quinn's increase.
Over the last six years the state's revenues climbed by $7 billion, but the flush times led to flush spending. Per capita state expenditures after inflation have climbed to $4,700 in 2008 from $3,200 in 1998.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Can’t teach an old dog new tricks.
As a resident of Illinois who pays these taxes, I’m finding a lot of resentment with all this money going to the University of Illinois when the residents have to compete more and more with foreign students. Its hard enough to get in to begin with.
This is the first step in a secret Pat Quinn plan to change the name of Illinois to West Michigan.
Obama’s state. I feel sorry for the Republicans living there, but I can’t say I lose sleep over millions of Democrats being screwed by other Democrats at this point. They brought this on themselves.
America doesnt have many white farmers left, they have all been bought out by conglomerates, so instead of taking farms away from white farmers , America attacks it’s successful anyone who isnt on welfare will be taxed out of existence.
How do these geniuses know who has “the ability to pay”?
“Obama’s state. I feel sorry for the Republicans living there, but I can’t say I lose sleep over millions of Democrats being screwed by other Democrats at this point. They brought this on themselves.”
I am a resident of Illinois and have the same feelings. While being impacted negatively myself I have to say that I am feeling quite elated that these bastards are hurting mostly democrat scum.
Same here. But in approximately 26 more months, the school bell rings for the last time in that career and then, my azz is outta here!
You wrote:
“While being impacted negatively myself I have to say that I am feeling quite elated that these bastards are hurting mostly democrat scum.”
Good for you! That’s the best attitude to have if you’re going to suffer as well. The next few years of over-taxation may make many people wake up!
Illinois is fast trackin’ it to become the next California.
Time does not linger.
bye
I’m with you. I’ve been considering Missouri. Lower property taxes, though the state does seem to be drifting liberal. Anyone from there care to comment?
When I moved to Illinois in the late 70’s the income tax was, I believe, a flat tax of 2.5%, but then it was increased by a temporary tax of an additional 1.5% to combat the declining revenues of the recession.
Two points: 1. Illinois has always had a flat tax, and most taxpayers know exactly what the rate is, because it rarely changes
2. When the “temporary” tax was implemented, it was the first such “temporary” tax I ever lived under that was actually allowed to expire. That is, the legislation to make it permanent later, failed.
This is one of the beauties of a flat tax. Everyone can closely calculate what an increase is going to cost them and they also know what they will save if a temporary tax expires.
If Illinois does increase their present tax to 4.5% they should make it temporary this time also, and include an expiration date. It worked before and made me appreciate the real power of a flat tax. It’s very difficult to raise permanently. Note that in 30 years it only went from 2.5% to 3% currently (and that’s if I’m correct on the original rate-it might have been 3% then.)
chicagotribune.com
Gov. Pat Quinn’s proposed sales tax bottled up in fees, coffee, sweet tea, could leave sour taste
State, local governments pile on ‘nickel and dime’ fees
By Monique Garcia and Rick Pearson
Tribune reporters
March 22, 2009
Buried deep within the massive budget proposal Gov. Pat Quinn presented last week to lawmakers was a caffeinated jolt to the bottled tea and Frappuccino crowd.
Quinn wants to apply the state’s sales tax on soft drinks to the coffee and sweetened tea products in grocery stores, adding a quarter for the state treasury for every $5 six-pack of sweet green tea.
While his proposal for a 50 percent increase in the income tax got the headlines, the tea and coffee tax is among a pocketful of nickel-and-dime tax increases the governor is seeking in a comprehensive effort to overcome the state’s looming $11.5 billion budget deficit. He also favors higher fees for driver’s licenses, license plates, hunting and fishing licenses, cigarettes, tickets to the State Fair and even adding the state’s sales tax to some shampoo and personal hygiene products.
But the new Democratic governor, just more than seven weeks on the job, is not alone in nicking the Illinois taxpayer. From the highest-in-the-nation Chicago sales tax to a host of new and bigger fees being imposed by a variety of municipalities, the public is being increasingly tapped for dollars in purposely quiet, understated ways.
“It’s partly hidden taxes,” Dan McMillen, an economics professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, said of the fee frenzy. “When you pay a property tax bill all at once, it’s a lot of money. When you pay income tax, it’s a lot of money. Fees you spread through the year and you don’t even know how much it adds up to.”
excerpt
www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-fees-taxes-up-bd22mar22,0,5628239.story
Will they start taxing retirement income?
Yes. It is inevitable.
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