Proposed Tax Increase Bigger Than Expected (IL)

[notesdev]

SPRINGFIELD (AP) — Top Illinois Democrats have agreed to push a plan that would temporarily boost income taxes by 75 percent and double cigarette taxes, Senate President John Cullerton said Thursday.

Illinois’ personal income tax rate, now 3 percent, would climb to 5.25 percent for four years under the plan Cullerton outlined. After that, it would drop to 3.75 percent.

That means someone who now owes $1,000 in state income taxes would owe $1,750 at the new rate, then $1,250 after four years.

The permanent portion would be used several ways. Some would be devoted to schools and some to repaying an $8.5 billion loan that would be used to pay overdue bills, Cullerton said.

...

http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2011/01/06/tax-increase-plan-bigger-than-expected/



Don't be terribly surprised if you see Illinois go Republican in 2012.

[taught_me_patience]

1. Ouch... terrible situation.

However, California's income tax rate is near 10% (yet many DUers scream that Calfornia should raise taxes).

[niceypoo]

2. You sound like a republican

There is no way around raising taxes, America is $15 trillion in the hole.

[notesdev]

3. There is a way around it

admit insolvency, default on promises that can't be kept

I'll go on record and predict a net loss of revenue and population for Illinois as a result of this. Oh yes, and a net loss of Democratic officeholders.

This is the county electoral map from 2010:



The party won all of THREE counties in the entire state of Illinois. If Chicago weren't so population heavy this would already be a solid red state.

Governments must spend less. There is no way around it. The money is not there to spend.

[DonP]

4. Jobs will be leaving too

They are also increasing the corporate tax from 4.8% to 8.4% at the same time. A lot of companies will move operations to Indiana and Iowa, some already have.

[gratuitous]

5. The perfect formula to break the public employees unions

After all, just break the state constitution, default on promises that can't be kept, unilaterally modify a few contracts, and voila! Nobody needs to actually pay for state government services. Well, unless you count those spoiled state employees. And those sick people dependent on state aid, but they shouldn't have chosen to get sick in the first place. And if toll booths operate a little slower because there aren't enough people to fully staff them, or driver's license renewals get held up a couple of weeks or months, well, that's just part and parcel with low taxes, and everyone will understand, and those that don't are just a bunch of spoilsports.

[notesdev]

6. People are just going to have to make do with less

That's what happens in lean times, and those who don't adjust are going to find themselves with nothing at all.

It's really amazing to me that people here just can't seem to wrap their minds around "we don't have the money, we need to tighten our belts". That's what households all across the country are doing, and the fact that our party can't seem to grasp this very simple concept and put it into action is a great deal of the reason why voters are leaving us in droves, with even what used to be solid blue states now voting GOP.

What the independent voters that we need to win elections see is that they are tightening their belts, then Democrats vote more taxes on them so that they have to tighten even more. For many of these people the flesh is already gone and attempts to extract more taxes is trying to suck blood out of bone. This party was supposed to be the party of the little guy, which makes it all the more baffling why this point isn't well understood.