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To: joseffy who wrote (43308)	1/10/2011 6:41:39 AM
From: Bucky Katt	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 48461

The Chicago/Illinois way> A tax outrage The tax increase plan, prepared in cooperation with the administration of Illinois Governor Pat Quinn, would raise the individual tax rate by 75 percent and the corporate income rate by 49 percent, giving the state the highest corporate tax rate in the country and the highest combined (national and local) corporate income tax rate in the industrialized world. —Tax Foundation, Jan. 7, 2011 • Individual tax rate leaps by 75 percent. • Highest corporate tax rate — 10.9 percent — in the industrialized world. As those devastating messages ricochet to big and small businesses, Illinois can wave goodbye to employers — some here and others who could locate new jobs here. Whatever advantage Illinois offered to people who hire workers will, if the Democratic deal pending in Springfield becomes law, vanish. This deal, with billions in new taxation and billions in new taxpayer debt, is a moving target. At this writing we've seen no draft of a bill. The plan that Democrats unveiled Thursday is so harsh that it could be a head-fake: For all we know, the Dems' game is to shock and awe us, then slash their proposed tax grab by, say, half — and sit back to accept our breathless thanks. Judging by taxpayer complaints, the shock-and-awe part is real. Democratic State Sen. Susan Garrett took time from fielding furies to warn us that, "Illinois needs to create jobs or these tax increases will be moot — because companies will leave Illinois or not come here." Amen. Or as House Speaker Michael Madigan put it in December 2009: "You can raise the rate on the Illinois income tax, but if the economy is not performing, you're not going to get an increase in money out of the increase in rate." If you want to be heard, follow the link at the end of this editorial and we'll show you how to contact your legislators. ••• What's most galling about the Democrats' plan as reported is its protection of chosen winners while everyone else loses: • Public employees — the lawmakers included — would see no drop whatsoever in the future pension benefits they earn. Nor would they contribute more to their own pensions increase. • Retired state workers and current employees would pay no more to support their expensive health care benefits. • While other states mull wage freezes, Illinois workers would continue to get pay raises. Job security? Many of them got that last fall when Quinn inexplicably guaranteed their jobs through mid-2012. Another alarming point: Senate President John Cullerton says the state would use new income tax revenues to borrow billions for overdue bills and payments into the pension system. Laurence Msall, head of the watchdog Civic Federation, calculates that this would increase taxpayers' debt by about one-third: "It is exactly this type of borrowing for operating expenses that has gotten the state into its growing fiscal mess." ••• Quinn's credibility also is at stake. From a July 29 Daily Herald article: … At a news conference, Quinn denied a Bloomberg News report that quoted Budget Director David Vaught as saying the governor planned to raise the income tax from 3 percent to 5 percent. The governor said he does support an increase to 4 percent to support education. "That is all that I propose and all that I support," an audibly irritated Quinn said. "I'm going to veto anything that's not my plan." And in related questioning: Reporter: "Are you saying that you would veto anything more than 1 percent?" Quinn: "I'm going to veto anything that isn't my plan. Because I want my plan. …" Reporter: "Is that a yes?" Quinn: "I just told you." Quinn can say he has a new "plan." But remember: He also chastised Vaught for speaking out of turn, said Vaught's remark was "misconstrued," and added that a Bloomberg reporter didn't understand what Vaught said. Quinn's defense imploded when a video of the interview with Vaught and John Sinsheimer, Quinn's director of capital markets, showed Sinsheimer making 2 percentage points sound like Quinn's true goal. From that day until this, it appears, the Democratic gambit has been to shelter political friends from major spending cuts, raise taxes exorbitantly — and tell employers to grow jobs somewhere else. chicagotribune.com