-- Connecting the dots between our economy, government and business --
Oh, the places Illinois’ wealthy will go. Under the governor’s new plan, everyone with incomes above $250,000 will get hit with tax rates of 7.75 percent or more. That’s higher than the top tax rates in 44 other states.
Maine Township, located in Chicago’s northwest suburbs, has agreed to give property owners a $1.25 million tax break. That’s thanks to the efforts of two trustees who fought to prove the township’s reserves were bloated and far higher than what the township needed.
“If the amendment passes and Pritzer’s proposed rates do not produce sufficient revenue, he and legislators could — and certainly would — boost the rates and change income categories to meet their revenue goals.
Pritzker argues that kind of flexibility is necessary for effective governance. But his position bolsters critics’ claims that he’s asking voters to sign a “blank check” progressive tax plan.”
It’s not just funding. Wisconsin’s public pension system, unique among not just public pensions but among any defined benefit pension in the United States, is designed to share risks between participants and the state, through two key mechanisms.
Comment: Love the last line — “Government of the bureaucrats, by the bureaucrats, for the bureaucrats, ought to perish from the earth.”
Comment: Salute to the reformers who go this through. Then there’s Kimberly Jones, a trustee who opposed it. Wirepoints’ data and analyses were used by reformers in this debate, which Jones said is political propaganda that shouldn’t be brought up in a public body. To her, we say smear jobs and suppression of speech don’t work.
“The loudest big mouths in local media are the first to say no or ignore my invitation all together. It’s like I don’t exist.”
Comment: But but but Governor Pritzker said yesterday a tax increase will actually help keep Illinoisans from fleeing by stabilizing our financial situation. And people like Ralph Martire from the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability are still assuring us that nobody moves because of taxes.
Comment: C’mon, Ralph, just say this directly. You want both an income tax increase and a sales tax expansion.
Most business is mobile. Most of Illinois is close to another state. Add a progressive state income tax and watch businesses such as Piasa Motor Fuels cross the bridge to Missouri.
That’s because according to IRS data from 2016, a tax hike starting at $250,000 would affect about one-fourth of small businesses in Illinois that are taxed as individuals. Small businesses were responsible for creating nearly two-thirds of Illinois’ jobs in 2017.
Comment: It’s game on for class warfare as Illinois’ left would have it. Those objecting to Pritzker’s new tax, this says, are “ideological servants of the country club set [warning] that folks like our former governor, Bruce Rauner, might pack up their cigar rooms and decamp to Florida.” Maybe the Sun-Times didn’t see Warren Buffet’s comments about states like Illinois, linked here, which were widely republished nationally but almost entirely ignored in Illinois.
The fascinating hunt for a millionth-of-a-second advantage playing out in Aurora IL.
Urbanists’ faith in the inevitable appeal of major cities to high-end businesses, notably in tech, may be questionable.
Last month, U.S. District Court Judge Robert Blakey ruled that the suit can proceed, despite the city’s motion to dismiss. In his ruling, Blakey swatted aside the First Amendment argument, saying that the matter called for speculation and that the court cannot rule on things that might or might not happen. Spokespeople for Protect Our Parks, however, say they’re keeping the First Amendment argument in their back pockets for future use.
“Many south suburban Chicago residents have been moving across the state line to Northwest Indiana, especially the Tri-Town area, in search of more home for their buck and lower taxes.”
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