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llinois lawmakers were close to sending their version of a SALT cap workaround to Gov. Bruce Rauner earlier this year but the bill stalled. The proposed legislation would have set up a charitable foundation, the Illinois Education Excellence Fund, and treat donations to it as a tax write-off. This plan would allow a filer to get around the new $10,000 federal cap of state and local taxes.
The sponsor said via email that he still will try to get it passed when lawmakers return to Springfield this November.
Summary and audio linked here.
Chicago’s political leadership is floating a pension buyout program as evidence it is seriously addressing the city’s thirty-six-billion-dollar unfunded pension liability, but Mark Glennon, founder of the Illinois policy research organization Wirepoints, said that the proposal moves debt from one column to another rather than reducing it, and that the broader fiscal picture facing the city continues to deteriorate across every measurable dimension. Audio here.
Expect no retraction or apology. This what they do.
The state’s existing buyout program for its own pensions is the precedent for Chicago, which should be a warning: Look out for similar exaggerated claims and shoddy analysis.
Full interview and summary linked here.
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Good to hear. State’s like Illinois deserve to be punished for their flagrant spending. They have been getting a free ride off the responsible parts of the country for generations.
That’s just not true, so dial it back! I can’t quote you the current statistics as to the amount of federal dollars coming back to IL, but a study I saw a year or two ago showed that IL is—and has been for a long time—in a deficit position as compared to most states, receiving far, far less than its residents and businesses pay in federal income taxes.