“Illinois’ numbers are so overwhelming. There’s no way that people in states that managed their affairs properly are going to pay to bail out Illinois and Chicago.” – Mark on with AM 560’s Dan Proft

Mark was on with with Dan Proft and Amy Jacobson discussing Wirepoints’ new report on the need for comprehensive pension reform, the push for a progressive tax and the potential for a federal bailout for irresponsible states like Illinois.

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Poor Taxpayer
3 years ago

What does anyone think the real numbers are?
Much Higher is my guess, they always lie and cover up the truth.
Every year a retiree with a small pension dies, replaced by 3 with huge pensions for another 40 plus years. This is nothing but a illegal Ponzi scheme that will not end good.

Susan
3 years ago

Tax accountant stated that he and his colleagues interpret the language of Constitutional Amendment to allow immediate ability to tax retirement income.
He believes this will occur (Illinois will tax retirement income) by 2022 on 2021 income.
(This will only affect private sector, except for those public employee pension double dippers unable to live 6-months-and-one -day in Florida.)

Juicy Smollier
3 years ago

Thanks for the comment below, Mark. Can you weight in on this? I think it’s the most likely scenario of all, probability wise:

Trump wins (of course challenges occur, why wouldn’t they), the House stays small Dem majority, Senate Repub, same as now. Or possibly a R sweep, there will be no Dem sweep, it’s at least 500-1. Let’s then say that the progressive income tax fails to pass. It is December 2020 at this point. What happens to IL? What is Pritzker’s next step? Of course, your best guess. Lightfoot’s?

Thanks.

Juicy Smollier
3 years ago

I love the work and the site, but can I get some predictions on when and why this is going to happen? This is the most important topic and it hardly gets treated. Newflash, by the way guys: Politicians don’t solve things when they benefit more from “fixing” them if there is a “crisis.” What does that mean? This ends badly for the pensioners, citizens, or all of the above. Hardly for the politicians, though a guy like Pritzker does deserve to get his fat face busted up.

Admin
3 years ago
Reply to  Juicy Smollier

Juicy, we get emails or comments with that question probably five times a week. We don’t think there’s a clear answer because so many big variables are unknown. For example, IF the progressive tax hike passes and IF the feds come through with some cash, the can probably can be kicked for 12-18 months. Even still, under any circumstances, we’ve said this is a process and not an event. A slow motion train wreck instead of one big blow-up. “It’s Happening,” was our story three years ago. https://wirepoints.org/its-happening-wp-original/. It was true then and it is true now. You can game… Read more »

Poor Taxpayer
3 years ago

Pension money greed has destroyed Illinois for many generations to come.
Much higher taxes and much lower services on its way and here to stay.

Bob Out of Here
3 years ago

One thing left out of the discussion is the fact the income tax amendment would remove the prohibition of income being taxed more than once, meaning cities and counties could also levy an income tax. And Indiana does have a county income tax which is why the state tax rate is so low. aka COIT, County Option Income Tax.

Manfred Downstate
3 years ago

Yes, I wondered about this sentence proposed for deletion in the constitutional amendment: “At any one time there may be no more than one such tax imposed by the State for State purposes on individuals and one such tax so imposed on corporations.” This does not sound like it would prohibit county or city-level income taxes in Illinois, but maybe it was intended to prohibit something like a state income surtax on top of the flat income tax, like Speaker Madigan’s millionaire’s tax proposal from 2014? I don’t think WirePoints has commented on the significance, if any, of removing this… Read more »

FJ Hoenemeyer
3 years ago

The Illinois( and NJ and Ct and California and RI) bailout will be buried in a 2,000 page Omnibus Spending Continuing Resolution Deficit Reduction Act , passed at 3AM by voice vote . Like Obamacare , you will have to pass the bill to find out and then it will be too late

Juicy Smollier
3 years ago
Reply to  FJ Hoenemeyer

That won’t happen, especially since Biden ain’t winnn’ and odds are Dems win the House at best. There is zero chance for a Dem clean sweep, ie 0.3% at best.

Poor Taxpayer
3 years ago
Reply to  Juicy Smollier

You could not be more wrong.
Dunce Donald is a one and done.
Trump has done more for the Democrats than anyone in history.

Defund Democraps
3 years ago
Reply to  Poor Taxpayer

Lol

Defund Democraps
3 years ago
Reply to  Juicy Smollier

Landslide win for Trump in November. Even Illinois going red.

James
3 years ago

Personally I don’t see it happening as you’ve said. First, IL has been—and presumably willl be—a Democratic state even though the more rural areas are not. The poverty-stricken areas of Chicagoland and East St. Louis will be the ones who outnumber the Republicans mid-state and in the outer-rings of Chicago. Even the ones in that latter area I mentioned were swinging more Democrat in the 2016 election. I predict that will be even stronger this time around and especially so with the viewers’ impressions of the recent Presidential “debate” of a view days ago, a totally embarrassing s..t show. Again,… Read more »

Juicy Smollier
3 years ago
Reply to  James

He’s just exaggerating to make a point. It would be funny though. Trump wins but IL has maybe a 3% chance of going to him. Maybe. And that tells you all you need to know about IL.

3 years ago

At some point, you have to let the train wreck take place.

Admin
3 years ago
Reply to  Jeff Carter

Agreed. Our view on that is that it should not be either precipitated artificially or delayed artificially. So, we try not to exaggerate the immediacy of the crisis while at the same time fighting against can-kicks.

Juicy Smollier
3 years ago
Reply to  Mark Glennon

Too late. At least the idiotic COVID response has the added benefit of accelerating this to at best a 2-3 year time frame from now. What’s funny is that without this shutdown of the economy to try to fix their woes and act like it wasn’t their fault, IL actually could have gone probably another 5-10 years Amazing how little most of this matters, until it does. And most of us have been wrong for a decade. I guess moving is the only option to not see this in the worst way. Poor Taxpayer seems to say that a lot… Read more »

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