No surprise that Illinois’ Tier 2 pension law being challenged in court given how it was passed – Wirepoints Quickpoint
The law was bulldozed through in 2010 by House Speaker Michael Madigan and Senate President John Cullerton in less than 12 hours with no analysis, debate or actuarial assessment.
From listening to wttw ladt night, they briefly mentioned there are in reallity two bills to vote on for graduated income tax–1.)bill to allow dupped voters to vote on const amendment, 2.) Second bill on tax rates, multi taxing of revenue scorces etc for graduated tax plan–i assime second bill is where all the actions at and madigan will hold top secret till last minite and give legisalature 5 seconds to vote on? Googled but cant find any info.
Right. But the thing to remember is that the bill setting specific rates can be changed later at any time. That’s why the bill calling for the constitutional amendment is a blank check. It sets no rates and no limits.
Is there a way to legislate limits on the tax rates before the constitutional amendment appears on the ballot? For example, could the bill on the tax rates be written so that they are in effect for a specific time (ie “no rates can be raised nor new brackets created until 2030”) and tied to passage of the amendment? Something that essentially locks in the legislature to what they proposed so that, if/when the amendment passes, they are bound to what’s in that bill and what they “promised” everyone?
That would be great, but instead you’ll get madigan holding top secret bill till last minite, and offering a lot of goodie side deals to get legislator to blindly sign on as usual pay to play… and no rep or anybody in press is saying anything
You could indeed pass the legislation first, to be effective upon the amendment, but the legislation could always be changed. You’d have to put the limits into the constitutional amendment to make it work, which they won’t do.
Is there any rep trying to put anything legislation out there like even if it gets shot down in an instant at least it would draw a line in the sand…or just complaining?