You beat the ‘fair tax,’ big business. Now what’s your politically doable alternative? – Editorial – Chicago Sun-Times

"Illinois business and civic groups led the fight to kill a proposal for a graduated income tax. How now would they avert a state budget crisis? Let’s have no more ducking."
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Aaron
3 years ago

Dear author, they would cut spending. Duh! Wow that was hard to come up with.

Goodgulf Greyteeth
3 years ago

What a load of whoo-aha. “Tax increases beyond the Fair (snort) tax were always inevitable. We said so.” Nonsense. What the Sun Times said was that it was only going to be a tax on “millionaires and billionaires.” “Nothing to worry about, move along.” “Pension reform is off the table because even Republicans won’t go for it.” More nonsense, blather and harrumphery. “Can’t cut our way out of it.” Sure we can. Reform pensions. Put an amendment up for a vote to do it. Eliminate half of Illinois 7,000 state and local townships, road commissioners, fire-n-sewer-n-library-n-airport authority governmental units. More… Read more »

Last edited 3 years ago by Goodgulf Greyteeth
susan
3 years ago

Very specific: Lincoln Yard TIF subsidy >$1 billion taxpayer funds upfront, many billion$ taxpayer subsidies over subsequent 35 years (yes, legal TIF lifespan is 35 years; 23 years is unachievable by taxpayers vs. political class) to pay TIF free-riders’ mandated social service provision.

nixit
3 years ago

The Sun Times wants us to come up with cuts but only cuts that are politically feasible to their preferred political party? What a cop out. The General Assembly’s lack of political will is not our problem. Their choice to be paid off and beholden to powerful unions and trial lawyers is on them, not us. It wasn’t too long ago when the Sun Times editorial board, in one of their many pro Fair Tax editorials, incorrectly cited Massachusetts as having a graduated income tax. The big city newspaper can’t be bothered to do the basic research to back their… Read more »

Last edited 3 years ago by nixit
Governor of Alderaan
3 years ago
Reply to  Mark Glennon

The union-owned hate rag called the Sun Times has no intention of seeking suggestions. If they publish your op-ed it will only be to hold it up as a target.

Platinum Goose
3 years ago

If you click on over to Capital Fax you’ll see the overwhelming suggestion from all the geniuses there is to make cuts in downstate republican areas. So apparently there are areas you can make cuts. Now make those same cuts in socialist Chicagoland.

nixit
3 years ago
Reply to  Platinum Goose

The vindictiveness on Capitol Fax from the failure of the Fair Tax is palpable. It’s as is the voters killed their first born. So much hatred and spite. Quite sad, but not surprising.

Governor of Alderaan
3 years ago
Reply to  nixit

To those hate-filled brainless Capital Fax losers, Big Government IS their first born, their parents, their almighty, their provider, their protector, their lover, the perfect solution to every inconvenience. Big Government gives them everything they have and they ask for nothing more

NoHope4Illinois
3 years ago

Democrats in Illinois, and their minions the public employee unions, worked very hard for years to get complete control of state government – They need to lead.

Riverbender
3 years ago

Cut spending!

James
3 years ago
Reply to  Riverbender

Did you even read the article? It appears that’s not the case. The whole point there was that its past time for simple platitudes. Its time to offer specific places to cut, realizing that the low hanging fruit there where most can agree is mostly gone, and each new cut will bring hardship and/or grief from various aggrieved parties.

heyjude
3 years ago
Reply to  James

Yes, if it were easy it would already be done. The key here is “politically doable”. It is time for the public employee unions to get on board with the idea that everyone will have to take a hit, not just the taxpayers. But they had a fit when even a moderate proposal for layoffs was made in order to balance only this year’s budget. If they cannot even agree to modest cuts, how do we expect to fix this mess?

nixit
3 years ago
Reply to  Mark Glennon

“Politically doable” is what got us in this mess in the first place. Whoever said the defeat of the Fair Tax was a repudiation of the political class hit the nail on the head. We don’t give a damn what needs to be done doesn’t fit their politically-biased views.

I’m so sick of politically doable. Solidifying pension protections from now to eternity is politically doable, but truly balancing the state budget isn’t?

Last edited 3 years ago by nixit
heyjude
3 years ago
Reply to  Mark Glennon

Yes, they always act as if nobody has offered any concrete solutions. Many organizations, Wirepoints among them, have offered very well researched proposals that will help mitigate the pain, while still moving toward a solution. They seem not to realize that they are going headlong over a cliff.

nixit
3 years ago
Reply to  James

How about the Governor provides us with his prioritized list of services across all departments, including costs. From that list, we will see what he values the least, and from that subset, we can begin to identify what to cut based on what is construed in the private sector as “business value”.

So what does the Governor value least? It’s his job to prioritize, not ours.

Riverbender
3 years ago
Reply to  James

Of course I read it. Like the little boy or girl that sneaks into the pantry and finds the cookie jar empty. Like it or not the cookies are gone and the only real solution is to cut spending.
Thanks for the heads up though but the only solution is to cut spending that might awaken Illinois voters but I doubt it.

James
3 years ago
Reply to  Riverbender

Until term limits become law IL legislators will forever prioritize their own interests above those of the public at large, generally speaking. To be more specific, when you add the promise of increasing pensions for longer service to the same group it makes legislators even more reluctant to rock the boat. In short, I don’t expect big changes from the legislature where such incentives play into their thoughts on every vote they take.

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“We are not in good shape” Wirepoints’ Ted Dabrowski told ABC 20 Champaign during a segment on Illinois’ latest population losses. Illinois was one of just three states to shrink in the 2010-2020 period and has lost another 300,000 people since then. Ted says things need to change. “It’s too expensive to live here, there aren’t enough good jobs and nobody trusts the government anymore. There’s just other places to go where you can be more satisfied.”

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