“An 83% Tax Hike? Make Democrats Own It.”

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This is madness … . This is Illinois!

Last year, during my gubernatorial primary race, I frequently referenced a Cook County company with 160 employees whose CPA told them that they would add $750,000 to their bottom line by moving 35 miles away to Valparaiso, IN.
 
On the four borders of Illinois, every business is doing a similar calculation and coming to the same conclusion. The Illinois Democrats hate the private sector.

Adam Andrzejewski, at his site For The Good of Illinois.

You work 50 weeks a year if you are fortunate enough to be employed. Each week is 2% of your working year. Adding a tax of 2.25% means you will be working one more week per year for the government of Illinois. The government of Illinois is legendarily opaque, corrupt and wasteful. Giving it more money makes no sense. It does not deserve more money from the taxpayers. Destroying the competitiveness of Illinois even further is a terrible idea. Putting a tax increase onto Illinois businesses and citizens during a deep recession is an insane idea.

The GOP squandered a chance to make Illinois part of a national wave last year, so this tax increase is almost certainly going to happen. Nonetheless, the GOP should, at least, oppose this destructive tax increase.

If you are an Illinois taxpayer, please contact your representative and make your opinion known.

(And be happy. It makes you more resilient for the long term to be happy.)

UPDATE: I called, and was treated very courteously, and let my State Senator and State Rep. know that I oppose the tax increase. If you live in Illinois, please do the same.

UPDATE II: Here is a petition against the tax hike.

UPDATE III: Six Springfield Republicans are reported to be leaning toward voting yes on state income tax increase! If you live in one of these districts PLEASE call and give notice that you are a voter and you oppose any Illinois tax increase.

St. Sen. Larry K. Bomke (R-50, Springfield )- Phone: (217) 782-0228
St. Sen. Dale E. Risinger (R-37, Peoria )- Phone: (217) 782-1942
St. Rep. Bob Biggins (R-41, Elmhurst )- Phone: (217) 782-6578
St. Rep. Dave Winters (R-68, Rockford )- Phone: (217) 782-0455
St. Rep. Ronald A. Wait (R-69, Belvidere )- Phone: (217) 782-0548
St. Rep. Roger L. Eddy (R-109, Hutsonville)- Phone: (217) 558-1040

UPDATE IV: Noon. Saturday. They have not yet voted. They are going to vote on Sunday. There is still time to call your Senator or Representative.

15 thoughts on ““An 83% Tax Hike? Make Democrats Own It.””

  1. It’s Illinois.

    The ignorant, uneducated permanent underclass cultivated by the Communist Democrats don’t pay taxes, or are too stupid to see that they’re overtaxed.

    They’re morons.

    So they vote Democrat.

    Serves them right. I hope they starve and freeze.

  4. That Civic Footprint website you link to leads to search tools that are offline. How convenient for the legislature. However, I know one of my state reps is Deborah Mell. Seriously, do you think she gives a flying fig about what her non-Machine constituents think?

    The immediate response by taxpayers should be to minimize their tax footprint by every legal (and perhaps “mostly” legal) means possible. Does anyone know of any websites that provide advice along these lines?

    I for one plan on adjusting my spending downwards to deal with the hit to income – let’s see how this affects the state economy when others make the same calculations.

    I most definitely plan to cancel any major home improvement projects – if we’re going into a tax death spiral like Michigan, I don’t want to be sinking cash into an asset that I can’t pick up and drive away to another state.

    [Percy, I put in a new link that works. Thanks. Lex]

  5. Also (and sorry to be hogging the bandwidth), has there been any discussion of accompanying spending cuts? At all?

  6. I am thinking that the city of Beloit, WI will be seeing a LOT of relocations from Rockford, IL. Not that Wisco is the bell weather of fiscal responsibility, but at least the Wisco bond rating isn’t worse than Bulgaria as cds prices show with Illinois.

  12. The City of Chicago has begun the West Wacker Drive reconstruction project. I’m sure it will bring benefits (such as improved traffic flow and more clearance for tall trucks) but is it worth the estimated price tag of $300 million? During a budget crisis?

  13. Actually, Illinois personal income tax is lower than a lot of its neighbors.* That one tax does little to illustrate the drag the state puts on commerce in its borders; an example I like the use is creating an LLC. To create a Missouri LLC online, I need only pay $50 at the Missouri Secretary of State website. In Illinois, the same action costs $750. Doing business/living in this state is chock full of various fees that are essentially revenue streams for the state unrelated to the services that they are supposedly tied to, yet the state has the budget issues it has today. It all reminds me so much of doing business in California. I have one business that cannot be extracted from Illnois. I am starting another business that will not require my (or its) presence in Illinois because I frankly worry about my family’s future here.

    * I don’t like the idea of the raise in the personal income tax, but the near doubling of the corporate income tax is what really freaks me out. It’s complete madness. I hope they enjoy the goose dinner.

  14. Ralf–By Constitution, IL income tax is flat rate, and corp tax cannot be more than 8/5 the personal rate, plus an extra 2.25% of corp income for Personal Property Replacement Tax, so the proposal is 5.25% PIT (above personal exemptions) and 10.9% CIT+PPRT.

    Pst314—Wacker Drive project about 80% Federal funded. Funding is by formula apportioment, unless you just want to forego the money, in the short run it’s there to use on your highest road priority. Funds from Federal gas tax via Highway Trust Fund. In the long run you could try to reduce that tax, but in the short run you either take the money or not (assuming you can match it).

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