SmartRemarks

Here’s a man-bites-dog story for you:  on Tuesday in Springfield, capital of our fair state, over 5,000 people rallied in support of a tax increase. 

There’s good reason for this. The state income tax is flat (i.e., regressive) and one of the lowest in the country, at only three percent… and has been kept that way for years, placing political advantage over good sense, as the state has run a chronic structural deficit.

The current economic meltdown has exacerbated that situation to the point where it’s no longer possible to ignore or “fix” with accounting shell games. The state was facing an $11.5 billion deficit for FY 2010 alone. That’s nearly as large as California’s, and nearly twice as bad when measured per capita. Thus, Gov. Pat Quinn (the successor to our illustrious indicted Gov. Blagojevich), who as I have written before is a reformer and basically decent guy who therefore could never have made it to the governor’s office through conventional means, has proposed a painful but fair and prudent solution: some budget cuts (about $1.3 billion, including some layoffs and furloughs), accompanied by a modest tax increase—bumping the corporate rate from 4.8 to 7.2 percent, and the personal rate from 3.0 to 4.5 percent (with the automatic exemption increased from $2000 to $6000 per person). 

Now, you might think that with a Democratic governor, a Democratic state senate, a Democratic state assembly, an obvious emergency on their collective hands, and broad public support, it wouldn’t be too hard to get this passed, right? But this is Illinois.

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Tags: Chicago, Cook County, Illinois, Lisa Madigan, Mike Madigan, Pat Quinn, taxes, Todd Stroger

First things first:  after what we’ve suffered through in recent years, merely being able to say “Governor Pat Quinn” is almost as delightful as being able to say “President Barack Obama.” 8-) 

After a mere seven weeks in office, Illinois’ new governor has a budget proposal ready, and he gave a formal address in Springfield yesterday announcing it. I listened to the whole thing on Chicago Public Radio, unfiltered and uninterrupted, no sound bites, no spin. (Who doesn’t love public radio?) Anyone who missed it can listen here, or read the full text here (courtesy of  the Tribune’s Eric Zorn).

It was a strong speech, and it sounds like a courageous budget—tackling some issues that state government has been dodging for years. There will nevertheless be a great reactionary hue and cry (as the comment thread on the Trib’s initial article demonstrates) because it includes a small income tax increase.

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Tags: budget proposal, Chicago, economy, Illinois, Mike Madigan, Pat Quinn, taxes

Just going from the press coverage, of course. I haven’t read the actual FY 2010 federal budget the administration presented to Congress. (Have you ever tried to read a federal budget? Even in outline form, they’re large. And arcane. The legislators themselves don’t usually bother. They have staff lobbyists for that sort of thing…)

Anyway, I’m going to tackle this one in bullet-point format, starting with the largest category:

Good Things About Obama’s Budget

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Tags: climate, Congress, economy, education, energy, environment, federal budget, health care, Obama, taxes