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Here’s a collection stories on the Governor’s budget proposal:
* Effects of gross receipts tax debated
* Blagojevich says he is ready to do battle over tax proposals
Meanwhile, critics began chiming in with what has become a familiar refrain in the wake of Blagojevich policy speeches: That the populist governor isn’t happy unless he is setting up Hollywood stock villains to knock down.
* State chamber upset with Governor’s proposal
“Government-run programs stymie innovation and flexibility,” he said. “This plan does not address quality of care, rising health care costs or how expansion of subsidized health care may disrupt the system for those who already have insurance.”
* Governor’s DCFS budget not getting good reveiws
* New budget allocates no added money for Thomson Correctional Center
* Governor enlists teachers for help with school plan
The governor received a rousing ovation and an endorsement for his plan, a much different response than he drew during the gubernatorial campaign when the IEA decided not to endorse any candidate.
* David Greising: GRT levy reaches too far: “A million in gross revenues doesn’t mean you’re a millionaire,” Applebaum said. “It makes you about a teacher’s salary.”
* Blagojevich’s plan for tax on business gets cool response from many in the state
* Business leaders raise tax concerns
* Governor criticized for bringing God into tax increase debate
* Illinois Education Association endorses Governor’s budget
* How corporations avoid paying taxes- now and to come
“What if you’re a small business in Peoria or the surrounding area, and you have two lines of widgets that you sell, Widget Line A and Widget Line B, and you have $2 million in sales? What’s to prevent you from incorporating Widget Line A, incorporating Widget Line B and being under $1 million?”
* Firms fear big tax hike fallout: “What you tax us for today, we’ll charge you for tomorrow, maybe earlier,” said David Sykuta of the Illinois Petroleum Council.
* Editorial: Tax proposal is too flawed
* Summary of Blagojevich’s business tax proposals
* Governor wants to spend $11 billion on construction
* Blagojevich proposes $115 million increase in casino taxes and fees
* New York’s health plan influences Governor’s proposal
* Swamy: Summarizing the Governor’s proposals
* Casino hikes drawing fire from key players
* Editorial: Budget proposal is bold but leaves some questions
* Phil Kadner: Explaining balance between wasteful spending and higher taxes
Some readers tell me spending more money on the public schools will not solve the problems of education. They are right. But you’re certainly not going to solve any of the problems by doing nothing, while allowing property taxes to increase, school buildings to deteriorate and education programs to collapse.
posted by Paul Richardson
Monday, Mar 12, 07 @ 6:55 am
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The good news at DCFS is that DCFS, under the guv’s budget, is NOT giving more money to the ever-greedy private foster care sector. Private child care agency executives make huge salaries, extracted from the “administrative costs” they receive as part of the foster care payments; many also work in lavishly appointed offices, new buildings, and so on. Trips, seminars, the good life. On the backs of the kids.
In other words, a lot of the money that could go to the kids, doesn’t.
And the private foster care sector doesn’t do a very good job. Foster care is supposed to be temporary until kids can either be adopted or sent back to rehavilitated parents. Private agencies in Illinois have always lagged in achieving permanency for their kids, who tend to linger on for years in substitute care, a state of affairs that is lucrative for the private agencies who collect large fees as long as they stay in care.
Not to say that the public side of DCFS is any better. It’s a huge Democratic pork farm. As Lethal Lapses, the Belleville series shows, the caseworkers don’t do a very good job. There are multiple pending federal investigations. No accountability, no consequences for poor performance. Lots of bad decisions by overpaid, incompetent managers.
But showering more money on private child care agencies is not going to help the kids unless there are very tight constraints on what the agencies get to do with that money. Without constraints, most of it will end up funding executive raises and more fancy office furniture.
Comment by Cassandra Monday, Mar 12, 07 @ 7:38 am
The most bizarre statement to issue from Governor Blagojevich’s mouth last weekend occurred when he addressed the Illinois Education Association and paraphrased Theodore Roosevelt’s 1912 quotation “We stand at Armageddon and we battle for the Lord.” Roosevelt was trying to be elected president as the leader of the newly formed Progressive Party. Copycat Blagojevich was trying to promote a new tax increase. His invocation of religious references is beginning to trouble me.
What’s up with the Governor and why can’t he come up with his own lines rather than cribbing them from former politicians?
Comment by Honest Abe Monday, Mar 12, 07 @ 7:49 am
Governor Blago is attempting to do an imitation of great old populist Huey Long. The only diffeence is that th oil companies could not move their major assets out of state; they were, as you know, in the ground, and profit margins were greater with which was even then an essential good.
Basing taxes on revenues as opposed to profits is a mug’s game. Even the utility commissions of the various states mark utility rates necessary to obtain a rate of return comensurate with all utilities. This stealth tax does not even attempt to regulate profits.
The governor’s rate is simply obscene. The Ohio rate, for instance, is less than one percent.
Comment by Truthful James Monday, Mar 12, 07 @ 8:26 am
Whoever is governor needs to be the governor of all voters. That person needs to recognize that simple solutions often are not. A good governor doesn’t demonize one group against another, especially when that group provides for the jobs, taxes and livelyhood for most voters. A good governor respects each group within the state, and understands their interdependancies. A good governor tries to enhance the relationships within their state, not replace or destroy them.
Governors are not kings. They are elected caretakers of the people. They were not elected to upend society based on their personal whims or to satisfy their private contributors. It is their job to make government work better by eliminating fraud, waste and redundancy. There is a lifetime of work to be found in making government better without needing to reach out and take from those who elected them.
Blagojevich fails dramatically in understanding the basic duties of a governor. His supporters seeem focused only on the goodies he promises, and ignor the means he uses to promise them. Their views are short-term. They want to believe there are freebies to be found, and trust this governor to find freebies that will not damage the state further. Their trust is misplaced and if they continue to support him, they will find themselves in the near future demanding even more to offset the worstening economic climate within the state.
I can understand how voters become addicted to government. It promises and seems to be a hope for our society’s ills. It is attractive to believe that a well-meaning government will fairly take from all and meet our ethical duties to the needy without our input. But what we have learned during the 20th Century is that a government built to satisfy some always takes more than it gives.
Blagojevich is not a progressive. No progressive ever wanted to take our society backwards with obsolete policy leftovers from the New Deal.
Comment by VanillaMan Monday, Mar 12, 07 @ 8:34 am
Rich I like all the blago/budget links but i thought after their LT. Governor endorsement of vote for Quinn and Judy in the General we would not bother linking here anymore: http://www.nwherald.com/articles/2007/03/10/opinion/editorials/doc45f26cd709cb1243905548.txt
Comment by David Byrne Monday, Mar 12, 07 @ 8:40 am
The NWherald linking was my doing.
I’m still behind on my blog history.
Comment by Paul Richardson Monday, Mar 12, 07 @ 8:44 am
By his actions and talk, in psychiatric circles the governer would be called a bully and a sociopath. He is constantly looking for a fight to make himself look big and bad. His ego is as uncontrollable as that mop of hair. He will not be happy until he has run the state and its citizens into the ground.
Comment by Disgusted Monday, Mar 12, 07 @ 8:44 pm