28 Comments - Siyotanka - Tuesday, Mar 13, 07 @ 2:37 pm: Sooo… As the momentum gains steam…who’s going to blink or flinch first?? Will the alternative be a tweek to the Income Tax…against ALL promises to the contrary? It seems like no one in any party can get this session started doing something… - Bubs - Tuesday, Mar 13, 07 @ 2:49 pm: It is satisfying to see someone of influence finally take on the demagoguery and spin doctor tactics of this Administration. OOPS! Did I just agree with the Mayor on something? Aspirin, aspirin . . . - Walter Winchell - Tuesday, Mar 13, 07 @ 3:17 pm: This is like an old war documentary - the Daley-Madigan pincer movement surrounded the village of Blagojevich, leaving the head of the village powerless, but with very nice hair. - Carl Nyberg - Tuesday, Mar 13, 07 @ 3:17 pm: What if Blagojevich is playing the game perfected by the Right? Move the edge of the political discourse to shift the center? All of a sudden a tax swap seems like the pro-business compromise plan, not the radical agenda of the teachers unions. - Greg - Tuesday, Mar 13, 07 @ 3:18 pm: Has anyone considered that the GRT is a gambit to get out of the income/sales tax pledge? … just a thought… - Niles Township - Tuesday, Mar 13, 07 @ 3:19 pm: Have to agree with Daley on this one. We need tax reform and some new ideas, just not Rod’s. - Papa Legba - Tuesday, Mar 13, 07 @ 3:19 pm: In my minds eye I see Daley and businesses waving at Blago with a hand that has only one finger extended, while Madigan is grinning the cat that just ate the bird. Come May or June, July possibly there will be little if nothing left of this fantasy budget proposal. Who will be designated the bad guy then? - Concerned Voter - Tuesday, Mar 13, 07 @ 3:21 pm: So I guess Daley is one of those that the guv warned about, not wanting too much change, YOU GO MAYOR!!!!!!!!! Talk some sense into the guv, if any of what you say can get past his blinding smile and through the helmet hair. Does anyone else think he is trying to set himself up as a champion of the little guy, in hopes of a run at higher office? That is unless he gets brought down by any number of other things he is possibly linked to. - Bill - Tuesday, Mar 13, 07 @ 3:21 pm: Greg, Shhhhhhhhhh! - Fed up - Tuesday, Mar 13, 07 @ 3:23 pm: there is going to have to be a compromise. A 1% gross receipts tax is much to high in Ohio it is .26. somewhere in that range is doable without driving out businesses. Blago needs to realize we just don’t have the resources for state provided health care. If you pass this bill tax paying businesses will leave with there jobs and people with no insurance but expensive health problems will move in. That will be a lose lose situation Blag will have to cut back his grand plans or come up with a realistic way to pay for them. He could probably start using some of the money his campaign was getting for handing out state contracts and jobs, but I think he knows he will need that for his legal defense fund. - Bill Baar - Tuesday, Mar 13, 07 @ 3:44 pm: Has anyone considered that the GRT is a gambit to get out of the income/sales tax pledge? Greg, you cangbet it is, and it was way to get all of us yaking about the tax instead of the reforms of schools, pensions, health insurance; that needs to take place before the State should be coming to the public for an income tax increase. It deflects away from the essential talk of reform. - It Makes Cents... - Tuesday, Mar 13, 07 @ 4:45 pm: Remember when the Gov said “Illinois is the only state to have AllKids covered for insurance.” Ahh, not true - try Arkansas back in the early ’90s. Remember when the Gov said the Gross Receipts Tax was his idea…not true again (he “borrowed” (I use the term loosely)it from New York). This guy hasn’t had an original idea EVER. Why did the Radio Flyer Company move to China? - because the business climate in Illinois, well s#%ks. Get a clue “Hot Rod!” Now the Patrick Fitzgerald is back to doing his day job, maybe he can turn his attention to getting this Bozo out of office. - Yellow Dog Democrat - Tuesday, Mar 13, 07 @ 4:49 pm: Rod Blagojevich’s style of governance is his own worst enemy. - Reddbyrd - Tuesday, Mar 13, 07 @ 4:50 pm: The Mayor growls… GRod scampers to SPI. Now he can declare Rich on the side of Satan too Wonder what happens when Obamarama gives the GRT the big adios - Super Duper Paratrooper - Tuesday, Mar 13, 07 @ 5:17 pm: Dare I say it? I…agree…with…Mayor Dddd…Daley! It was tough but I did it! - Huh? - Tuesday, Mar 13, 07 @ 5:42 pm: This give tax and spend the cover he needs to renege and any promises he made. - RMW Stanford - Tuesday, Mar 13, 07 @ 5:44 pm: “Has anyone considered that the GRT is a gambit to get out of the income/sales tax pledge?” It might well be, but if that is G-Rods plan it could come back to bit him. - Leigh - Tuesday, Mar 13, 07 @ 6:16 pm: Raise the sales tax or raise the income tax. Don’t start any new programs til the ones that are good and already exist are fully funded. Get rid of the drivers for state employees and programs that don’t work. Duh. - He Makes Ryan Look Like A Saint - Tuesday, Mar 13, 07 @ 7:14 pm: If I didn’t know better I would say that sounded more like a republican, WOW! - Anonymous - Tuesday, Mar 13, 07 @ 7:15 pm: GRT makes sense since it’s easy for privately owned companies to boost salaries, employees, or purchases enough to ensure expenses eat up all the profits, leaving nothing for taxes. Spending billions on roads and schools is a huge waste, when telecommuting could do the job much cheaper, faster, without imported oil, and while providing students with technology experience to better compete in a global economy. - Save a horse, Ride a Harley - Tuesday, Mar 13, 07 @ 7:32 pm: Sounds like Da Mayor paid attention in Econ 101 instead of hanging out at the beach like HelmetHair. - RMW Stanford - Tuesday, Mar 13, 07 @ 8:13 pm: “GRT makes sense since it’s easy for privately owned companies to boost salaries, employees, or purchases enough to ensure expenses eat up all the profits, leaving nothing for taxes.” Since when are those bad things, higher salaries means that people will have more money and more employees means more jobs and fewer unemployed workers and people on state aid? - Loop Lady - Tuesday, Mar 13, 07 @ 8:18 pm: The difference between Daley and Blago is that Daley will be mayor forever,while Rod still has delusions of grandeur that he can make a run at the White House by mimicking his idol Sen Schumer of NY. I had such high hopes when he took office four years ago, and now I wish that the Feds could take him away ASAP…the Governor must enjoy living in his fantasy world…maybe the reason he has been so inaccesible of late is that he is busy working on his legal problems that seem to mount with each passing week… - Roadkill - Tuesday, Mar 13, 07 @ 8:30 pm: I wouldn’t be surprised that Greg is right about the GRT proposal being thrown out, just to get us ready to jump on the tax swap bandwagon and to get Rod off the hook. If Richie and his boy Mike can get enough Senate Dems (with or without Emil) and the boy wonder with the helmet hair to go along with them, it will prove what many of us have known all along… Daley is more than “da mare” of Chicago, he’s “mare” of the entire state. Actually, I think an income tax/property tax swap would get more support downstate than Rod’s GFT idea, even if it’s pushed by Chicago’s mayor and his allies. If successful with this Daley needs to remember not to push too hard with the rest of his agenda. Downstaters will never accept his way of thinking on gun control. And Anonymous, talk up telecommuting all you want, but our economy will still be dependent upon highways for years to come. Even if you never leave your house, what you purchase through e-commerce has to get to you one way or another. Unfortunately this governor has pretty much killed the road plan and very little is being done to build new highways or repair the ones we have. - Brian McDaniel - Tuesday, Mar 13, 07 @ 9:08 pm: I reiterate my question from a few days ago: Why is the only solution to an oversized government automatically a tax increase? - Squideshi - Tuesday, Mar 13, 07 @ 9:32 pm: Some businesses DO need to be here. For example, if you want to sell retail, you need to actually be IN Illinois, in order to reach the market. - shoo - Tuesday, Mar 13, 07 @ 10:24 pm: Anon - “GRT makes sense since it’s easy for privately owned companies to boost salaries, employees, or purchases enough to ensure expenses eat up all the profits, leaving nothing for taxes.” Why be in business when its your duty to give 1/2 of your profits away to government? I thought the idea of having a company was to build infrastructure, deliver a product, compensate your employees. And when companies do spend that money that doesn’t get taxed… where do you think it goes? Well if they are building infrastructure - gotta pay sales tax - or raising salaries - gotta pay income tax. Why does the gov seem to propose only short term plans? Sell the lottery to pay for education. Tax business into leaving the state to pay for our current debt. - Illinois Citizen - Wednesday, Mar 14, 07 @ 7:51 am: Anonymous wrote: “GRT makes sense since it’s easy for privately owned companies to boost salaries, employees, or purchases enough to ensure expenses eat up all the profits, leaving nothing for taxes.” You’re kidding, right? Increased salaries to the owners result in higher income taxes paid to the state of Illinois. I have six different companies. None of them pay taxes. Why? Because they are all Sub-S or LLCs. As a result, all the income from those companies flows through to my personal tax return. Now, please make your argument for how companies that are losing money will be able to pay the GRT. Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.