* This press release was issued yesterday by Rev. Jesse Jackson…

Rev. Jackson, black and Latino business leaders respond to Gov. Blagojevich’s gross receipts tax plan

WHO: Rev. Jesse L. Jackson Sr., founder and president of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, members of the Rainbow PUSH International Trade Bureau, as well as members of the Alliance of Business Leaders and Entrepreneurs (ABLE)

WHAT: Press conference

WHERE: Rainbow PUSH Coalition Headquarters
930 East 50th Street
Chicago, IL 60615

WHEN: 12 noon on Friday, April 6, 2007

WHY: Rev. Jackson and business leaders will respond to Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s gross receipts tax plan which will create a hardship for small business owners, of particular concern since many of the state’s small business owners are minorities.

Blagojevich and Jackson had a bit of a dustup earlier this week. Jackson privately pledged his support for the GRT and then flip-flopped (according to the governor), leading Gov. Blagojevich to claim that Jackson was listening to his “contributors.”

I’ll update this later if I get a report from the presser.

* The business groups opposed to the GRT have a new radio ad. Click to listen…

[audio:grosstax.mp3]

* And this makes no sense at all…

Champaign County Chamber of Commerce President Laura Weis heard Gov. Rod Blagojevich was in town Thursday, but she didn’t get a chance to challenge him in person about his gross receipts tax plan that is so reviled by Illinois businesses.

“I wasn’t invited,” Weis said after Blagojevich sandwiched an unplanned visit to Christie Clinic in Champaign late Thursday afternoon between planned bus tour stops in Decatur and Danville.

Weis said the governor’s office had attempted to line up Champaign County businesses to meet with him when the bus tour was being planned, but there weren’t any takers.

If Weis knew that Blagojevich was trying to line up a meeting, why didn’t she take him up on it? And then she whines that she didn’t get a chance to challenge him in person? I don’t get it.

[Hat tip: IlliniPundit]

* The Illinois Press Association continues its crusade against the GRT. Earlier this week, the IPA set up a teleconference for reporters throughout the state that featured the Illinois Chamber’s Doug Whitley and Tom Johnson of the Taxpayers’ Federation…

“Make no mistake about it, it’s a huge tax increase, and it’s all about increasing state spending by a magnitude we’ve never seen,” Whitley said.

Whitley and Johnson argued that the tax will have a pyramid effect, will be unfair toward companies with smaller profit margins and will represent an unconstitutional tax on the press.

“All employers will feel the effect of a gross receipts tax,” Whitley said.

Not a single counter-argument was included in the article.

* The Southern Illinoisan also reported on the IPA teleconference, without ever mentioning that the Illinois Press Association sponsored the program.

The story also included a critical sidebar that was lifted directly from the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability, but the paper never mentioned that the CTBA is proposing an alternative tax hike and is on record opposing the GRT.

* And the owner of the Hancock-Henderson Quill included this comment from an IPA official this week about the publisher group’s opposition to the gross receipts tax…

“We are making this our top priority.”

* One of the best speakers during the governor’s bus tour this week was Rockford small business owner Duntai Mathews. The tour stopped at his small manufacturing plant. Nobody expected him to do as well as he did, but, like I said he was one of the main highlights of the entire trip…

[audio:rockfordSPEAKER.mp3]

*** UPDATE *** According to a friend who was there, Jackson said Blagojevich budget chief John Filan agreed to consider some things that Jackson wanted, including possibly launching a campaign to change the Constitution to allow a graduated income tax.

Jackson reportedly ripped into criticized (but not as harshly as expected) the GRT, claiming it would put black companies like WVON radio out of business. He stayed away from any personal jabs at the guv, however.

*** UPDATE 2 *** From the AP…

Reverend Jesse Jackson says Governor Rod Blagojevich’s proposed new business tax will put small companies out of business.

Jackson said at a news conference with business leaders today that he wants to work with the Blagojevich administration to devise a better way to come up with money to fund the governor’s education and health care programs and offer property tax relief.

The civil rights leader says he can’t support the governor’s “gross receipts tax” plan in its current form.

*** UPDATE 3 *** Check out this graphic at the very top of the Illinois Press Association’s home page. Talk about going all-out. Click to see actual size…

*** UPDATE 4 *** From Crain’s…

The Rev. Jesse Jackson Friday renewed his attack on Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s proposed $7.6 billion tax on corporate gross receipts and said the governor has agreed to consider changes in the plan.

But the governor’s office immediately shot down any hint of a compromise, promising only to “continue to listen to everyone’s ideas and concerns.”

Mr. Jackson’s comments came at a midday press conference at which the civil-rights leader charged that numerous emerging small businesses, many of them owned by African-Americans, would go bankrupt if lawmakers approve the governor’s proposal for a flat tax of 0.85% on manufacturers and 1.95% on service providers.

“With a flat tax, small business will be flattened,” Mr. Jackson declared to nods from about a dozen black business leaders who also attended the pres conferences. “What looks even is not even. The flat tax eliminates a significant body of small businesses.”