64 Comments - George - Wednesday, Mar 18, 09 @ 11:48 am: “Wonkish” just posted a calculator for the impact of Quinn’s proposed tax reform over at Illinoize. It looks right to me. Would be an interesting tool for folks to check out while they listen to the speech and/or the pundits. - Tim - Wednesday, Mar 18, 09 @ 12:00 pm: The calculator says my taxes will go up $600. What happened to “tax cut for those making under $57K”? - Nearly Normal - Wednesday, Mar 18, 09 @ 12:02 pm: Rich is on TV! Now I know what he looks like when I go to Springfield. - nice! - Wednesday, Mar 18, 09 @ 12:03 pm: Sweet, tax cut for me… - George - Wednesday, Mar 18, 09 @ 12:06 pm: Time - Families of 4 making $57k. If you are making $55k as an individual, your calculation would be correct. - bockrand - Wednesday, Mar 18, 09 @ 12:11 pm: Glad to know my taxes will increase AFTER the wife was laid off. Thanks Rod, ya d!@&. - Nearly Normal - Wednesday, Mar 18, 09 @ 12:15 pm: Pension changes– Present employees will keep their benefits. New hires will get changes - Nearly Normal - Wednesday, Mar 18, 09 @ 12:17 pm: Ethis reform important IL Reform Commission will report in April with proposed changes. - Irish - Wednesday, Mar 18, 09 @ 12:19 pm: Misstatement by Quinn - paraphrased - Public Employee pension system is in deficit because of uncontrolled pension spending in recent years. Din’t have the kahonas to say because the GA hasn’t made a payment to the pension system in the last decade. - Nearly Normal - Wednesday, Mar 18, 09 @ 12:20 pm: Deficit crisis–revenues are bleak. IL has lived off the credit card. State has shameful mountain of unpaid bills. This hurts others. Failure to pay causes problems for businesses and employment. - Nearly Normal - Wednesday, Mar 18, 09 @ 12:20 pm: Last decade? The pensions have been underfunded since the 1970’s. - Nearly Normal - Wednesday, Mar 18, 09 @ 12:21 pm: No gas tax increase. Proposes tax free days for parents purchasing school clothes and supplies. - Ghost - Wednesday, Mar 18, 09 @ 12:22 pm: State tax unfair vis-avis the individual exemptions only being 2k - Ghost - Wednesday, Mar 18, 09 @ 12:23 pm: SOmething wrong when those who raise horses get more tax breaks then those who rasie children. - Reality Check - Wednesday, Mar 18, 09 @ 12:25 pm: “The pension systems spun out of control”? No, past legislators and governors were at the wheel, and they crashed the systems by failing to pay what they owed. Now Quinn’s pushing a recycled Rod scam - future cuts can reduce past debts - in other words, more of the same. - Nearly Normal - Wednesday, Mar 18, 09 @ 12:25 pm: Five million people will get tax cuts. True even if the income tax increases. Family of four over $61,000 pays “modest” increase. - Ghost - Wednesday, Mar 18, 09 @ 12:29 pm: Some will contend we need to be more creative in how we raise revenue…. the time for such gimicks is over (gimicks = grt, gambling….. - Ghost - Wednesday, Mar 18, 09 @ 12:30 pm: Doomsday budget, tells us what you want to cut to come up with 11.5 billion. saying no is not enough, offer real alternatives - Nearly Normal - Wednesday, Mar 18, 09 @ 12:30 pm: Applause for staying in the Gov. Mansion. “food is very good.” - wordslinger - Wednesday, Mar 18, 09 @ 12:31 pm: Odd to see Cullerton and Madigan standing together. I go back to when Cullerton was Madigan’s floor leader and hammer. And way bizarre to see the two of them standing behind Quinn — and Quinn getting loud applause from the GA! Quinn looks like he can’t believe it, either. Live long enough and you’ll see everything. - Nearly Normal - Wednesday, Mar 18, 09 @ 12:32 pm: “meanspirited tactics” cause harsh results with loss of healthcare for many, etc. - Ghost - Wednesday, Mar 18, 09 @ 12:32 pm: no mean spirited tactics, i.e. cuting healthcare , getting rid of teachers, police etc. - Ghost - Wednesday, Mar 18, 09 @ 12:33 pm: Supermans mayor is a superman - Ghost - Wednesday, Mar 18, 09 @ 12:34 pm: If your able bodied we want you working in IL - Nearly Normal - Wednesday, Mar 18, 09 @ 12:35 pm: Build a third airport on the southside of Chicago as fast as humanly possible. - Ghost - Wednesday, Mar 18, 09 @ 12:36 pm: We will build a 3rd airport…. - Amy - Wednesday, Mar 18, 09 @ 12:36 pm: just hearing that third airport bit is chilling. - Nearly Normal - Wednesday, Mar 18, 09 @ 12:37 pm: Not just build a road but a trench along the road for fiber optic cable for highspeed internet service so no one will be left out. - Ghost - Wednesday, Mar 18, 09 @ 12:37 pm: everyobody in, nobody left out when it comes to the internet - Ghost - Wednesday, Mar 18, 09 @ 12:37 pm: we need to be green (kermit the frog: it aint easy being green) - Nearly Normal - Wednesday, Mar 18, 09 @ 12:38 pm: Make sure the contract process is open and the taxpayer gets their money worth. Much to be done little time to get it done. Pass Illinois Jobs Now plan. - Ghost - Wednesday, Mar 18, 09 @ 12:38 pm: I urge GA to quickly pass the illinis jobs now program. - Nearly Normal - Wednesday, Mar 18, 09 @ 12:39 pm: Ease the burden of Medicaid provider by paying bills in thirty days like any good business operates. - Ghost - Wednesday, Mar 18, 09 @ 12:39 pm: Our budget will ease the burden to medicaid providers by paying within 30 days - Ghost - Wednesday, Mar 18, 09 @ 12:40 pm: we are not cutting back on education - Nearly Normal - Wednesday, Mar 18, 09 @ 12:40 pm: Increase funding for K-12 education. $40 M for higher ed. Best way to keep and attract business is to provide a smart well trained workforce. - Nearly Normal - Wednesday, Mar 18, 09 @ 12:41 pm: Honor the loss of soldiers killed in action. - Nearly Normal - Wednesday, Mar 18, 09 @ 12:42 pm: Parents of Ryan Baupre honored. Ryan killed in action in Iraq. - Nearly Normal - Wednesday, Mar 18, 09 @ 12:43 pm: Ryan killed six years ago. Former Bloomington resident. - OLDBOY - Wednesday, Mar 18, 09 @ 12:43 pm: i saw two articals on historic sites, one says he is opening the 12 that are closed and another says he is not going to open them back up. does anyone know? - Nearly Normal - Wednesday, Mar 18, 09 @ 12:45 pm: I understood that some will not be open soon such as the Dana Thomas House in Spfld. May be up to DNR as to what is re-opened. - Nearly Normal - Wednesday, Mar 18, 09 @ 12:46 pm: Improve the LaSalle Veterans Home. Chicago does not have a Veterans Home. Allocates funds for starting one. - Nearly Normal - Wednesday, Mar 18, 09 @ 12:48 pm: Pass this budget and begin a new era of reform… Speech over. - Amy - Wednesday, Mar 18, 09 @ 12:55 pm: who is on the Taxpayer’s Action Board? - OLDBOY - Wednesday, Mar 18, 09 @ 1:06 pm: thank you nearly normal - Amy - Wednesday, Mar 18, 09 @ 1:15 pm: We should build the third Airport. What a great way to spur on economic growth. - reform campaign laws - or Illinois will always have budget problems. - Wednesday, Mar 18, 09 @ 1:20 pm: simple money making ideas - anyone working for a firm that got bailout money or any subsidy by the state of illinois should get an automatic idor audit for the last 7 years. any firm getting bailout money and then paid bonus should be not allowed to deduct those bonuses as expenses for state tax purposes, and should also get an audit–or, perhaps they should just have to pay the entire amount back to the state or fed govt. Ill would make money by temporarily hiring more dept of rev folks to do audits of people and firms who donated to blago. low lying fruit, excuse the pun. other ideas - every agency and dept should be challenged to find ways to generate revenues - cutting expenses is not the only way to balance a budget - example, people sent to prison who have non essential assets or large incomes after they get out - should have to pay for their prison stay. how about this idea…corporate farms, now paying no illinois sales tax for anything…including the purchase of those $500,000 combines, the millions of dollars spent on chemical, seed, etc, ….START PAYING SALES TAX. ok, the farm bureau will scream and shout, let them, but start somewhere……farms of over 5000 acres, equipment purchases over $100,000, operators with over $1M in annual sales, whatever. they make massive use our roads, rivers, and other infrastructure…they need to contribute like all of the other businesses in the state. Not for profit hospitals….right, they can start paying real estate taxes if their ceo’s are being paid over $500,000 per year including bonuses, perks, pension,etc. As soon as there is campaign reform in Illinois, perhaps these and other ideas will be considered by the governor and the legislature. - EmptySuitParade - Wednesday, Mar 18, 09 @ 1:59 pm: Since StateWideTom plans to vote “no” why not cut the HGOP budget to $0.00 to reflect their contribution to the problem solving? - Pelon - Wednesday, Mar 18, 09 @ 2:22 pm: My understanding is that pay, pension, and health benefits for most state employees are negotiated in the union contracts. I know AFSCME just signed a four year in deal in September. Did the Governor address how he plans to change the terms of the contracts to reflect his ideas? - Firebelle - Wednesday, Mar 18, 09 @ 2:56 pm: I believe the AFSCME contract had a clause in it for the ability to open it up again within two years of the effective date. How convenient! - VET - Wednesday, Mar 18, 09 @ 2:57 pm: Instead of opening a new vet home. Vets can go anywhere and get the help they need not drive all over the place. - Six Degrees of Separation - Wednesday, Mar 18, 09 @ 3:24 pm: From AP- Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan has reservations about the governor’s proposal to raise taxes. The Chicago Democrat says lawmakers will want to know which taxpayers will benefit under Gov. Pat Quinn’s plan and which ones will end up paying more. Madigan says voters will probably want to be certain that state government is cutting costs as much as possible before raising taxes. He says Quinn will need to do more to show that higher taxes are the only option. Madigan also says he has an excellent relationship with Quinn. He says it’s “6,000 times better” than his relationship with former Gov. Rod Blagojevich. - Third Generation Chicago Native - Wednesday, Mar 18, 09 @ 3:39 pm: Quinn needs to watch his back with Madigan, he wants his daughter to be the next Governor. - George - Wednesday, Mar 18, 09 @ 4:17 pm: “The Chicago Democrat says lawmakers will want to know which taxpayers will benefit under Gov. Pat Quinn’s plan and which ones will end up paying more.” How completely disingenuous! He knows exactly what the plan is, and has seen the impacts and charts created by his own shop. It isn’t complicated - its just basic math. - Doug Dobmeyer - Wednesday, Mar 18, 09 @ 5:22 pm: Great speech! - Doug Dobmeyer - A Citizen - Wednesday, Mar 18, 09 @ 5:44 pm: Quinn has invested most of his adult life in public service, is viewed as highly ethical, and is protective of the public interests. Further he is supportive in mind and deed of our Armed Forces and their families. Now he has stepped forward with a concrete plan to address our fiscal and governmental challenges. He is appearing to be a fair minded leader and statesman. Finally! I applaud his efforts and look forward to observing his negotiating skills in this new bipartisan atmosphere so long absent. A standing ovation from both sides of the aisle is unprecedented. - Bookworm - Wednesday, Mar 18, 09 @ 6:07 pm: Perhaps we should all keep in mind that this is only a first draft of the budget, not a final product. It is a starting point for negotiations, not a dictum from on high. Since Quinn has a much better relationship with legislators than his predecessor did, I assume he’s not simply going to drop this on their desks, ignore it until it arrives back on his desk in bill form, then hack away at it with AV’s and tell the legislators it’s his way or the highway. He may actually do something really radical, like actually TALK to the legislators in both houses about what he is and is not willing to sign before they adjourn. So, everyone, don’t panic just yet. - Retired Non-Union Guy - Wednesday, Mar 18, 09 @ 6:25 pm: Just read the entire transcript. Overall a good speech but he fudged a couple of tough items. Didn’t put the pension blame where it belongs - on the Legislature itself for under / not funding it all the years. I realize he’s trying to have a spirit of cooperation but there is no way you can honestly sweep that under the rug. Also was a bit misleading on who will pay more in income taxes. And a lot of people I know consider a flat tax system fairer than a progressive tax system …. it’s interesting there is a national movement to try to change to a “fair tax” (flat tax) and Quinn at the State level is calling our flat tax “unfair”. - Gregor - Wednesday, Mar 18, 09 @ 7:11 pm: One thing I saw that just made no sense to me is folding Historic preservation into DNR. I really don’t see where they get much if any savings from that, and still do useful historic preservation work. That one sounds like an accounting trick more than smart policy, but I gotta give Pat a passing grade for the rest of it. Strong medicine, but the patient’s been in a coma for six years. A shock is needed to revive it. - Bobs yer - Wednesday, Mar 18, 09 @ 8:14 pm: Today will go down as the beginning of the rebirth of the Republican Party in Illinois. Finally! - Smitty Irving - Wednesday, Mar 18, 09 @ 8:39 pm: While multiple General Assemblies have been complicit in underfunding pensions, the first Governor to underfund the then current plan to avoid raising taxes / cutting programs / laying off employees? James R. Thompson in the early 1980s. - seriously - Wednesday, Mar 18, 09 @ 10:00 pm: so now the madiganites and cullertonians will make “adjustments” and more “adjustments” until any and all proposals are so watered down that we won’t even remember what the point of the original proposal was…but we’ll still do it because it might be able to be used in a positive way in a ten second soundbite..and so goes the Great State of Illinois… signed one sad Dem… - Bookworm - Thursday, Mar 19, 09 @ 12:03 am: I wonder how many of the people complaining about this budget plan are among the 75 percent of registered voters who either voted for Blago in 2006 or didn’t bother to vote at all. If you’re not among them, did you vote for Blago in 2002, or for Ryan in 1998? If so, then perhaps this budget and its negative effects on your wallet could be seen as the natural consequences of your past electoral decisions. This is the price you eventually pay for ignoring corruption and incompetence, following party loyalty blindly, and giving your vote to candidates who tell you only what you want to hear. For that matter, maybe Quinn’s being governor right now and having to make these decisions is a sort of payback for his role in cutting back the size of the House, thereby giving party leaders their current stranglehold. - Bookworm - Thursday, Mar 19, 09 @ 2:51 am: By the way, if Illinois has indeed degenerated into nothing but a “festering welfaresore” with no economic future, why are some of the Chicago suburbs among the fastest-growing areas in the nation — on par with low-tax, right-to-work, Sunbelt paradises like Texas, Florida and Vegas (at least before the foreclosure crisis hit)? Where are all the businesses that allegedly are going to flee our state due to high taxes going to go if nearly every other state has HIGHER personal or corporate tax rates? And doesn’t Indiana actually have higher unemployment than we do right now? Don’t get me wrong, I don’t embrace soak-the-rich or blatantly anti-business tax policies because it is, after all, those much-maligned rich people and businesses who create jobs for the rest of us. However, we do need to keep some perspective. Higher taxes right now may be bad, but simply allowing more debt to mount up for the future would be worse. Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.