88 Comments - Wordslinger - Thursday, Apr 23, 15 @ 10:42 am: What happened to all the “waste, fraud, and abuse” we heard about in the campaign? Apparently, Rauner can’t find any. Quite a testament from Rauner to Pat Quinn. - archimedes - Thursday, Apr 23, 15 @ 10:42 am: Fixing the budget mess requires deliberate, thoughtful (long term), changes that integrate with public policy. Rauner is a salesman, not a statesman. - NIU Grad - Thursday, Apr 23, 15 @ 10:43 am: Can fund sweeps be classified as revenue generators, though? Wouldn’t that be better classified as taking money from “nonessential” funds and shifting them to cover the “essential.” If that’s the case, I’m wondering if this is a bit of a stretch. - Arsenal - Thursday, Apr 23, 15 @ 10:46 am: I suspect anyone could balance the budget with the current revenue if they got to implement their own idiosyncratic view of what is “essential”. The problem is, no one else would agree with them. It’s about priorities. But I’ll say this for the Rauner administration, I don’t honestly think they consider autism services or kids on ventilators “non-essential”. I think they’re just really, really sloppy. - old-pol - Thursday, Apr 23, 15 @ 10:46 am: The problem is not fluff, its spending on so called “core services”. “Nonessential” does not mean fluff. The only “essential” spending is contractual obligations including debt service and pension contributions. Everything else is “nonessential”, meaning subject to being eliminated, including “core” services. Painful cuts does not equate to can’t cut. - Juice - Thursday, Apr 23, 15 @ 10:49 am: Here is where Ralph misses. I am pretty sure the Governor would much rather cut things that are “essential.” Sure, cutting things that are non-essential is fine, but there’s no leverage in it. And this is what the debate is about, leverage. - independent - Thursday, Apr 23, 15 @ 10:50 am: Illinois has had a revenue shortfall for 20 plus years, mainly because we have a regressive low flat income tax, with no service tax, even though we have become a service economy. This means that the poorest citizens pay the highest percentage of their income to state and local taxes. You cannot tax the people with the least money at the highest rates and expect to support a modern economy. This problem has been worsened by the generous pensions which were not fully funded and quite a bit or corporate welfare. We have to have a sensible modern tax structure and we need to have some sort of additional revenue almost like a war tax and make the ramp longer to get the pension liability under control. - kimocat - Thursday, Apr 23, 15 @ 10:52 am: Wordslinger — apparently “waste, fraud and abuse” constitute paying middle class wages and halfway decent pensions to public employees (and any other workers for that matter.) - Precinct Captain - Thursday, Apr 23, 15 @ 10:53 am: According to Rauner’s own blueprint, there was at least $1 billion in “wasteful spending.” https://capitolfax.com/2014/06/12/chickens/ - Team Sleep - Thursday, Apr 23, 15 @ 10:53 am: I’ll give Mr. Martire credit. He’s honest in his beliefs and doesn’t pull punches. But he’s an ideologue and his solution for everything is “more revenue”. Arsenal - given Ms. Arduin’s past history, I don’t think she’s sloppy. I think she’s a turd. And with what we discussed the order day, I truly believe that Tim Nuding was sold a bill of goods to guarantee his services and was then told that Ms. Arduin was “it”. I’m fairly fiscally conservative, but even conservatives can support and coalesce behind services for children with autism. - Ray del Camino - Thursday, Apr 23, 15 @ 10:57 am: There goes Martire with his liberal evidence again! How can that be so, when we just know in our bones it’s Illinois “spending like a drunken sailor”? Never mind the evidence. What about our deeply held ideology? - Excessively Rabid - Thursday, Apr 23, 15 @ 10:59 am: ==Can fund sweeps be classified as revenue generators, though? == In my book, they count as theft. - walker - Thursday, Apr 23, 15 @ 10:59 am: Martire is correct on the numbers, of course, regardless of his policy stances. No one is saying that no cuts to spending are needed, even using a broad definition of “nonessential spending.” But cuts alone cannot balance this budget, by Rauner’s own definitions and standards. Time for him to acknowledge a little reality. Can we all not agree at least on that math-driven fact? It has been obviously true for at least a year. And then we can more honestly argue about spending cut priorities and definitions of “nonessential? - D.P.Gumby - Thursday, Apr 23, 15 @ 11:03 am: “nonessential” depends on who the Governor wants to hurt. Brucie’s business history shows he has no concern for those in the most need, ergo, those receiving the $26M are not only nonessential spending, but nonessential humans. - Wordslinger - Thursday, Apr 23, 15 @ 11:09 am: PC, forgot about the chicken show. Rauner’s own FY 16 only claims $200 million in unspecified “operational efficiencies.” What happened to the billion? - Juice - Thursday, Apr 23, 15 @ 11:23 am: Word, some corrupt union bureaucrat special interest must have run off with it. - JS Mill - Thursday, Apr 23, 15 @ 11:26 am: = But he’s an ideologue and his solution for everything is “more revenue”.+ Re-amortizing the pension debt is not “more revenue”. - Norseman - Thursday, Apr 23, 15 @ 11:28 am: Camino, nice drive-by comment but you don’t respond to what he wrote. He makes a good point. While you may be able to make an argument that some of the underlying programs supported by the special funds are cut, that doesn’t hold up for all the funds affected. - Juvenal - Thursday, Apr 23, 15 @ 11:32 am: Team Sleep: So far, Rauner’s solution to everything has been more revenue, via the old “Robbing Peter to Pay Paul” trick. We raided the road fund, we didn’t abolish the state’s responsibility to build and maintain roads. A particular editorial board used to refer to these as gimmicks, budget tricks, and kicking the can down the road. - Juvenal - Thursday, Apr 23, 15 @ 11:33 am: JS Mill: It is more revenue in the form of borrowing. - anon - Thursday, Apr 23, 15 @ 11:35 am: The GOP won’t admit it has been wrong during the last 12 years with its mantra that IL has a spending problem, not a revenue problem. Such an admission would be a belated vindication of Quinn, and it would expose the dishonesty of the Rauner campaign. Martire has been right for years. - anon - Thursday, Apr 23, 15 @ 11:40 am: === gimmicks, budget tricks, kicking the can down the road === It is well known that this description is only applied to Democrats. When Republicans behave irresponsibly, it’s the Dems’ fault. - dupage dan - Thursday, Apr 23, 15 @ 11:41 am: Nibbling at the edges. The GA can’t pass a revenue bill with a governor itching to sign same, so what does it matter - now that there is a governor itching to veto it? - anon - Thursday, Apr 23, 15 @ 11:48 am: === what happened to the $billion in waste that Rauner’s blueprint identified? === Down the memory hole. None of the editorial boards that endorsed Rauner have brought up the inconvenient $billion. If the editors believe such waste actually exists,then they must prefer keeping it by sweeping funds generated from taxes or fees on motorists and other groups who were promised their fees would be used only for their designated purposes. - Team Sleep - Thursday, Apr 23, 15 @ 11:49 am: JS Mill - bonding and borrowing is still more revenue and eventual spending. Juvenal - I’m not saying that Team Rauner’s plan is great or even viable in the long range. I’m merely commenting on Mr. Martire’s style and solutions. - DuPage - Thursday, Apr 23, 15 @ 12:18 pm: @Governor Rauner, to balance the budget: 1.Re-amortize the pension payments. 2.Extend the 5% income tax rate. 3.After implementing items 1 and 2,lay off excess advisors with their $120000 “contracts”, as they will no longer be needed. - A - Thursday, Apr 23, 15 @ 12:31 pm: Politically, a progressive tax is extremely unlikely. There would have to be a constitutional amendment and the Democrats don’t even have enough votes in their own caucus to support it. If we raise the flat tax we raise taxes on the poor and middle class. This is the reality we are faced with. - Wordslinger - Thursday, Apr 23, 15 @ 12:34 pm: Rauner’s proposed FY 16 relies on billions in new revenues — the grab back from local governents, plus shorting pensions and healthcare. - Let'sMovetoTexas - Thursday, Apr 23, 15 @ 12:45 pm: Ralph Martire never met a tax hike he didn’t love. Just because a program helps some people or is good doesn’t mean it is an ‘essential’ state function. There is no money, people. - Wordslinger - Thursday, Apr 23, 15 @ 12:49 pm: Wow, LMTT, what a point-by-point rebuttal. You’ve really got game. - anon - Thursday, Apr 23, 15 @ 12:55 pm: === if we raise the flat tax, we raise it on the poor and middle class === Martire found that 54% of the savings from the tax cut goes to the most affluent 12%, while one-third goes to the top 3%. To alleviate the harm on the poor, boost the EITC. - JS Mill - Thursday, Apr 23, 15 @ 12:58 pm: A Juvenal and Team Sleep- With respect, I disagree with your assertion that it is more revenue. Re-amortizing extends the payback (admittedly, that will cost more in interest) but it is not more borrowing. If you borrow $200,000 for your house and pay it off in 30 years versus 15 you are still borrowing the same $200,000 but you are paying more interest. The re-amortization does not borrow more, just pays it off over more time. No revenue there. To Martire- one of the concerns he has with the revenue side is the inability of the ILGA to exert self control and not add programs and more spending. I guessing many of us share that concern. His math however is solid and he is not a wild advocate of taxation. - Kurt in Springfield - Thursday, Apr 23, 15 @ 1:02 pm: Team Sleep “bonding and borrowing is still more revenue and eventual spending.” Borrowing money does not equate to revenue. Revenue is new money from various sources. Borrowing money incurs a future cost in the form of interest. - Norseman - Thursday, Apr 23, 15 @ 1:08 pm: LMTT, other than to make an idiotic drive-by comment not addressing the point of this post, can you do some actual thinking. You talk about “‘essential’ state function” function, how would you define that? The Rauner administration can’t come up with a definition of essential and non-essential spending. Maybe since you’re such a genius you can help them out. - Diogenes in DuPage - Thursday, Apr 23, 15 @ 1:13 pm: Martire is used to the response of “shoot the messenger.” Truth is, Illinois’ programs and spending patterns reflect Blue state priorities. However, its tax policies reflect Red state structures. - Capitol View - Thursday, Apr 23, 15 @ 1:28 pm: Red state tax policies and blue state spending patterns. No wonder we are all turning purple from the mix… - Arsenal - Thursday, Apr 23, 15 @ 1:29 pm: “There is no money, people.” There seems to be the money for $100 million in tax expenditures… - The Whole Truth - Thursday, Apr 23, 15 @ 1:57 pm: Ralph takes the position that since “non-essential” areas haven’t been identified ,there are no areas of waste, fraud, or non-essential spending to be cut. He simultaneously ignores just how much revenue Illinois does collect, and the burden that collection imposes on Illinois taxpayers and our economy. His one-sided conclusion is then additional revenue is the only way to resolve the budget shortfall. But before taking that leap, why not look at what the rest of the states are doing? Revenues in comparable states are comparable to or lower than Illinois, yet the determination of what’s essential for those other states hasn’t saddled them with the debt and shortfall we have. Several studies have shown Illinois does not have a revenue problem as compared to the rest of the nation….the Pew study linked in previous threads was only one. Below is another: (Hint: Illinois ranks 51st….D.C is included in the rankings). For those who will find fault with that link, the second is for the Cenus Bureau data. It all says the same thing no matter what Mr. Martire may think. Denial of the actual data isn’t helpful. http://wallethub.com/edu/best-worst-states-to-be-a-taxpayer/2416/ http://factfinder.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?src=bkmk - Wordslinger - Thursday, Apr 23, 15 @ 2:05 pm: TWT, Martire is pointing out that Rauner has concluded that there is not all that “waste, fraud, and abuse,” as evidenced by his FY15 sweeps and his FY 16 proposal that relies on grabbing back locals income tax plus shorting pensions and health care. - Anon - Thursday, Apr 23, 15 @ 2:06 pm: End the retirement income tax subtraction. Last year it cost the state 2.2 billion dollars in lost revenue. Since 1993, the first year the Comptroller started reported the cost of the State’s tax expenditures, it has cost the state $21 billion dollars in lost revenue in 2013 constant dollars. The subtraction is only for taxed retirement. Low income seniors receiving only social security or other qualified funds already have an AGI that is zero. Ending the subtraction won’t negatively impact low income seniors. More than half of the total subtraction goes to households adjusted gross incomes in excess of 75,000 a year. There are literally people who earn more than a million dollars a year of Illinois based income that are able to subtract all of their income because it is classified as retirement income. If the state wants to get serious - we’re in budget trouble because we wanted to pay a 2% or 3% income tax for the last several decades while receiving services we weren’t paying for. Now the folks that benefited from those services get to run out on the check by not having their retirement income taxed. If it was really about concern for low income seniors, they could just increase the addition exemption that people 65 and older receive. - cover - Thursday, Apr 23, 15 @ 2:11 pm: = Hint: Illinois ranks 51st….D.C is included in the rankings = You do realize that none of the property tax revenues go to the state treasury, right? If anything, you might have made a case for the tax swap that GOP Gov. Jim Edgar tried to pursue in his second term. - The Whole Truth - Thursday, Apr 23, 15 @ 2:17 pm: Cover- Taxes are taxes. Property taxes going to local counties, municipalities, etc. pay for services that would otherwise be picked up by the state, and are in some other states. No matter how you want to parse it, the taxpayers of Illinois shoulder a much higher tax burden than any other state with arguably equal or less benefit to show for it. - Precinct Captain - Thursday, Apr 23, 15 @ 2:25 pm: ==- The Whole Truth - Thursday, Apr 23, 15 @ 2:17 pm:== Property taxes in Illinois fund services that are not picked up by the state. For example, a neighboring municipality to mine uses half of their property revenue to pay police/fire pensions. The state would not pick up those payments or provide those police/fire services. - Precinct Captain - Thursday, Apr 23, 15 @ 2:26 pm: ==- Let’sMovetoTexas - Thursday, Apr 23, 15 @ 12:45 pm:== Have fun. Texas had a $27 billion deficit, raided rainy day funds, and used accounting tricks to push off bills. New state is the same as the old state. - The Whole Truth - Thursday, Apr 23, 15 @ 2:32 pm: Precinct- The point is they would either have to be picked up by some other taxing mechanism, or not be there at all. In some cases, the “may not be there at all” option should at least be compared to how the rest of the nation is doing it. At some point, everything you want has to be paid for by somebody. - JS Mill - Thursday, Apr 23, 15 @ 2:36 pm: =At some point, everything you want has to be paid for by somebody.= Absolutely correct. Let’s quit wasting time and actually pay the bills we owe. - Qui Tam - Thursday, Apr 23, 15 @ 2:50 pm: =Rauner’s own FY 16 only claims $200 million in unspecified “operational efficiencies.”= There’s considerable evidence that Rauner doesn’t believe this rhetoric. The CMS board that considers operational suggestions for cost-savings has remained shut down for some time. So if you provide a suggestion for Rauner to save $100 or $1 billion, there is no one available in the Rauner administration to even consider it. - there's still checks in the checkbook - Thursday, Apr 23, 15 @ 2:52 pm: @JS Mill “one of the concerns he has with the revenue side is the inability of the ILGA to exert self control and not add programs and more spending. I guessing many of us share that concern.” BINGO! there is no guarantee that more revenue actually would go toward keeping more current on debt - forwhatitsworth - Thursday, Apr 23, 15 @ 3:58 pm: === This problem has been worsened by the generous pensions … === There is no evidence that supports this supposition. The structural design of the pension systems is not the problem … BUT … DEBT can be a real problem! - AnonymousOne - Thursday, Apr 23, 15 @ 4:05 pm: If Illinois doesn’t have (and hasn’t had) a revenue problem, why for the past 40 years has money intended to go to workers’ retirement funds been stolen—diverted—to be used for other state functions? Just because? - JS Mill - Thursday, Apr 23, 15 @ 4:06 pm: =BINGO! there is no guarantee that more revenue actually would go toward keeping more current on debt= Nothing is guaranteed, that does not mean we should not take action. That religion of cut, cut and then cut some more is a pure canard and has not “turned around” a single state. Kansas is testament to that. Common sense and a little integrity would dictate that one component of the solution is to actually pay your bills. Paying for services deemed appropriate would also be a good step. Not adding to the expenses of the state at this time (and keeping the state from adding to the expenses of local government I might add) also makes sense. - The Whole Truth - Thursday, Apr 23, 15 @ 4:27 pm: Anon1- Just because it was there and no one stepped up to say “no” is the likely true explanation. As far as revenue vs. spending, lets sum up Mr. Martire’s “analysis” and subsequent discussion here in three points: 1. We have no spending problem because no one will label any spending as non-essential. 2. Illinois is the most taxed state in the union according to several studies and the US Census Bureau. 3. Given the first two points, if it’s not a spending problem, then what is it? - Robert the 1st - Thursday, Apr 23, 15 @ 4:34 pm: “The structural design of the pension systems is not the problem” State employee retires at 55 making $68K. By the time they’re 67 (ss retirement age) they’re collecting $77.5k, more then they ever made working. Live to be 80, collecting $113.9k for a total of $2.09 million not counting health costs. Unsustainable. Many state employees are making far more in their last years of employment. - Robert the 1st - Thursday, Apr 23, 15 @ 4:39 pm: “Many state employees are making far more in their last years of employment” than the $68K example I provided to clarify. - The Whole Truth - Thursday, Apr 23, 15 @ 4:57 pm: Robert1- The structural design of the pension system is sound…the fact the state did not contribute it’s share over the working life of the employee caused the pension funding shortfall. Had the state made it’s contribution over the years along with the employee, there would be no shortfall. The retirement benefit is part of the compensation package….see the “contractual” language of the Illinois constitution. Anon1 is right…the state simply chose to spend the money somewhere other than the pension obligation over the years. In the private sector, you might liken it to spending the mortgage money on vacations and then wondering what happened when the bank forecloses. - Robert the 1st - Thursday, Apr 23, 15 @ 5:03 pm: Saying that a pension system is sound so long as the necessary contributions are made isn’t much of a point. I could set up a plan where you retire at 40 and payment doubles ever year. It would be sound so long as properly funded. Denying that IL’s pension systems are very generous is denying reality. - The Whole Truth - Thursday, Apr 23, 15 @ 5:15 pm: Robert1- If you sit down with a financial calculator and compute what a monthly contribution at the long term rate of return the finacial markets yields over 30+ years, then take that final worth and amoratize it out over the expected life span of retirement, you’ll be quite surprised. It is sustainable…the power of compounding astounded even Einstein. I agree with you that many of the pensions we see are way over the top and unreasonable. Many have obviously been artificially inflated by gaming the system. But according to Mr. Martire and several commenting here today, there is no waste or fraud to be found. - Robert the 1st - Thursday, Apr 23, 15 @ 5:19 pm: Fair enough TWT. And I’ve never argued these aren’t contracts and everyone here knows they’re protected in the state constitution. The pension topic was brought up by a commentator doing the “no no” here and calling them generous and part of the financial problems facing the state. He/she of course is correct and I was just illustrating how generous they are. - Robert the 1st - Thursday, Apr 23, 15 @ 5:26 pm: I actually know state retirees who are baffled when I tell them how much they’ll be collecting in 10 years. They had no idea how that compounded 3% added up. Most healthy retirees will see they pensions double. Only have to live to be 79 assuming you retired at 55. - steve schnorf - Thursday, Apr 23, 15 @ 6:43 pm: Robert, I don’t know many state employees who retire at 55. Maybe you do. - nona - Thursday, Apr 23, 15 @ 6:50 pm: When looking solely at state taxes, Illinois does not have the highest tax burden, not even close. There are states with top income tax rates in the double digits for cryin out loud. Wisconsin taxes services up the wazoo. Our current income tax rate is third lowest among the 41 states with an income tax. IL taxes relatively few services compared to the rest of the nation. It’s true property taxes are high (outside Chicago), but those taxes are levied solely by local units of government, not by the state. One thing I agree with Rauner on is that the Land of Lincoln has a bloated local government sector. If he takes on townships, I will give him credit for so doing. - steve schnorf - Thursday, Apr 23, 15 @ 6:54 pm: However, most state employees who do retires at 55 making $68K with the 30 years needed to qualify would be receiving a pension around $48K, not $77, unless you know something I don’t - steve schnorf - Thursday, Apr 23, 15 @ 6:55 pm: at age 67 - steve schnorf - Thursday, Apr 23, 15 @ 6:57 pm: whole truth, why don’t you give us a cite for “the most taxed”, not just a vague reference, because we’re not - AnonymousOne - Thursday, Apr 23, 15 @ 7:03 pm: These sorts of wild figures (about doubling retirement benefits and highest taxes in the country) are the things that so many people salivate over in their righteous indignation. These are also the kinds of figures that end up on billboards, paid for by mystery billionaires to misinform and muster up the outrage. But they’re just ignorantly wrong and should be called on their “facts”. - The Whole Truth - Thursday, Apr 23, 15 @ 7:07 pm: Nona- Looking at the total tax burden is the more realistic way to compare states. For example, some do not even levy a state income tax, but have other taxing mechanisms that serve the same purpose. As you note, property taxes are another area where different locales levy, and use the monies collected, quite differently. In the end, the states somewhat consistently provide a comparable overall level of service to their taxpayers. That every other state in the union, along with D.C., is able to do that with markedly less tax burden to their respective citizens than Illinois is a riddle that really should be resolved before Illinois increases it’s tax burden even more. - The Whole Truth - Thursday, Apr 23, 15 @ 7:08 pm: Steve- I gave the links at 1:57PM above. - steve schnorf - Thursday, Apr 23, 15 @ 7:13 pm: Truth, did you look at your own referenced charts. They do not show Illinois as 51st in tax burden. They show raw dollars collected. I’ll try to find time to do some research on whether that’s true or not. But even you concede that “tax burden” is thwe fairest way to compare. So how does Illinois tax burden compare with other states? - Robert the 1st - Thursday, Apr 23, 15 @ 7:25 pm: AnonymousOne- “wild figures”? You mean basic math? No matter the starting pension, with a 3% compounded annual raise the pension doubles every 24 years. With some state employees retiring in their 50s this is common and will be more common in the next few decades. - The Whole Truth - Thursday, Apr 23, 15 @ 7:27 pm: Steve- The first link at 1:57PM does indeed show us at 51st out of 51. I’ll try to get you some other links as well. - steve schnorf - Thursday, Apr 23, 15 @ 7:36 pm: truth, I don’t think so. Unless I read the info incorrectly, that’s total taxes paid per capita, not tax burden. Their best attempt at burden seem to “indexed for cost of living” where they rate us 43rd, and that still isn’t “burden”. Do you read it differently? I just spent about 10 minutes searching the web and found no sites that showed us highest in total taxes or burden. Generally the sites I looked at, albeit quickly, showed us between 8th and 10th in burden. That was of course before our income tax rate went down 1/1. - The Whole Truth - Thursday, Apr 23, 15 @ 7:43 pm: I do read it differently. For corroboration, go to cheat.sheet.com/business and look for something to do with “10 worst states”. For some reason, I am unable to post specific links. - Wordslinger - Thursday, Apr 23, 15 @ 8:01 pm: TWT, try the Taxfoundation.org. For all state and local taxes, Illinois ranked 13th highest at 10.2 percent. The study was prior to the income tax rollback. In it’s business climate index. Illinois’ individual income tax was ranked 11th most favorable, also prior to rollback. The corporate income tax rate was ranked at 44 prior to rollback, but as we all know, the great majority of businesses pay at the individual rate if they pay anything at all. Property taxes, which are different all over the state, ranked 44. - steve schnorf - Thursday, Apr 23, 15 @ 8:05 pm: truth, I found it, it appears to use the Tax Foundations data, and doesn’t list illinois among the 10 worst or 10 best. It ranks Illinois 31st, and that’s before the income tax drop 1/1. That sounds about right to me, probably dropping to about 28th or 29th with the 3.75% rate. Are we reading the same thing? - The Whole Truth - Thursday, Apr 23, 15 @ 8:08 pm: No, it’s not the same. Can you post links? I can’t. - Wordslinger - Thursday, Apr 23, 15 @ 8:11 pm: Schnorf, that 31 you’re seeing is their ranking for overall business climate. I posted some of the other numbers above. - steve schnorf - Thursday, Apr 23, 15 @ 8:17 pm: I can’t either for some reason. Word, thanks. But to you does it appear that the cheestsheet.business article on 10 worst/10 best was written using that data? - Wordslinger - Thursday, Apr 23, 15 @ 8:22 pm: No, I can’t really say where that comes from. - RNUG - Thursday, Apr 23, 15 @ 9:22 pm: - Robert the 1st - You claim state retirees are making more after 12 years of retirement than they did when working. Not necessarily true. I’ll cite just one example, myself personally. I retired under SERS with something like 36+ years of service (which, BTW, is more service time than a lot of employees rack up). I’ve been retired 13 years. I’m still not making what I did the last year I worked. When I hit year 18, I’ll be about where I was when I retired. - Former Merit Comp Slave - Thursday, Apr 23, 15 @ 10:25 pm: I am a huge fan of Ralph and have always failed to understand why his insight has been basically ignored these last few years by legislators. RNUG I recently retired after 30 years and will need about 20 years to get to where I was. Of course cost of living won’t increase so I’m really gonna be on easy street lol - The Whole Truth - Thursday, Apr 23, 15 @ 10:38 pm: Steve- http://www.cheatsheet.com/business/top-10-states-with-the-highest-taxes.html/?a=viewall - The Whole Truth - Thursday, Apr 23, 15 @ 10:44 pm: And also the below. Different methodologies are used to put Illinois at 5th or 6th worst, depending on how you want to gauge the comparison. And yes, the recently sunset tax rate affects these listings, but not by that much, and a return to the 5% or higher rate would put us right back where these rankings show or worse. http://www.cheatsheet.com/business/the-10-worst-states-for-property-taxes.html/?a=viewall https://www.illinoispolicy.org/pew-study-blows-hole-in-myth-that-illinois-has-a-revenue-problem/?utm_source=Illinois+Policy%3A+Opens&utm_campaign=997ca7dd57-utm_source%3Dmailchimp&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_9471dd8540-997ca7dd57-12989753 - Wordslinger - Thursday, Apr 23, 15 @ 11:01 pm: TWT, that Illinois increase in revenue is the tax increase that is now expired. I’m not sure how that qualifies as “worst” of anything. What your reason for not comparing overall rates, as the Tax Foundation does? - The Whole Truth - Thursday, Apr 23, 15 @ 11:09 pm: Do you have the Tax Foundation link? How does their comparison differ from the cheatsheet and wallethub links? - Wordslinger - Thursday, Apr 23, 15 @ 11:13 pm: See 8:01 - The Whole Truth - Thursday, Apr 23, 15 @ 11:38 pm: The Tax Foundation data appears to largely support the Pew, cheatsheet, and wallethub rankings. They differ some, but not all that much. For instance, the Tax Foundation chart has Illinois as #11 for state/local individual tax collections per capita. http://taxfoundation.org/article/facts-figures-2015-how-does-your-state-compare We can draw fine lines in the methodology each uses, but in the end they all seem to draw heavily on the US Census data I linked to earlier. Whether we’re number 11, number 6, number 5, or number 1 for whatever measure you care to look at, we are much worse off budgetwise than any of the figures suggest we should be. Again, that suggests there is more of a spending problem that Mr. Martire admits. - Wordslinger - Friday, Apr 24, 15 @ 6:30 am: TWT, you’re starting to mix up a lot of apples, oranges and pumpkins. Actually, the chart has Illinois as 14 at state/local per capita at $3,008. ND is 1 at $7,438, AK at $7,,005. Does that make them “high tax?” No, it means they have very few people but collect a lot of oil extraction taxes. Going with the overall state/local rate is probably the best apple to apple. It puts Illinois 13 before the rollback. After, probably closer to the middle of the pack with relatively low income taxes and relatively high property taxes. But I think everyone has known that for a few decades now. - Moshe - Tuesday, Apr 28, 15 @ 8:17 am: Then send the postcard to all of the addresses in your area, and try to draw customers in. If, on the other hand, you are not successful in paying your loans back, you are going to develop “bad credit. When travelling, for instance, it would be possible to login to your accounting database and enter transactions on the road. Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.