35 Comments - Real - Monday, Jul 3, 17 @ 10:52 am: These newspapers are part of the problem. They don’t tell the truth. - Anonymous - Monday, Jul 3, 17 @ 10:54 am: Rauner was successful in business, and he never failed in anything before so he says. However, he failed as governor. The problem was twofold. First, politics has something that business does not. Let us call it patriotism. People love Illinois. It is not fashionable to say that they love it, but they do nevertheless. Even when faced with future political defeat, some Republicans in the GA did what they thought was best for the state and not for themselves. So that is one challenge that Rauner failed to understand. Second, he hates people who oppose him, and that hatred is not attractive. It injures his effectiveness. He should reach across to adversaries and form a consensus. Instead, he tried to bankrupt the state government, to destroy it, and to build another one in its place. He gambled, and I think he will lose. He should then retire from being governor and he should go back to his piles of gold. - Anon - Monday, Jul 3, 17 @ 10:55 am: After decades of getting what they wanted without paying for it, the people of Illinois are stunned by the idea of paying for it. - Steelerfan - Monday, Jul 3, 17 @ 10:57 am: Perhaps Rauner won the newspaper headline contest… perhaps. However when was the last time an elected member of the Illinois General Assemby lost a race because they voted for a tax increase? And how many representatives and senators have won their next race after having voted for a tax increase? Worth thinking about when discussing who is a a winner and who is a loser. - Honeybear - Monday, Jul 3, 17 @ 10:58 am: I despair at the thought that the only way the public will learn through the massive perfidy committed by Rauner is to have the catastrophic consequences happen. I don’t want what is left to go down. Privilege prevents Republicans from seeing or hearing the immense suffering going on. The vertical integration of media under Rauners direction affirms the privileged view and mutes and obfuscates the tremendous horror. It is the Great Perfidy Well then The financial collapse will teach the lesson. The hard way - Streator Curmudgeon - Monday, Jul 3, 17 @ 11:02 am: Well, polling may show that Illinoisans do not want a tax hike, but I think there’s more to it than that. If the taxpayers bear any responsibility for Illinois’ fiscal mess, it’s because they continued to elect incumbents time after time. The time to straighten this out was 25 years ago. Instead, Springfield kept kicking the can down the road. Republicans may say no more tax hikes, but the bottom line truth of the matter is, when you run up bills, you’re obligated to pay them. And since the state can’t declare bankruptcy, we’d better face that reality. None of us wants higher taxes. But tell me how we dig ourselves out of this hole without them. - RNUG - Monday, Jul 3, 17 @ 11:04 am: At least it’s not (yet) “Illinois first state to reach junk level” - Langhorne - Monday, Jul 3, 17 @ 11:07 am: Steelerfan–a few years ago, charlie wheeler did an xlnt analysis of voters, and whether they “punish” those voting for a tax increase. (Illinois issues). He concluded the effects were minimal. Thats why tax increase roll calls are structured. - Arsenal - Monday, Jul 3, 17 @ 11:12 am: ==He concluded the effects were minimal. Thats why tax increase roll calls are structured.== Sure that’s not backwards? - Ducky LaMoore - Monday, Jul 3, 17 @ 11:19 am: Great! He won today! Now tomorrow can either be, “Rauner Signs Tax Hike” or “Illinois First State Ever to be Downgraded to Junk Bond Status” Not going to be a lot of ‘up’ days after today unless he can really formulate a better reason for not being responsible for state government of Illinois. - Annonin' - Monday, Jul 3, 17 @ 11:29 am: The “tribbie” headline was House OKs income tax hike - Responsa - Monday, Jul 3, 17 @ 11:35 am: Every Senator and Representative in the state–whether D or R– knows that they have some constituents who will be helped enormously by the added revenue a permanent tax increase will provide, and also has constituents whose bottom lines and quality of life will be sorely impacted and diminished by the permanent income tax increase and other new taxes/fees. All are voters. Not all of them are one-percenters (or even 10%-ers) who can more easily absorb the burden of these added taxes. This knowledge does not help the overall fiscal situation of Illinois. But that knowledge of the makeup their districts, I think, *does* legitimately affect the decisions and votes of legislators who last night were being praised and urged on this website to “vote their districts” but are then vilified here today for voting their districts if their vote is different than any particular random commenter here would have preferred them to vote. - Precinct Captain - Monday, Jul 3, 17 @ 11:39 am: What are they going to do keep all those voters activated for another year and a half? - Norseman - Monday, Jul 3, 17 @ 11:39 am: Alas, we hear the latest spin from the GOP. The problem with spin is that it’s only helpful if its done by a wash machine. We have real problems that require solutions, not rhetoric. Thankfully, 15 GOP reps came to that realization. Now let’s hope the deal gets finished. - Cable Line Beer Gardener - Monday, Jul 3, 17 @ 11:41 am: What is an organic post? - Ducky LaMoore - Monday, Jul 3, 17 @ 11:47 am: === is activating voters who otherwise have been passive observers of the impasse so far. === Man, one way or another, in two weeks, those people are gonna despise you. You either get a tax hike or junk bond status paired with a government shutdown. Good luck with that. - thechampaignlife - Monday, Jul 3, 17 @ 11:50 am: ===the largest in state history since it is a permanent increase=== By that logic, 2014 was the largest decrease in history. And even a 0.01% increase would have been the largest in history by some measure since they are apparently counting decades or centuries into the future. - anon2 - Monday, Jul 3, 17 @ 11:50 am: If this is “Madigan’s tax hike,” (despite 15 GOP Yes votes), then was the expiration of the temporary tax hike “Madigan’s tax cut”? I believe that was the biggest tax cut in state history. - Valvino - Monday, Jul 3, 17 @ 11:51 am: What is your grand plan for the state budget Governor? - anon2 - Monday, Jul 3, 17 @ 11:51 am: If the 15 GOP House members who voted for new revenues don’t count as Republicans, does that make them Democrats? - VanillaMan - Monday, Jul 3, 17 @ 11:52 am: Rauner lost. He’ll be running against a candidate who will not need to support a tax hike, will he? What’s he got instead? We’ll go back to a tax rate that nearly forced us into Junk Bond status? What’s his new spin? Rauner has nothing but failures as accomplishments and 2014 reruns as campaign fodder. - Anonymous - Monday, Jul 3, 17 @ 11:57 am: The national media did a hella better job the last couple wks shaming Gov Junk and scaring the rank and file than any of the papers in Illinois. The Madigan House headline is absurd. The Trib can’t even be taken seriously esp w Hurricane Kristen et al with free rein and no accountability to the facts over there. - Texas Red - Monday, Jul 3, 17 @ 11:59 am: Same old same old from MJM - offer little or nothing - then use time pressure to force moderate GOP members into a Faustian agreement. Rauner’s veto give him and his warchest a huge platform in 2018/20. MJM put his troops on the field and lost the tactical high ground. He and the Dem’s own this tax. - Messaging - Monday, Jul 3, 17 @ 12:14 pm: Great job, Democrats. “Rauner got so extreme that his own caucus turned on him,” “The governor is so out of touch he’s become irrelevant,” “Brave Republicans stood up to the governor to save Illinois…” The narratives are there waiting for you, to take you from now until election day. But instead, Democrats sit and let the Rauner message machine flood the zone, until his own narrative becomes reality. - James Knell - Monday, Jul 3, 17 @ 12:18 pm: The Grand Irony is if the GOP controlled U.S. Congress can pass a tax cut this year, and El Trumpo can stop tweeting long enough to sign it, few will notice this alleged biggest tax hike known to man in the Great Tax Hell of Illinois (where retirement income is not taxed). It will likely be more than a wash. - Illinois O'Malley - Monday, Jul 3, 17 @ 12:20 pm: @IL Republican Party & IPI - how many ‘views, likes, and comments’ does it take to pay off Illinois’s debt? - James Knell - Monday, Jul 3, 17 @ 12:23 pm: Texas Red, how many Republicans voted for the income tax increase? - DuPage Saint - Monday, Jul 3, 17 @ 12:24 pm: I think Rauner just got re elected. Tax will pass over his veto. He will have his tax issue beat up Democrats primary the Republicans that did the right thing. He is in for the long haul and as an added benefit he has never been happier - Just Sayin' - Monday, Jul 3, 17 @ 12:27 pm: What’s “300,00″ IPI? Lol. - Dance Band on the Titanic - Monday, Jul 3, 17 @ 12:28 pm: I haven’t been able to open my Facebook feed in days without seeing a paid ad by IPI attacking a Republican legislator. Also seeing a lot of paid ads from Bruce Rauner. Of course, those count as “views” but they are not “organic”. - JoeMaddon - Monday, Jul 3, 17 @ 12:30 pm: IPI has a large reach. No question. And they have a lot of money to buy an even larger reach. But it is telling that, despite the massive attempts to attack the HGOP members thinking about a tax increase, the HGOP members still voted yes. 15 members defied Rauner. Defied Durkin. And defied IPI/AFP/Koch Brothers. - Jibba - Monday, Jul 3, 17 @ 12:32 pm: An organic post is one without artificial additives, so that is why all the added manure is perfectly acceptable. - JS Mill - Monday, Jul 3, 17 @ 2:50 pm: New headline- “Rauner, GOP favor not Paying Small Businesses” or… “GOP/Rauner Favor Skipping out on Responsibilities’ - Nikolas Name - Monday, Jul 3, 17 @ 3:07 pm: We may not have needed a tax hike, but Rauner’s selfish agenda put ahead of a budget killed the chance of it not happening. I would like to see how he could balance the budget with our current situation that he helped to create. What cuts are made? - Original Rambler - Monday, Jul 3, 17 @ 10:50 pm: I heard CBS refer to the IPI as “nonpartisan” earlier today. SMH Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.