71 Comments - illinoised - Monday, Jul 3, 17 @ 4:55 pm: Will another leaders meeting be attempted? - deacon geek - Monday, Jul 3, 17 @ 4:55 pm: Do we know if he is including the revenue bill(s) in that vote? - Big Joe - Monday, Jul 3, 17 @ 4:59 pm: As usual, Senator Cullerton is the adult in the room. Good move, senator. - northernwatersports - Monday, Jul 3, 17 @ 5:03 pm: Good for Cullerton. Call the vote, call the bluff and bluster. Let the Governor own his actions. - 360 Degree Turnaround - Monday, Jul 3, 17 @ 5:03 pm: Will any repubs have the courage to help the state? - DuPage Dave - Monday, Jul 3, 17 @ 5:05 pm: At this point you have to question the wisdom of Radogno bailing out just as this is all happening. My thought is that her leadership would be very helpful right now. - Grand Avenue - Monday, Jul 3, 17 @ 5:11 pm: Meeting at 9:30 - does that mean we could have a pass-veto-override all in one day? - Anonymous - Monday, Jul 3, 17 @ 5:15 pm: Republicans should try to fight for specific factors that can help the state in terms of property taxes etc… the simple fact that they aren’t playing ball really should be obvious. If Rauner vetoes, and the republican reps don’t try to fight for for other compromises, and the state goes to Junk… - Professor - Monday, Jul 3, 17 @ 5:24 pm: We no longer have a Republican Party. It was purchased by the Governor. It is now his party. What happened to the ‘republicanism’ that served as the basis for Ilinois effective two party system. If you are a Republican you just do what he wants or he will remove you.The Republicans did not attend the leaders meeting. I wonder why? The governor is Captain Ahab in his quest to kill the great white whale - the House Speaker. Term limits - real reform - just nonsense. I have observed the legislature for 40 years. The State will not recover from his insane quest in my lifetime. How sad. - Anonymous - Monday, Jul 3, 17 @ 5:29 pm: Republican leaders need to show up and show the people they are fighting for reform. Jim Durkin needs to be there along with Bill Brady. They need to work the Senate caucus and foce John Cullerton to pass a tax increase with all Democatic votes if it comes to that because of no reforms. - Anonymous - Monday, Jul 3, 17 @ 5:49 pm: The tax hike is a must unfortunately. However, reform is needed as well. Republican leadership needs to be present to work to integrate some reform policy no matter how small. As an independent both sides are ridiculous. The veto will be overridden and will make republicans look bad for not fighting for reform. If veto does happen and can’t be overridden it will look even worse. - Jibba - Monday, Jul 3, 17 @ 5:50 pm: Anonymous 5:27 Don’t you understand? It is not a DEMOCRATIC goal to keep the state running, it is a goal for both parties when they are in their right mind. Dems should not solely shoulder the burden, especially if the Repubs have not put forth a bill to support the state without tax increases. Rauner has not had his party submit a bill. - Not That Rich - Monday, Jul 3, 17 @ 6:02 pm: I, for one, find it absolutely amazing at the sheer volume of Illinoisans who are ok with shelling out money we don’t have just because the state needs it. I get it, the state is broken and broke. But $50,000 income $600 extra out of your pocket. So if you’re making $50,000 - you are likely taking home closer to $35,000 and that $600 really hurts. Add that to the new “911 tax” as well as whatever Trump and his GOP do to the medical costs and all of a sudden, it’s real money. I am glad someone is standing up and saying enough. It plays out like Ahab and the whale, sure. It’s easier to say - it’s ok, it’s just some more taxes but we need a budget… enough is enough. It’s basically a repeat cycle of self abuse, that needs to stop. - Eight Zero - Monday, Jul 3, 17 @ 6:02 pm: Except for 15 of them in the House, the Republicans look like a sassy, 5th grade girl that was picked last for the kickball team. - Mama - Monday, Jul 3, 17 @ 6:07 pm: Mr. Brady, you better be on record for voting ‘Yea’ on the state budget. Otherwise, you are not worth what we taxpayers are paying for your salary and benefits. FYI: I live in your district. - RNUG - Monday, Jul 3, 17 @ 6:09 pm: == Republicans should try to fight for specific factors that can help the state in terms of property taxes == - Anonymous - @ 5:15 pm: Please explain EXACTLY how a property tax freeze or property tax reduction affects the STATE budget in terms of dollars and cents. - Winnin' - Monday, Jul 3, 17 @ 6:19 pm: Unfortunately, the GOP leaders appear to be busy ; possibly hunkered down on the state fairgrounds with the governor writin’ new flyers. - Sue - Monday, Jul 3, 17 @ 6:20 pm: And what happens if the Congress gets its act together and we lose the Fed deduct for State and RE taxes🙀🙀 - mtwtsn - Monday, Jul 3, 17 @ 6:21 pm: Does anyone know what happened to the gambling expansion bill that was part of the Senate Grand Bargain? This seems like a good source of future revenue to back the bonds needed to pay down the backlog. Obviously revenue from new casinos won’t be coming in for a number of years, but this bill seems to have fallen off the map unless I’m mistaken. - Winnin' - Monday, Jul 3, 17 @ 6:25 pm: Exactly, RNUG. Exactly. Freezing property taxes puts much more pressure on the state budget. If Rauner and the GOP had the sense to have presented it as a trade off of sorts, there may have been a deal long ago. But this was more about creating an environment where a deal was never possible. Even though Bruce now gets the benefit of new revenues if an override occurs. He’s a cagey one, that Bruce. - Simple Simon - Monday, Jul 3, 17 @ 6:27 pm: Not That Rich: Feel free to demand that your elected representatives submit a bill and budget that equals the expected revenue (32B or so). I would respect any person who did so. Might disagree, but would respect. Too bad Rauner and the GOP did not. They want the funds to run government, but want to continue the fantasy that the Bad old Dems are forcing them to spend that money…if only more GOP rears were in the seats, they’d surely make cuts. Trust them. /s - leb - Monday, Jul 3, 17 @ 6:49 pm: the republican senators need to realize that Rauner’s fifteen minutes are about up he will be gone by November 2018 and no one in Illinois will remember him save our state - QC teacher - Monday, Jul 3, 17 @ 6:49 pm: To the Professor: I commend you for being politically engaged for 40 years, but this train has been coming down the tracks for quite sometime. What would be the best way to get Illinois out of its current situation? I am tired of status quo or band-aids for our problems. If Rauner’s ideas are not worthwhile, then what do you suggest? I am tired of no real solutions. - CEA - Monday, Jul 3, 17 @ 6:56 pm: Illinois’ property taxes are so high because only about 30% of school funding comes from the state, compared to a national average around 45%. If the GOP wants to lower property taxes, they can offer up a K-12 funding regimen that shifts more of the burden onto the state, and take the political lumps for making somebody pay for it. A property tax freeze won’t magically bring about Rauner’s fantasy of teachers’ unions spontaneously combusting, but it _will_ do major collateral damage to counties and other local taxing districts, many of whom are already struggling to keep roads open and bridges standing because the motor fuel tax hasn’t been adjusted since 1994. - tunes - Monday, Jul 3, 17 @ 6:56 pm: Agree with Mama, if Brady doesn’t override this veto, he is out in my book too. I’ve already told him as much in an email to his campaign. We’re sick and tired of this no budget garbage. Please avoid junk status, schools may not re-open and our universities are hurting. Who cares? Rauner doesn’t. Stand up to this lousy governor and override the veto or you’re done and so is Rauner. - Prairie Dog - Monday, Jul 3, 17 @ 6:57 pm: The problem with Rauner is that he wants the whole pie or nothing. Life and politics do not work that way. Madigan has completely outmaneuvered Rainer, not that it was that hard. Brady is a rubber stamp. He lost against Quinn because he did not think on his own. He is a puppet of Rainer. At very least, attend the meetings. The Republicans are now starting to look like obstructionist. They are resembling the Democrats in Congress. It is not pretty or impressive. - My New Handle - Monday, Jul 3, 17 @ 7:11 pm: If the Senate passes the appropriations and revenue bills, do they hold the approps to see what Rauner does with the revenue first? If he does veto revenue, then do they even send the approps and put a legislative hold on it? - Anonymous - Monday, Jul 3, 17 @ 7:13 pm: Not that rich, Deductions make the number lower. Not trying to minimize that paying more hurts. It does. But let’s get numbers right. After federal deduction a 50k family would pay an approx net 480 more. About $40 a month. Or $1.30 a day. Cup of coffee if your lucky. The problem is we are paying for the sins of the past rather than investing in the future. No one likes paying $40 a month for paying old bills. Most people would be on board for paying 40 if it all went to education. It’s frustrating but we are stuck in this position. - X-prof - Monday, Jul 3, 17 @ 7:18 pm: Ahoy Professor, fellow Melville fan. This is the part where Ahab beckons just before the snowy leviathan takes him deep for the last time. The question, though, is who will play the Pequod? Will it be just the ILGOP or the entire state of Illinois? - Shemp - Monday, Jul 3, 17 @ 7:23 pm: Gov may want whole pie, but realistically he was barely given crumbs to help get more GOP breakaway votes. - Western IL - Monday, Jul 3, 17 @ 7:31 pm: You know, all of this ’sausage making’ doesn’t really matter. The mess is still there, right behind these current showy entrails. Seriously. This does NOTHING to help the systemic ill of Illinois. Glad we are out in 18 months. Sooner if we can’t afford this next property assessment. I am so happy we can go. It’s just clear as a bell nothing is really going to change until collapse forces change. And it is coming. Math always wins. - My New Handle - Monday, Jul 3, 17 @ 7:31 pm: ” The problem is we are paying for the sins of the past rather than investing in the future.” We stopped investing in the future when the temporary income tax was not extended or made permanent. - Anonymous - Monday, Jul 3, 17 @ 7:44 pm: I’m already making so little, about $100 a month. If the income tax increase happens, no matter what, I’m stuck in the state because I can’t afford to leave or move out. I can barely make a living off what I make now. My family is all I have. The House needs to fix the budget, not tax low-income families. - Demoralized - Monday, Jul 3, 17 @ 7:46 pm: Ugh. Just leave already. I’m tired of the threats and whining by people who are leaving or want to leave. Go The solution some of you are seeking isn’t a solution. Taxes must go up. There is no way around it. If that disturbs you so much that you feel the need to leave them Go. - David - Monday, Jul 3, 17 @ 7:56 pm: A lot of this threatening to go may not be here anyway. Some may be bots.I just looked up the TA. The only realistic proposals were ptax and workers comp the two issues that are willing to meet on. The rest were pages of anti union stuff and term limits and the like. The GOP has been given a fig leaf and it looks like they will skip it. I guess they want to go out like Chris Christy on the beach. Sad Will there be anything in her session or do we get a break until 2018. - RNUG - Monday, Jul 3, 17 @ 8:00 pm: To everyone saying this won’t for any good, the last time we had sufficient revenue, we actually we’re making headway on the backlog. Had we stayed the course, it would have been gone by now. This combined with some fiscal constraint will get the backlog paid eventually. Because of Rauner’s actions that make things worse, now it may be more like 6 - 8 years in the future. As far as the pension debt, the 1995 Edgar Ramp was a 40 year payment plan. Because of some of Blago’s actions, the payments are now bigger. But if they keep paying the increasing amounts, it will get resolved. If you don’t like the increasing payments, then get the State to switch to a level payment plan … but understand it will require an immediate $1.5B increase to get to level payments. Same for Tier 2; it IS the long term solution to the pensions. You just have to give it the 20 - 30 years it needs to work. This tax increase and restrained budget pretty much stabilizes the State. If they can continue to restrain the spending, and aren’t blindsided by either the ACA replacement or an economic recession, things will improve in time. - RNUG - Monday, Jul 3, 17 @ 8:04 pm: == A lot of this threatening to go may not be here anyway. Some may be bots. == Or maybe carpetbagging superstars? - Anonymous - Monday, Jul 3, 17 @ 8:08 pm: Agreed RNUG. Would be nice for people to just be analytical / logical here - Anonymous - Monday, Jul 3, 17 @ 8:09 pm: Can someone please explain the Tier 3 plan they are talking about? Is it another ERI- then the consideration for tier 1 to tier 2? - Pot calling kettle - Monday, Jul 3, 17 @ 8:10 pm: ==I’m already making so little, about $100 a month.== If that’s truly your income, you don’t pay income taxes. You should be filing for the earned income tax credit. - David - Monday, Jul 3, 17 @ 8:20 pm: Right RNUG. Maybe that 100 dollars a month is what the superstar feels he might be making in the future. - Anon - Monday, Jul 3, 17 @ 8:33 pm: Does anyone talk anymore about closing the loopholes that corporations use to avoid paying Illinois taxes? - X-prof - Monday, Jul 3, 17 @ 8:37 pm: Hey Rauner bots: Even after this (not) the largest IL tax increase in history, the Governor’s total state and local tax rate (income, property, sales) will only be about 5%, less than half the rate most taxpayers carry. Care to run the numbers on what the state could afford if we fix that upward wealth redistribution? Maybe actually cut sales and property taxes … actually invest in the state’s citizens and future? Look at what NY state is doing with higher taxes for its people. - Anon - Monday, Jul 3, 17 @ 8:37 pm: Does it strike anyone else as curious that Madigan on Friday sent messages to the nation’s major credit agencies asking them to defer potential downgrades of the state’s credit status to junk until Illinois gets a budget? IMHO it proves that Rauner is not interested in solving this problem nor has he ever been. - X-prof - Monday, Jul 3, 17 @ 8:42 pm: Make that higher taxes on the wealthy in NYS, with a graduated income tax to protect middle and low-income workers. - Piece of Work - Monday, Jul 3, 17 @ 8:46 pm: RNUG, you mean $30 billion taken from taxpayers wasn’t enough? What’s it going to take? $50 billion? $60 billion? - Blue Bayou - Monday, Jul 3, 17 @ 8:51 pm: People who don’t understand taxation are impossible to argue with. They want all the benefits of civil society with none of the costs. Or, worse, they don’t even acknowledge that the world in which they earn money, receive education, infrastructure, technological innovation, is made possible by taxation and investment. - anon - Monday, Jul 3, 17 @ 8:57 pm: Thank you Senator Cullerton. - illinoised - Monday, Jul 3, 17 @ 9:01 pm: Illinois needs revenue in order to begin narrowing and eventually eliminate the deficit. Everybody in the USA is in some fashion paying for the sins of the past. We must accept that, let it go, and find a way to get some revenue. A progressive tax structure would be best if one asks the Dems, but changing our constitution is a lengthy process. No income tax increase is best if one asks the Republicans, but they offer no alternative plan for raising revenue. Folks, we are out of time and need to raise our income tax. Now. - Piece of Work - Monday, Jul 3, 17 @ 9:15 pm: I’m on board to raise taxes, not permanently, if there are reforms. Clearly MJM is not interested in reforms, only giving lip service. When you take money out of people’s pockets, the is less to put into the economy. $30 billion was taken from taxpayers in a 4 year period, money that could not be spent at restaurants, car dealers, furniture stores,etc. wages were flat, businesses couldn’t grow. Economics isn’t that tough to understand. - Biker - Monday, Jul 3, 17 @ 9:27 pm: Piece of work, even to pay back the $15 Bill in back taxes with a $1 Billion annual surplus without any interest paid would take 15 years. In 15 years I am happy to chat with you about lowering the tax rate, assuming a veto and an override - atsuishin - Monday, Jul 3, 17 @ 9:33 pm: ==This tax increase and restrained budget pretty much stabilizes the State. If they can continue to restrain the spending, and aren’t blindsided by either the ACA replacement or an economic recession, things will improve in time.== I can guarantee you IL will have another recession and there is a great possibility that Trump will replace the ACA. Then what for IL? raise taxes? Its this type of shortsightedness from the “smart people” sets IL back. Restraint is not enough IL needs to cut the state workforce and cut it drastically. Unlike NY, CA, MA, IL has no wall street hollywood/silicon valley or harvard/mit powering its economy. this state is nothing more than a larger version of indiana and its time for the government to start acting like it. - Piece of Work - Monday, Jul 3, 17 @ 9:42 pm: Sure Biker, because spending will increase and pension cost will increase significantly. I’ve previously posted that the ship known as the State of Illinois has sailed. They can’t get out of the situation they find themselves. What happens at the next recession? There are too many takers and fewer providers. Small businesses, who provide most of the employment growth, won’t grow and many will downsize. Baby boomers are leaving and taking their buying powe to other states. - Morty - Monday, Jul 3, 17 @ 9:48 pm: atsuishin- seriously? Are you think or do you just think everyone else is? #5 economy in the US #18 in THE WORLD Merchantle Mart… Board of Trade…and least try - Morty - Monday, Jul 3, 17 @ 9:50 pm: Thick not think - West Side the Best Side - Monday, Jul 3, 17 @ 9:59 pm: “this state is nothing more than a larger version of Indiana” Yep, you can hardly tell the difference between the Chicago Board Option Exchange and the Gary Board Option Exchange, the Brookfield Zoo and the Michigan City Zoo, the Sox and Cubs and the Rail Cats, etc.( Sorry, Gary, don’t really mean to pick on you.) - Lucky Pierre - Monday, Jul 3, 17 @ 10:23 pm: Dems give good lip service about taxing the wealthy unless you are talking about 6 figure government pensions and retirement income. Then they get real quiet and tell you it can’t be done even though all of our bordering states tax retirement income Even Kansas taxes social security income. One of 13 states that do so The only states that exempt pension income are Illinois, Mississippi and Pennsylvania. How long can that - Mama - Monday, Jul 3, 17 @ 10:55 pm: - Piece of Work - Monday, Jul 3, 17 @ 9:15 pm: - Dear Governor Junk, the Bonds Rating folks could care less about you wanting to off the unions. I’m assuming you have not read Madigan’s budget which includes a property tax freeze. He budget always made changes to workman’s comp.. - Anonymous - Tuesday, Jul 4, 17 @ 1:57 am: Dear Madigan: you had a choice. You could’ve come to an agreement on spending, and reforms, leading to tax increases, but you chose to cut out the middle-man. Spending, with no reforms. Good luck with that. - atsuishin - Tuesday, Jul 4, 17 @ 3:39 am: ==Are you think or do you just think everyone else is?== Hopeful you realize CME is one company while wall street/silcon valley are trillion $ industries. I was responding to all the people comparing IL to NY and suggesting IL should raise taxes to NY’s 8% top rate. IL is NoT NY: NY is the center of finance, media, fashion and the arts in the western hemisphere and it has a thriving economy to withstand its hefty taxes. Meanwhile Illinois’ economy is in decline its manufacturing base has collapsed and its legacy companies (like sears, tribune co & united etc) have atrophied. the state’s feeble economy would face an increased exodus of its residents if it imposed even more taxes and it would fall into a death spiral of ever more taxes to support its ruinous spending habits. - sharkette - Tuesday, Jul 4, 17 @ 6:43 am: CME traders, can move their electronic offices in a heart beet. anywhere out side of IL. NYS can not as they are the financial- Physical- capitol of the world. Yes many can also relo, however NYS/AMEx & all the big banks, who control the markets with the market making fake values are not about to. NYS is not moving anywhere. This is why a Fin tax does not work in IL - sharkette - Tuesday, Jul 4, 17 @ 6:49 am: A property tax freeze as is in the present deal. Exempts Pension costs. Therefore they are able to rise as needed. this does not freeze property taxes as the largest part of those lovely taxes is pensions. It is a complete farce. The largest 3 bills the State has are: BCBSIL Insurance, Pension costs and Health care for those in need. BCBSIL alone added a 40M cost to their multi year contract. IPG- Illinois procurement gateway. The data is all there. - sharkette - Tuesday, Jul 4, 17 @ 7:00 am: Back log bills. The deals/ Bills 6 & 9 as are in present form do not address how the back log gets reduced. The bills in present form, only state they will look at Bonds, if they can, there may be additional funds from extra money they may have. Plenty of if come maybe’s. The current bills as presented only state their may be ways to pay F17 out of F18 payable. Or possible trade from funds to funds. Which is what the state has done for the 15 years I have worked with them. The bills as presented do not define how these old invoices are addressed or paid. It is not at all defined at 100%. 6 & 9 are very much smoke and mirrors. - Try-4-Truth - Tuesday, Jul 4, 17 @ 7:32 am: ===sharkette - Tuesday, Jul 4, 17 @ 6:49 am: A property tax freeze as is in the present deal. Exempts Pension costs. Therefore they are able to rise as needed. this does not freeze property taxes as the largest part of those lovely taxes is pensions. It is a complete farce. The largest 3 bills the State has are: BCBSIL Insurance, Pension costs and Health care for those in need. BCBSIL alone added a 40M cost to their multi year contract. IPG- Illinois procurement gateway. The data is all there.==== None of this is paid through property taxes. I don’t understand your point. Please stick with facts. - Rabid - Tuesday, Jul 4, 17 @ 7:38 am: This is the independence day of revolutionary patriots - Matt P. - Tuesday, Jul 4, 17 @ 8:06 am: Why don’t they tax retirement income over $75,000? This is a way at “leveling the playing field” without a constitutional amendment. Oh - the unions oppose it? Nevermind. /s - Jillbugg - Tuesday, Jul 4, 17 @ 8:19 am: How appropriate.. finally the promise of a budget on Independence day. - Anonymous - Tuesday, Jul 4, 17 @ 8:31 am: ==WHy don’t they tax retirement income over 75k== Um, why don’t they tax millionaires, as the referendum vote passed requesting that they do so. I believe that taxing incomes over 1 million just might, might bring in a bit more revenue than taxing a 75k retiree, with no opportunity to start up a new career. Why have people resigned themselves to the idea that the middle class must bear the burden for everyone? Pay the freight for low income folks, bear the burden so that rich folks can play with more of their money? When asked why the bankrobber robbed banks? Well, that’s where the money is. Taxes? Why do we think so small? - Retired Govt Worker - Tuesday, Jul 4, 17 @ 8:34 am: Matt at 8:06 Old people (a high percentage who vote, i.e. AARP) are opposed to taxing retirement income. My pension is not taxed, which is ludicrous. I still use the same state services I used before I retired, but now I don’t pay for them. My kids who make minimum wage at part time jobs are paying for me. - Anon - Tuesday, Jul 4, 17 @ 8:44 am: Piece of Work, from last night I’m not a big fan of raising taxes but I am a fan of paying my bills. Your comment about 30 billion taken out of the economy that can’t be spent is not accurate. Th govt didn’t burn that 30 billion, it was put back into the economy paying for goods and services for the state. And taxes collected on a lot of ithe money put back into the economy. - heshootshescores_10 - Tuesday, Jul 4, 17 @ 9:21 am: Thankfully for this state I don’t think the Democrats will get the 36 they need. Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.