Question of the day
Tuesday, Jul 11, 2017 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Crain’s Chicago Business editorial…
So Illinois spent two years setting itself on fire in order to do . . . what, exactly? Income tax rates now stand at 2014 levels. Pensions are still underfunded. The major “Turnaround Agenda” ideas the governor ran on—”right to work,” workers’ comp reform and term limits—were kicked to the curb over time like so much roadkill. The state, meanwhile, has been the customer from hell to social service agencies and small businesses alike, demanding services and refusing to pay for them, racking up millions in unnecessary interest charges and forcing private-sector layoffs along the way.
Rauner presided over all of this—and, at key moments in the spectacle, could have prevented it. Not a good look for a man who ran as a business-minded pragmatist, a dealmaker who would put the needs of regular Illinoisans first and reject petty partisan politics.
In the end, Rauner’s stance on the budget compromise revealed how political this supposed “non-politician” has actually become. Despite knowing the damage that further ratings downgrades would do to the state, despite understanding the real damage being done to universities, businesses and municipalities by the ongoing standoff, despite recognizing that there is no way cuts and reforms alone will dig Illinois out of its financial hole without new revenue, the governor vetoed the budget legislation when it came to his desk. He did this knowing the chances were very, very good that his veto would be overridden.
There were plenty of political benefits for the governor in this irresponsible move: The guy who said he wasn’t a career politician gets to appease his base, which is howling to the point of threatening violence against lawmakers who voted yes on the budget. He also gets a workable budget that will hold the wolves of Wall Street at bay at least for a time. And as an added sweetener, he also gets plenty of partisan fuel for a re-election campaign he once told us he’d be happy to skip if it meant he could get the job done in Springfield for the people of Illinois.
What a waste.
* Tribune editorial…
Legislators who imposed this year’s increase despite Gov. Bruce Rauner’s opposition hope that by next year’s elections you’ll once again forget. Forget that they voted to raise your taxes before they passed major reforms. Forget how they set this state to shrivel as its neighbors thrive. Forget how they sabotaged Illinois.
Don’t forget.
* Bruce Rauner op-ed…
Over the past two years we’ve also been seeking common ground on the fiscal and structural changes necessary to restore our state’s fiscal health. This challenge is not just about one year’s budget; it is about reforming our state so that our economy grows faster than our government spending. Structural reforms that encourage job growth, provide property tax relief and make government more efficient are essential to our long-term fiscal health.
Yet instead of passing a budget with reforms that would move Illinois forward, the legislature collapsed under the pressure of entrenched interests and passed a 32 percent income tax hike.
* The Southern editorial…
Clearly the deep financial hole Illinois has dug for itself cannot by filled by cuts alone. In addition, legislators were looking at Illinois’ bond rating being lowered to junk status, a measure that would have cost the state even more when borrowing funds.
With unfunded pension liabilities, school districts and universities swimming in red ink, there is still plenty of work to do.
As much as we hate having our taxes raised, tough choices had to be made — this wasn’t going to be easy.
Bryant stepped up to make a choice that we believe benefits the state in both the long and short term. Voters are free to agree or disagree with her vote. But, they are obligated, morally and legally, to express that disagreement in a civil manner.
* The Question: Your tax hike winners and losers? Don’t forget to explain your answers.
- Michelle Flaherty - Tuesday, Jul 11, 17 @ 2:50 pm:
IPI wins. It opened the door for them to all finally get government jobs.
- Name Withheld - Tuesday, Jul 11, 17 @ 2:52 pm:
Yeah. For almost everyone else, there are no winners - only varying degrees of loss or stopped loss. IPI gets some people in the Guv’s office.
- Chicago Cynic - Tuesday, Jul 11, 17 @ 2:53 pm:
Do you mean “Your budget deal winners and losers?”
- walker - Tuesday, Jul 11, 17 @ 2:53 pm:
Tax hikes always play poorly with the voting public. For right now, Dems take the heat in competitive districts and burbs.
Only possible saving grace in next 18 months for Dems, would be a growing sense of a “Rauner can’t get anything done,” which I’m just starting to hear.
- blue dog dem - Tuesday, Jul 11, 17 @ 2:56 pm:
The winners. The entrenched bureaucracy. Some good. Some necessary. But certainly not all.
The losers. Do I have to repeat myself eight times a day. But what the heCk. Nobody cares.
- The Captain - Tuesday, Jul 11, 17 @ 2:56 pm:
Winner: IPI. Their fantasy budget never had a snowball’s chance, yet they come out of this process far, far stronger.
To paraphrase Hyman Roth: they have now what they have always wanted, real partnership with the government.
- DuPage - Tuesday, Jul 11, 17 @ 2:56 pm:
Rauner won. After he leaves office he can make millions of extra dollars by investing in Illinois bonds, at their new higher interest rates
that he helped to create.
- Inspector Gadget - Tuesday, Jul 11, 17 @ 2:57 pm:
Winner Proft he now is the de facto Governor.
- Actual Red - Tuesday, Jul 11, 17 @ 3:00 pm:
Winners:
–The people of Illinois. Our state isn’t going to go over the cliff, social services will continue to operate. Roads will be paved and hospitals will remain open. Organizations that treat people with mental health issues, victims of domestic violence, and so on will be able to do their jobs. All those things were not guaranteed without the tax hike, and people in Illinois, especially very vulnerable people, needed those services.
–Bruce Rauner. He gets to have his budget cake and eat it too. Large parts of his base likely didn’t feel the full squeeze of the budget impasse the way the poorest people in Illinois did, and the way the rest of us would have without new revenue. His base will be energized and pissed off about taxes, without having felt first hand why those taxes were necessary. Polls show that people want services, but don’t want to pay taxes. Now they get the services, and Rauner gets to blame the Dems for the taxes.
Losers:
– The people of Illinois. Paying higher taxes is a legitimate burden on many folks, and the fact that our constitution won’t allow a progressive income tax means that that burden isn’t equitably distributed. More than that, it will give the Randian ideologues in Rauner’s camp more ammo to attack Democratic legislators and Republicans who are willing to compromise, which might lead us toward Kansas-style austerity in the near future, or at least put Rauner in for another term of obstruction and bad governance that might just bring us back to where we were last week.
–Republicans who voted for the tax hike. See above.
- Ahoy! - Tuesday, Jul 11, 17 @ 3:05 pm:
I’m not sure there is any winner on this. We just raised taxes and we’re not really in any better shape. Maybe the the Governor because there is a budget and a tax increase that he didn’t sign and he can keep campaigning on on all the same issues because they still have not been addressed.
The best analogy I have heard is from the writer of this blog, we’re out of hospice and into intensive care. We just have so many problems and so few people willing to solve them. Then compound that the Governor’s office is just getting weird.
- wordslinger - Tuesday, Jul 11, 17 @ 3:07 pm:
–So Illinois spent two years setting itself on fire in order to do . . . what, exactly?–
So the governor could burn as much of it as he could. How is that not obvious?
To the question, Rauner is the winner. He destroyed as much as he could for as long as he could within the constraints of court orders.
Now, he’ll campaign against raising taxes while taking credit for the relative stability of state finance and functions.
He is quite the duplicitous old-timey politician.
- Anon221 - Tuesday, Jul 11, 17 @ 3:11 pm:
Winners and losers… of the battles or the “war”? Short term appears to be IPI and Team Rauner. They are enjoying loads of press for their “news outlets” and some free tax-payer funded jobs with benefits. In the long-term… I’m reserving judgment until the K-12 funding issue is put to bed. That will show me if there are still the 10-15 Republicans willing to continue supporting their constituents, and perhaps even more joining their ranks. Rauner, meanwhile, is focused on 2018 and those US Supreme Court cases. As long as he maintains “standing” he could care less about the bond markets, budget implementation, or bargaining of any kind.
- Lucky Pierre - Tuesday, Jul 11, 17 @ 3:11 pm:
Democrats believe Illinois competitiveness can be restored by tax increases alone with no significant reforms to Springfield or our business environment.
If they truly believed that why did they agree to let the tax increase sunset before Rauner’s inauguration?
Did they really think he would just sign off on a Quinn budget and tax plan without any compromise or reforms?
They could have passed budgets on their own the previous two years or worst case just try to flip one or two Republicans in the House to override a veto.
Governor Rauner called them out two years ago, if they just want to raise taxes without reforms they will have to override his veto.
Will someone ask Speaker Madigan what took him so long? What did he gain by waiting two and a half years?
The Dems being anti property tax reform will not just hurt them in swing districts.
Speaker Madigan owns the 32% permanent income tax increase without reforms. I doubt he can go down from a 5% strongly approve but you never know.
Governor Rauner’s poll numbers will increase, especially after the property tax ads run.
- Three-Finger Brown - Tuesday, Jul 11, 17 @ 3:13 pm:
Rauner benefits from the tax hike. Angry conservatives do two things really well: 1) use the Caps Lock button, 2) show up during mid term elections. Liberals, not so much.
Plus, it seems like the Trib editorial board has gone full Brietbart recently.
- Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Jul 11, 17 @ 3:15 pm:
- Lucky Pierre -
===Speaker Madigan owns the 32% permanent income tax increase without reforms. I doubt he can go down from a 5% strongly approve but you never know===
Rauner has yet… in 3 budgetary years… sign a full budget.
Rauner has zero budgetary successes.
The cost?
The damage of blowing up the Grand Bargains, the revolt of 16 then 11 GOP members waiting to save Illinois… from Rauner.
I wouldn’t be surprised if that comes back on Rauner, piling on that 58% disapproval Rauner wears.
- Flapdoodle - Tuesday, Jul 11, 17 @ 3:21 pm:
No clear winners and losers. The absolutely necessary tax increase will be spun politically by all sides, state’s bills will be paid, social services/education will limp forward, taxpayers will lose spendable income. Guv fell on his face with TA, but gets 2018 leverage with his rightist base. ILGOP’s future electoral roll unclear but non-Raunerite/non-Randian base is still there. ILDems will be tagged with tax rate and accused of business as usual, will not affect their base and can be turned to advantage as having rescued state. It’s all clear as Illinois River water.
- A State Employee Guy - Tuesday, Jul 11, 17 @ 3:22 pm:
Are you kidding? Literally everyone lost, to one degree or another.
- Enviro - Tuesday, Jul 11, 17 @ 3:22 pm:
Illinois has avoided a financial meltdown and will begin paying the overdue bills.
Commonsense was the winner of this tax hike.
- Postbot 5999 - Tuesday, Jul 11, 17 @ 3:23 pm:
Big win for unions and trial lawyers. All this dammage to protect them from taking a haircut. Universities, the middle class, service providers and many others paid the price.
- Honeybear - Tuesday, Jul 11, 17 @ 3:23 pm:
Winner- state agencies have a weak pulse and are responding to external stimulus. State government can now actually serve the public. Maybe even hire to replace some of the over thirty percent we’ve lost ( starting out as the smallest workforce per capita)
Winner - Rauner. Money to put towards privatization efforts and hiring replacements for strikers. Money to burn on consulting firms and IT contractors. AND he gets to blame Madigan. Now he has a new crew of Gestapo “yes” idealogue stop play with. No inconvenience of governing. All campaign from here on out.
Losers- my sisters and brothers in labor. Now we shall taste the full un-distracted wrath of Sith Lord Rauner. All his will bent against our destruction and scapegoating. We shall be made to be the sin eater. Good people will be made to suffer for Rauners sin.
It’s not a waste Crains
It’s an apostasy
Government is to derive and execute the common good
Not to produce profit for private business
- Small town taxpayer - Tuesday, Jul 11, 17 @ 3:31 pm:
The only winner might be Rauner among those who do not like tax increases and do not know how it took place.
Losers, as I see it, are everyone else, especially the taxpayers of Illinois who will be paying for the last two years for many years into the future.
- lake county democrat - Tuesday, Jul 11, 17 @ 3:33 pm:
Winners:
1) Government workers
2) The poor
3) Government payees
4) Politicians (from Speaker Madigan to the gerrymandered-protected majority of elected officials to the should-be-pared-down myriad of government entities).
Losers
1) The middle class
2) “Small-d democrats” (no reforms, not even votes on reform)
3) Businesses, who will continue to be wooed by competiting states.
Uncertain:
Rauner. He should have known he only had 1 term to effect Randian change - he may luck into 2 but he shouldn’t have planned on it. So maybe the deficits are part of a long-game to constrict spending and put pressure on the Democrats. I doubt it though. And he increasingly looks small and petty.
- cdog - Tuesday, Jul 11, 17 @ 3:36 pm:
tax hike winners - downstate communities with state facilities that get a little reprieve before the next wave of necessary austerity hits them. Hope they’re planning ahead…
tax hike losers - property owners that got no relief and who have to continue to do the heavy lifting trying to educate the communities’ children.
- Hexagon - Tuesday, Jul 11, 17 @ 3:36 pm:
I think Rauner lost–yes, he got to play the anti tax hero and have his revenue. But, he got absolutely nothing, legislatively, from the crisis he created and angered business groups (chi commercial club), all state workers, union households etc. and made national headlines for the state’s dysfunction. It’s really a stinging loss and won’t help him hold the 149k votes that propelled him past Quinn. (also trump)
Madigan won the political ground game being patient and methodical. He has no real vision for the party or state, but he’s good in the trenches.
IL lost
- Jocko - Tuesday, Jul 11, 17 @ 3:36 pm:
Winners - Rauner’s political and literal capital. Uniformed voters who want something for nothing.
Losers - Believers of incremental change.
- Anon - Tuesday, Jul 11, 17 @ 3:37 pm:
Loser is the state of Illinois and its people.
It will be a max of 2 years before we have to raise taxes again to keep up with the spending already in the pike as the pension obligations keep increasing. It will keep hoovering up more and more of the general fund, as well as the increased interest costs on all of our borrowing.
Politicians will have to keep raising taxes and have nothing to show their constituents because all the new revenue will already be accounted for, all at the same time property taxes keep surging and schools/roads crumble.
It is a toxic stew that is going to make it darn near impossible to get another revenue increase, which the state will assuradley need in the not too distant future.
- Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Jul 11, 17 @ 3:45 pm:
===Your tax hike winners and losers?===
Winners.
* Those saved by the GA Budget;
* The existing social services that survived.
* The higher education skeketon Rauner tried to destroy.
* Municipalities
* Infrastructure
* The people of Illinois
* Those GA members that decided it’s about the budget in talking to constituents.
* Dan Proft, John Kass, John Tillman, Editorial Boards
* IPI
* The Ounce
* Bruce Rauner.
“Why?”
Those getting a budget and monies are the obvious winners. Rauner wins on being a victim. Proft, IPI, et al, win on the demise of the ILGOP… Diana Rauner wins, as The Ounce wins too. IPI not only takes over the ILGOP, but the Governor’s office too
Losers.
* The Rauner Crew, the Rauner Staff
* Republican legislators who voted against the state and their districts
* Parents with students looking for Illinois Higher Ed options and chose another state
* Slytherin Republicans that can’t understand Math
* Possibly CPS and/or K-12 (jury is out)
* Bruce Rauner
* Closed Social Services, those who couldn’t hang on, those who moved on, those who can’t go back
“Why?”
Idealogues and the victims to those idealogues never fully win, so Rauner and this shakeup in his Staff/Crew point not to much winning. Really we all lost, hard to see who didn’t really find a loss for them, if I want to just break it down simply.
Closed social services, the clients, families, the workers, the volunteers, the system… Huge loser, something that will take a decade or more to fix.
Higher Ed… they may never fully recover too.
The starving the beast for 2 years… It destroyed part of Illinois. Now its seeing what rubble left over that this current budget can salvage for tomorrow.
- FormerDownstateHack - Tuesday, Jul 11, 17 @ 3:47 pm:
Winner - Politically, Rauner, getting the Dems to collectively wear the collar of a tax hike heading into his re-election campaign and keeping all of his favorite talking point issues available to point out lack of interest in reform on the part of the Dems.
Losers - 1. our kids and grandkids who will have to pay for this, unless of course they figure it out and move elsewhere before they start working and paying the taxes it will take to fix the mess. And, 2. Anyone who loves Illinois who will either have to deal with their kids moving away or will have to move as well.
- Earnest - Tuesday, Jul 11, 17 @ 3:48 pm:
Biggest winner: Illinois. We have the needed reform of a permanent tax increase and the beginnings of a balanced-budget approach to our finances. We will stop running up more high-interest debt to be paid by us at a later date.
Winner: Bruce Rauner. He gets to do the things most popular with Illinoisans–spend government money, with the built-in power to generate good will and photo ops. On top of that, he gets to campaign as a person who opposed the thing most unpopular with Illinoisans–tax increases.
Winner: a sense of duty and responsibility to something other than winning the next election and obeying than your party’s funding source for those rank-and-file legislators in both the House and Senate who put either their names or votes onto unpopular legislation.
Loser: Michael Madigan, who probably didn’t want to campaign on passing a tax increase and who would like to compete on making Bruce Rauner more unpopular than anyhone else.
Loser: future taxpayers of Illinois who will be left with a lot of bills (I include years of pension funding here as well) which will be a lot bigger when they have to pay them, unless there is the political courage out there to do more with unpopular revenue and unpopular cuts.
- CrazyHorse - Tuesday, Jul 11, 17 @ 3:48 pm:
Winners: Hard to find any here. It’s like everyone survived a plane crash but ended up paralyzed. Costs were high and real in this brutal game of cat and mouse.
Losers: Virtually everyone except maybe some bond investors. By nearly every measure the State is in a worse condition than it was before Rauner took office.
I think Crain’s summed it up rather well.
- Veil of Ignorance - Tuesday, Jul 11, 17 @ 3:50 pm:
I second Actual Red’s analysis, with one modification that losers were middle class and working class Illinoisans who don’t benefit from a progressive tax system and have to pay the same tax rate as the uber wealthy in our state. I think it remains to be seen whether the Republicans who broke ranks will pay next year and truly be “losers.”
- downstate commissioner - Tuesday, Jul 11, 17 @ 3:50 pm:
Rauner, like Blagojevic, thought he could beat Madigan. Dummies….
- Anon - Tuesday, Jul 11, 17 @ 3:52 pm:
How can anyone say Illinois was “starved” the past 2 years?
Spending far exceeded even this budget deal just on court ordered payments.
The fact that even that wasn’t enough to keep a huge backlog from happening should alarm everyone, and drives home just how bad the budget situation is.
We just had a 32% revenue increase and it’s already spent with no room for any new discretionary spending in the future.
Anyone who thinks the beast was starved before has no idea what real hunger looks like, as times are going to be increasingly lean for the next few decades as pensions obligations and debt service chew up 30% of the general fund before a single productive dollar is spent.
- Lucky Pierre - Tuesday, Jul 11, 17 @ 3:54 pm:
Of course the Speaker or the Democrats don’t lose anything.
Do Slytherin Democrats understand math? Not the unsustainable pension kind.
The demise of the GOP is greatly exaggerated.
Do you really think they will lose seats after a permanent tax income tax increase without any significant reforms?
- A guy - Tuesday, Jul 11, 17 @ 3:57 pm:
The Winners are likely the bond holders who got a bit more assurance that their pseudo-risky investments are even more safe than they already were.
In carnage, and this is legislative carnage, everyone is reduced to a loser. Everyone is laying on the mat dazed and confused…
The winner will be determined later by whoever gets up first ala Rocky Balboa.
- Wensicia - Tuesday, Jul 11, 17 @ 4:00 pm:
Not winners, but wounded survivors of this mess:
Higher education and the social services that managed to struggle through the last two years.
Losers, we’ll find out in next year’s elections.
- littlehorse - Tuesday, Jul 11, 17 @ 4:01 pm:
I still think they need to revisit taxing retirement benifits.
- Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Jul 11, 17 @ 4:01 pm:
===Of course the Speaker or the Democrats don’t lose anything.===
Everyone lost. There’s no all winner of all losers…
Except IPI taking over the Governor’s Office, they solely won.
===Do Slytherin Democrats understand math? Not the unsustainable pension===
Co-opting Slytherin… what is a Slytherin Democratic member? Answer that, then…
===The demise of the GOP is greatly exaggerated===
The ILGOP is over.
The IPI will push the Raunerism and the lack of autonomous caucuses was highlighted when the uprise occurred, and now the tramping down has begun.
===Do you really think they will lose seats after a permanent tax income tax increase without any significant reforms?===
I’ve said many times, many times…
Rauner could very well lose, Raunerites may get seats too.
It’s up to Dems to remind voters…
Rauner hasn’t signed any full budget. Rauner just doesn’t care about a budget for his state.
- don the legend - Tuesday, Jul 11, 17 @ 4:12 pm:
Winner, Madigan. Got more than the minimum republican votes needed so some dems could vote no.
Loser, Rauner. All his promises were unrealized, taxes raised, Illinois severely burned and Rauner is holding the lighter and gas can.
- Responsa - Tuesday, Jul 11, 17 @ 4:20 pm:
Loser: Madigan. He is going to need to “retire” to save the Dems in the next election.
Loser: Rauner. He did not get the reforms he sought and which are so sorely needed to put this state in a path of more than just short term survival.
Losers: middle class workers and Illinois businesses both large and small who will be paying for several decades of past bad governing and investment mistakes.
- Lucky Pierre - Tuesday, Jul 11, 17 @ 4:23 pm:
You are missing for forest for the trees OW.
Far for voters understand the macro- rising income and property taxes than the micro - 5 and 10 percent cuts in state spending on social services, higher education etc.
With 90 percent of the budget on auto pilot most voters did not feel the sting of no budget.
Middle class taxpayers will feel the pinch of a higher tax burdens but fewer services and virtually no reforms
The legislators that voted for this budget will have some esplainin to do if as expected another tax increase is around the corner
- Markus - Tuesday, Jul 11, 17 @ 4:23 pm:
Winner- Bruce Rauner who can now campaign to “Make Illinois Great Again” and lead the fight against “Crooked Mike”
Losers- People of Illinois, too many of whom will buy that line of “bull”. I’m having a “deja vu”.
- SAP - Tuesday, Jul 11, 17 @ 4:28 pm:
The Governor is a winner because of this ==the governor vetoed the budget legislation when it came to his desk. He did this knowing the chances were very, very good that his veto would be overridden.== If the Governor did not want that budget veto overridden he had 60 days to sit on it and hold out for the budget he wanted. Instead, he turned it around as quickly as he could so the legislature could override his veto and (almost) nobody is calling him on it.
- Lefty Lefty - Tuesday, Jul 11, 17 @ 4:29 pm:
I’ll play the middle–we’re all winners and losers. Our state is functioning again. We’re all paying more in taxes.
No one has a crystal ball. There’s plenty of mess to clean up, and the bomb-throwers still have voice while common sense–the state needed the revenue–won the week. So what happens now? Hopefully reasonable politicking continues. Fund the schools, including CPS and our universities, adequately. Unions have to understand there’s a haircut coming, but no one will garnish existing agreements or violate the constitution. Vote for the candidate making the most fiscal sense. Close unnecessary facilities. Take care of the poor and elderly. Pay our bills down.
Nothing this serious is corrected overnight, but if the extremists continue to be marginalized we’ll stay on track.
- Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Jul 11, 17 @ 4:32 pm:
===With 90 percent of the budget on auto pilot most voters did not feel the sting of no budget.===
Rauner, again, has no signed budget?
100 new state troopers? Rauner vetoed that.
Funding for more road construction? Rauner vetoed that.
Eastern and Southern Illinois Universities are saved? Rauner vetoed that.
The money owed to The Ounce? Rauner vetoed that.
Rauner has no budgetary wins. Anything touched by monies only released with a budget, Rauner vetoed.
Where can Rauner go and show a success that Rauner didn’t veto the budgetary connection? Nowhere.
===The legislators that voted for this budget…===
… saved Illinois from Rauner’s veto abs continued destruction of Illinois.
Rauner is at 58% disapproval, and Rauner runs statewide and now has zero budgetary priorities that he (Rauner) signed, lol…
Three years, not one full budget signed.
People understand Rauner vetoed my stuff… Mrs. Rauner and The Ounce understand Bruce’s veto hurt social services. Heck they asked for the override, lol
- VanillaMan - Tuesday, Jul 11, 17 @ 4:33 pm:
Winners: Illinoisans
Losers: Rauner. Whoever is his opponent next year won’t advocate for higher taxes. Dude was exposed as a nasty politician. He lost ILGOP who cares about governments.
- City Zen - Tuesday, Jul 11, 17 @ 4:44 pm:
Winners - Bondholders, with the guarantees hidden in the legislation.
Losers - Working families’ retirement funds and children’s college savings accounts that will lose out of deposits and compounded interest, the effects of which will be felt for decades to come.
- DuPage Bard - Tuesday, Jul 11, 17 @ 4:52 pm:
Winner-
Rauner- veto tax hike, still gets money to spend
IPI- complete takeover of Party and control of Governor
Durkin (so far)- he had a defection but was it really a defection or did Rauner let it happen because he needed the budget?
Proft- becomes the full on mouth piece and highest rated morning show in Chicago to push through his own agenda.
Loser-
Madigan- he blinked first, he should have let State go to junk then made Rauner beg for tax increase.
Goldberg- He tried to have it all ways be the good cop and the bad cop.
Radogno- through best efforts still got undercut and undervalued and now is gone. Granted no longer being there may make her a winner?
Suburban taxpayers- Lake, Kane, DuPage, McHenry Counties-income tax increase and still the highest property taxes in the nation.
GOP staff- looks as if a full throttle cleansing is taking place at this point.
State employees- Congratulations, maybe that vote for Rauner will really send a message to Pat Quinn?
- Anonymous - Tuesday, Jul 11, 17 @ 4:56 pm:
Low income taxpayers lose as there was no corresponding increase in standard exemption for their State Income tax.
Winners are the taxpayer subsidized Liquor and Casino industries.
- Enviro - Tuesday, Jul 11, 17 @ 4:58 pm:
Anon@3:11 “if there are still the 10-15 Republicans willing to continue supporting their constituents, and perhaps even more joining their ranks.”
This was the first step that needed to happen and will determine if Illinois can come back from financial disaster.
- Anon - Tuesday, Jul 11, 17 @ 5:05 pm:
This was the first in a long line of tax increases that is going to have to happen for the state to have even a chance of staying solvent.
It is very likely that within the term of whoever is elected governor in 2018 the income tax rate is going to have to go to at least 7%, because mandatory spending is going to keep increasing and the revenues now don’t even really balance depending on who you believe.
If there is even a hint of a recession (we are due historically) then this last budget episode is going to look like Camelot compared to the fight that is going to ensue.
- Anonymous - Tuesday, Jul 11, 17 @ 5:27 pm:
We all Try to imagine the faces of the regular commentators. I am ever-changing. Michelle Flaherty cracks me up every time.
She is good! Time to put some faces with the CF peeps, Rich.
- VanillaMan - Tuesday, Jul 11, 17 @ 5:28 pm:
Losers: Gullible citizens who believed Rauner.
- Rich Miller - Tuesday, Jul 11, 17 @ 5:34 pm:
===She is good! Time to put some faces with the CF peeps===
You really don’t want to know.
- wordslinger - Tuesday, Jul 11, 17 @ 5:35 pm:
–Winners - Bondholders, with the guarantees hidden in the legislation.–
Huh? Hidden how, with invisible ink?
Since you found those “hidden guarantees,” could you share them?
Bonds are already covered by an irrevocable continuing resolution.
What got dicey was when Judge Lefkow said state laws didn’t trump her orders. Then, she dropped the hammer.
- Last Bull Moose - Tuesday, Jul 11, 17 @ 5:39 pm:
We do not have honest political dialogue. That is a tremendous loss. We have lost comity, our sense of community is breaking down.
The budget and tax drama has cost us two years that could have been spent working on problems. Outside of criminal justice improvements, little has been done.
The solution is a day late and a dollar short.
- Shake - Tuesday, Jul 11, 17 @ 5:40 pm:
Winner- ILLINOIS. Loser- Rauner. He Really Looks Bad.
- JPC - Tuesday, Jul 11, 17 @ 6:30 pm:
Winner (copying from someone above): the candidate who doesn’t have to run on the need to raise taxes.
Winner: the people of Illinois who now have a somewhat enlarged understanding of the problems the state faces.
Loser: Rauner–he has nothing to show for this. Today he demonstrated his complete lack of self-awareness by tweeting about how the Governor of Wisconsin knows how to get stuff done. Yes. I suppose he does.
Losers: the people the state of Illinois will mistakenly blame for high taxes.
Loser: Me. To paraphrase what my brother said after one of Bulls’ Repeat victories: I’ve spent my time (lots of it) trying to figure this thing out; I had my pay docked by 6k but worked more (mostly to deal with the consequences of there not being a budget); I have nothing to look forward to but more of the same.
- blue dog dem - Tuesday, Jul 11, 17 @ 8:18 pm:
How come I can’t find slytherin in my Websters?
- anon2 - Tuesday, Jul 11, 17 @ 9:11 pm:
Pat Quinn should win belated vindication that he was right about the necessity of making permanent the temporary tax hike. Historians will recongize it, even though the public won’t.
- cannon649 - Tuesday, Jul 11, 17 @ 10:01 pm:
Losers are the wage earning real estate tax payers who have just seen the Can get bigger - without any type of reform in site.
Winners can not call this a win unless the you look at the ratings companies with all the free advertising they received.
- GeorgeoftheJungle - Wednesday, Jul 12, 17 @ 9:59 am:
Surely you jest. The winners - the ONLY winners - are the many generations of past politicians who kicked the can down the road and moved on. No one could be so foolish as to actually believe that THIS generation of politicians got us THIS deep in THIS hole in just their last term.
All but the oldest of this generation of politicians are ultimately going to be the ones with no chair when the music stops and ARE going to be ruined politically by it, just as all but the oldest of our citizens see this state ruined economically. It has gone on too long. We’ve run out of road to kick the can down. We need our own PROMESA.