33 Comments - My New Handle - Monday, Jul 31, 17 @ 9:16 am: Taxes were raised to pay for services and hopefully stem the bleeding from Rauner’s unchecked spending without apprpriations. Now he wants money from people to start that bloodflow again? What is he thinking!? - The Captain - Monday, Jul 31, 17 @ 9:18 am: This will be fascinating next February when he not only has to introduce a balanced budget, something he’s yet to do since he became Governor, but he’s now laid down the marker that he has to introduce a budget that is both balanced and does not include any of the revenue from the tax hike. Good luck, anything less would prove that his opposition to the tax hike is phony. - Ron Popiel - Monday, Jul 31, 17 @ 9:19 am: I am afraid what he is planning is a full time fundraising apparatus to continuously fund raise on the ’sky is falling meme…sadly it works….”climate change”..”save social security”…save the whales…it is an endless parade of send us money now to (fill in blank). - Undiscovered country - Monday, Jul 31, 17 @ 9:22 am: So is h now opposed to his tax increase with reforms? - DuPage Bard - Monday, Jul 31, 17 @ 9:24 am: More good messaging work for the Gov. Dems answer? What’s their email going to look like? Please donate money so we can make sure the tax increase stays in place and not relieve property taxes. - Oswego Willy - Monday, Jul 31, 17 @ 9:26 am: Meh. Rauner vetoed funding the state agencies. Nothing is more comical that a doctor worried about mental illness defends a governor that vetoed the agency she works. Rauner vetoed everything from the Department of Aging on down. Rauner said of himself, he vetoed in its entirety. Oh, and Rauner failed to stop a tax increase. Rauner is a failure. Ask him. - Oswego Willy - Monday, Jul 31, 17 @ 9:28 am: ===What’s their email going to look like?=== Rauner vetoed Meals for Wheels. Rauner vetoed Higher Education. Rauner vetoed the entirety of Human Services funding. Rauner vetoed lots and lots and lots… Ask Diana Rauner’s “day job”. They know. Bruce vetoed “everything”. - Anonymous - Monday, Jul 31, 17 @ 9:30 am: Maybe in light of our disastrous credit rating scare, our backlog of bills, our loss of many important social services, pension scofflawing,etc.——maybe the solution, according to Rauner, is to eliminate state taxes altogether. Pay as you go, I suppose. Bridge on verge of collapse on your route to work? Get out your pick ax and repair it! Schools don’t need money! Just kind words and good intentions will do it! To hades with the credit agencies. What do they know? - former southerner - Monday, Jul 31, 17 @ 9:31 am: Rauner’s fund raising among the “commoners” is much like gambling. It causes people to act against their own best interests and serves to separate the stupid from their money. - Nick Name - Monday, Jul 31, 17 @ 9:31 am: “together we can stop the old school style politics” Um, a tax hike is an alternative to the old school style politics that for decades refused to acknowledge that Illinois needed more revenue to meet its obligations, especially its obligation to properly fund education. - The Dude Abides - Monday, Jul 31, 17 @ 9:33 am: As Ralph Martire stated last week and what many on this site already knew, the 4.95% tax rate wasn’t really enough to completely close the annual deficit. Instead of discussing additional cuts or more revenue to truly balance the budget the Governor is being dishonest to the public by stating that we should lower the income tax to the 3.75% rate. Its all about dishonesty and non stop campaigning with this guy. The guy doesn’t have any intention on fixing Illinois in any responsible, moral way. - forwhatitsworth - Monday, Jul 31, 17 @ 9:35 am: I guess Rauner doesn’t like it that the tax increase temporarily spared Illinois from being dropped to junk status by the rating agencies. I know that every drop in rating makes it more expensive for Illinois to borrow, but is there anybody that benefits when the state has to pay more when they borrow? - wordslinger - Monday, Jul 31, 17 @ 9:35 am: Here’s a plan that could have defeated the tax hike: Under the Constitution, Rauner could have put a brick on the bill for 60 days. During that time, he could have used his fat campaign fund to bankroll a multi-media campaign directed at shaky GOP override votes. He didn’t do that. Here’s a plan designed to fail: Tell legislators to stay in town because you plan to veto the tax increase immediately. In fact, that’s a plan to ensure your veto is overridden. And that’s exactly what he did. Because he wanted the money, but not the blame, Now Rauner is raising money on his sneaky back-door support for the tax increase? He’s truly a snake-oil salesman, with nothing but contempt for the intelligence of the citizenry. - Hamlet's Ghost - Monday, Jul 31, 17 @ 9:36 am: == Its all about dishonesty and non stop campaigning with this guy. == Consistent with Donald Trump’s continuing assertion that the US is the highest taxed nation in the world. - Henry Francis - Monday, Jul 31, 17 @ 9:37 am: Remember, the IPI (before they inhabited the governor’s office) proposed a balanced budget that did not include a tax hike. Sure, such a plan would be devastating for the state and politically a loser, but the denizens of the IPI message boards don’t seem to care that much about those sort of things. And those seem to be the people the Guv is focusing on now. How that gets him elected next year with 50% +1 of the vote, I have no idea. Ask Matt Besler. - Anonymous - Monday, Jul 31, 17 @ 9:37 am: Eliminate all state taxation and pass term limits. That should fix everything. - Waffle Fries - Monday, Jul 31, 17 @ 9:38 am: He’ll propose some sort of taxpayer rebate program in the next budget and underfund the states appropriations by convincing folks we don’t need the revenues. He can lie and people will believe it. - Anon221 - Monday, Jul 31, 17 @ 9:38 am: Team IPI Rauner’s goal was to raise 10K, and they are close with 5K still remaining to be raised by midnight tonight??? Glass half full bunch, huh? Is this 10K to pay for pizza for the Revolution troopers? I can see their slogan now, “32 for 32 for Fight!”. - Gooner - Monday, Jul 31, 17 @ 9:40 am: “Despite the fact that I can, and likely will, write checks in excess of $50 million and as such, your money is barely pocket change to this campaign, please send me your hard-earned dollars in what will be a futile effort to save you a few dollars in taxes.” Hey, now that sounds like a convincing argument! - Mouthy - Monday, Jul 31, 17 @ 9:40 am: “Rauner vows to “oppose this tax hike until he’s gone” Fixed it for the Bruster… - Oswego Willy - Monday, Jul 31, 17 @ 9:45 am: ===Ask Matt Besler.=== Matt Besler, last cycle, was donating hundreds of thousands of dollars thru IOP… to Ken Dunkin. Hundreds of thousands… to Ken Dunkin. That Matt Besler… lol - Earnest - Monday, Jul 31, 17 @ 9:51 am: >Um, a tax hike is an alternative to the old school style politics that for decades refused to acknowledge that Illinois needed more revenue to meet its obligations, especially its obligation to properly fund education. Amen and worth repeating. I include Rauner’s running up the bills and these campaign promises to lower taxes without uts as part of “old school politics” as well. - Norseman - Monday, Jul 31, 17 @ 10:13 am: === What is he thinking!? === I need a way to get people to forget my dismal performance and focus them on the thing everyone dislikes so I hopefully will get reelected. - The Real Just Me - Monday, Jul 31, 17 @ 10:14 am: As a practical matter, what does opposing the tax hike actually mean for Governor Rauner? Not spending the revenue? Not collecting the revenue? Getting some legislator to file and pass a repeal? Then making a budget that takes into account no tax hike? As waffle fries above said, sending us all a rebate? What does it mean to oppose something that the Governor himself agreed was needed? - zatoichi - Monday, Jul 31, 17 @ 10:27 am: Rauner has agreed several times that revenue was needed as long as he was not the primary person tied to that statement. Now he wants to get rid of the tax increase. Ok, where is his then equally needed plan to decrease costs or is that all outlined in the IPI no tax increase budget document? He needs $32 dollars from me to battle Madigan and Cullerton when he can (and probably will) write a $32 million check anytime he feels like it? I know he is becoming a man of the people cause he cares so deeply. Governor, pick a lane. - Anon221 - Monday, Jul 31, 17 @ 10:35 am: The Real Just Me- It may mean that Rauner sits on parts of the budget and won’t implement them. That might be the “revolution” he is promising. - Demoralized - Monday, Jul 31, 17 @ 10:47 am: He doesn’t have to spend the extra money the tax hike provided. He controls how the budget is implemented. If he’s serious and doesn’t believe the tax hike is necessary then he should show everyone how he can manage the budget without the funds from the tax hike. - Michelle Flaherty - Monday, Jul 31, 17 @ 10:49 am: Wonder when this tax-hating gov is going to start implementing the agency cuts required under the new budget. - Winnin' - Monday, Jul 31, 17 @ 11:34 am: Asked how he will make the tax hike go away and still pay off the the $15+ billion Rauner backlog of bills, Rauner mused, ” You know what? We’ll break Illinois up into parts, sell some off, like the Thompson Center, and let the remaining parts go bankrupt. He added, chuckling, “We’ll see how Madigan likes that,” - ArchPundit - Monday, Jul 31, 17 @ 12:25 pm: ===Tax Hike opposition program Since Rich didn’t, Who talks like this? - blue dog dem - Monday, Jul 31, 17 @ 12:32 pm: I guess that means he will work tirelessly for a progressive income tax and a Chicago city earnings tax to no end. - walker - Monday, Jul 31, 17 @ 4:42 pm: This is where Rauner sickens me. I get fighting for general principles, and respect it. I don’t get lying about the details of what you actually do. He pretends his own budget didn’t require this tax increase and more. - Oswego Willy - Monday, Jul 31, 17 @ 4:51 pm: Rauner….. I’m gonna oppose until it’s gone I’m gonna laugh although it’s wrong, I’m gonna take the town and turn it upside down, I’m gonna oppose, oppose, oppose until it’s gone. They’re gonna say “What a guy!” I’m gonna play for the sky. Ain’t gonna miss a thing, I’m gonna have my fling, I’m gonna oppose, oppose, oppose until it’s… gone. The blues I lay low, I’ll make them stay low, They’ll never trail over my head. I’ll be a devil, till I’m an angel, but until then Hallelujah. Gonna shake, gonna fly, I’ll bring it back while riding high, Before my number’s up, I’m gonna fill my cup, I’m gonna oppose, oppose, oppose, until it’s…gone Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.