* Tribune…
After his gubernatorial hopes were dashed in the March primary, state Sen. Daniel Biss, D-Evanston, says he doesn’t really know his next career move but he plans to continue his push for the state adopting a progressive income tax structure – and he could throw his full support behind his former billionaire opponent J.B. Pritzker. […]
The two men have had multiple phone conversations since the primary, and Biss said he meets regularly with Pritzker’s staff. […]
“I have no doubt that J.B. is serious about getting this [graduated income tax] done,” Biss said. “But others who have been serious about it have failed. In fact, all of them have failed. So the question is, what’s [his] plan that’s different from the plans we’ve had in the past?”
Incumbent Gov. Bruce Rauner, who is running against Pritzker, said through a spokesman that “raising taxes on the people of Illinois has been the cornerstone of J.B. Pritzker’s campaign.”
“Daniel Biss is an unapologetic supporter of the graduated income tax hike while J.B. Pritzker supports it without giving any details of his own plan,” Rauner spokesman Alex Browning wrote in an email. “Biss is right, it’s time J.B. gets more specific so the people of Illinois know the truth.”
Discuss.
*** UPDATE *** Carol Marin tried to drag details out of Sen. Biss about his own graduated tax hike proposal back in January…
MARIN: Do you have a number?
BISS: It’s a real burden. So we need to change the constitution to allow for a progressive income tax. It’s something I’ve been fighting for for a long, long time and use that tool to adequately fund schools.
MARIN: But do you have a number? What the Civic Federation and what the tax accountability groups all look for are some sort of rate and some sort of yield, so we know what we’re gonna get that we don’t otherwise have.
BISS: That’s right. It would have to be patterned after what we see in neighboring states. It would have to be arrived at by working through a series of negotiations on both sides of the ledger by the way. There’s no sense in just setting tax rates unless you said something about what to do with the money, but we need to make sure that resources are adequate to fund our schools properly, which requires significant more revenue.
* Related…
* New ad campaign warn taxpayers about progressive tax: Nelms said once Illinois lawmakers get the power to add tax brackets, and raise rates, the sky is the limit. “If we scrap our flat state income tax and implement a progressive tax, that would give the legislature carte blanche,” Nelms said.
- Real - Tuesday, Apr 24, 18 @ 1:31 pm:
Be specific for what? So that Rauner can have campaign ammo to distort and mislead voters with? Even if he releases a proposal it will be changed by the GA.
- wordslinger - Tuesday, Apr 24, 18 @ 1:32 pm:
So what job does Biss want, or think he’s entitled to, anyway?
- Bissident - Tuesday, Apr 24, 18 @ 1:34 pm:
Daniel is simply flexing for the 12 people in Our Revolution Illinois. This is interesting, however, to watch Daniel play purity politics and shortly after Chuy endorses Madigan.
- Interested - Tuesday, Apr 24, 18 @ 1:36 pm:
Biss should be ashamed of himself. He lost and owes it to the people of this state to stop behaving like an obstructionist and get behind the man who beat him. We cannot survive another Rauner term!
- Perrid - Tuesday, Apr 24, 18 @ 1:37 pm:
I’ve made this argument before, but while I think it would be good for JB to put his marker down somewhere, for good or ill, I don’t see it as a huge issue because it would take a lot of work and compromise to come up with the brackets and rates. And the fear mongering on the conservatives side is funny. Their whole argument is a slippery slope fallacy.
- Real - Tuesday, Apr 24, 18 @ 1:43 pm:
Why didn’t Biss ever propose any specific rates in the primary?
- Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Apr 24, 18 @ 1:43 pm:
Biss ain’t helping.
Why make an enemy you may need down the road… with deep pockets?
I’m confused to why he’s doing this, politically, to be honest.
- Ron - Tuesday, Apr 24, 18 @ 1:45 pm:
Be specific so us taxpayers here in Illinois know what JB intends to do.
- Anonish - Tuesday, Apr 24, 18 @ 1:46 pm:
I have two questions initially:
Did Biss ever introduce or sponsor a bill that included defined brackets and rates?
Did he have those broken out on his campaign website?
- Honeybear - Tuesday, Apr 24, 18 @ 1:46 pm:
The finest example yet of the privileged progressive blind to how his policies/words/actions have immense consequences to the regular working person.
Hand Rauner the hammer to hit Pritzker with?
Is that what you want to do?
No wonder you got trounced Dan
You obviously don’t care
What a second Rauner term
Would do yo Illinois
Chew on the bitter cud
Of your privilege
Maybe Jacobin is hiring?
- Retired Educator - Tuesday, Apr 24, 18 @ 1:48 pm:
Senator Biss (The Pension Thief) your 15 minutes are up. What do you not understand about losing? You and your ideas were rejected by the Illinois voters. Go away, and find another career path.
- Honeybear - Tuesday, Apr 24, 18 @ 1:50 pm:
And even worse now you’ve wound up Ron for another never ending series of pleas for the rates
Curse you Dan
- Thomas Paine - Tuesday, Apr 24, 18 @ 1:52 pm:
Pro tip to JB Pritzker’s staff: stop talking to Senator Biss. You are feeding an already monsterous ego, apparently.
- Anonymous - Tuesday, Apr 24, 18 @ 1:55 pm:
Vote for someone who is trying to sell something, but will not give you details, and you end up on losing side.
- anon2 - Tuesday, Apr 24, 18 @ 1:57 pm:
=== “If we scrap our flat state income tax and implement a progressive tax, that would give the legislature carte blanche,” Nelms said. ===
Are the 35 or so states with a graduated income tax constantly adding tax brackets and raising rates? How about Uncle Sam? I don’t think the record supports this sky-is-falling campaign.
- C - Tuesday, Apr 24, 18 @ 2:03 pm:
==Be specific for what?==
It’s called transparency. JB should know by now how much revenue he needs to fund his plans and what brackets will generate those revenues. His massive support staff should be able to crank out multiple models. He can then back those models with guarantees to lock in those rates over a long period, proving he’s done the necessary homework.
The longer he waits, the more dubious his plan looks.
- Lucky Pierre - Tuesday, Apr 24, 18 @ 2:04 pm:
Actually the majority of Illinois primary voters- 55%
rejected Mike Madigan’s hand picked billionaire’s candidacy of no reforms- just tax increases.
- James - Tuesday, Apr 24, 18 @ 2:04 pm:
As Real says: why give Rauner ammo? Rauner needs
details so he can spend millions attacking the “new Madigan tax increase”. Nothing survives a veto until next year anyway, and the new GA will need to spend time crafting the temporary exemption plan, until the constitutional amendment is passed and takes effect.
JB is for a progressive tax and Rauner is against it–that’s enough information for the voters this year.
Biss must still be sore from losing.
- Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Apr 24, 18 @ 2:07 pm:
===…should know by now how much revenue he needs to fund his plans and what brackets will generate those revenues. His massive support staff should be able to crank out multiple models. He can then back those models with guarantees to lock in those rates over a long period, proving he’s done the necessary homework.===
Aw.
You must’ve missed the whole “Rauner Turnaround Agenda”… and how Rauner … should know by now how much revenue he would generate to fund his plans and what agenda platform “want” will generate those revenues. His massive support staff should be able to crank out multiple models. He can then back those models with guarantees to lock in those ROIs for a long period, proving he’s done the necessary homework.
So, there’s that.
- Annonin' - Tuesday, Apr 24, 18 @ 2:10 pm:
Let be serious no one really cares what Biss thinks. He should turn to analysis of how much GovJunk will save if IL taxes are not changed and wrap that around the GOPie stooges neck
- Springfieldish - Tuesday, Apr 24, 18 @ 2:11 pm:
“It’s called transparency blah, blah, blah”
No, it’s called giving your opponent ammunition in detail.
So is this the ‘new age’ of Democrats? Myopic, self-absorbed and sore losers?
- Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Apr 24, 18 @ 2:20 pm:
Oh “Lucky Pierre”…lol
Rauner with 59% of the GOP voters voting against Rauner, the wealthy upstart, no experience, won his primary in 2014…
… Rauner ran on “shake up” and “bring back”… against a failed governor, lol
Meh. Rauner ran on less… had a worse primary election result… and won the general.
- No cards - Tuesday, Apr 24, 18 @ 2:23 pm:
Biss is playing poker with an eight high hand of nothing. Other than a few dead-enders, most of the Biss voters are going to be on board with Pritzker. So he’s got almost zero that Pritzker needs. If he wants a political future, he’ll stop this ego-puffing nonsense now.
- Anon - Tuesday, Apr 24, 18 @ 2:41 pm:
JB refusing to say will only confirm for voters that it is going to be really bad, and its going to hurt.
Get ready for a steady diet of that.
A progressive tax is going to be a significantly more difficult sell when the IRS shuts down any work around for the state and local write-off that was capped.
Suddenly you are going to have the states high earners hit with a huge federal increase because of the capping of the deduction, and JB is going ot come along and slap a big new state tax on top of that for them.
The reality will hit him like a ton of bricks when there is no new money for his spending plans, as there will be zero appetite for more tax increases this time next year once people file their federal taxes.
Like Rauner, he will essentially become a lame duck because there just won’t be the pot of new money he needs available to him.
- Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Apr 24, 18 @ 2:46 pm:
===Suddenly you are going to have the states high earners hit with a huge federal increase because of the capping of the deduction, and JB is going ot come along and slap a big new state tax on top of that for them.===
I’m pretty sure a constitutional amendment is going to be a bit more difficult to get thru, but if you think Pritzker can do all this lickety split, that’s fun.
- Arsenal - Tuesday, Apr 24, 18 @ 2:48 pm:
==Actually the majority of Illinois primary voters==
Is that how elections work in your country?
- Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Apr 24, 18 @ 2:53 pm:
To the post,
The hand wringing to the progressive income tax that Pritzker wants…
… the politics to get this done will more than likely dictate the brackets for passage.
The hoops to be jumped thru, the fluidity of what is going to be accepted to get support “here” will likely be more difficult to get support “there”.
My take on this tax, if they (Pritzker/Biss/Whomever) have the brackets already in a position to get this constitutionally mandatories accomplished, they are not being as honest as they should.
What’s aggravating, be it Biss or Pritzker or whomever, is this alleged “ease” this will be to get done, just picking numbers from the air… beep-bop-boop… done.
If this was at all easy, others would’ve done this a while ago(?)
- Natty_B - Tuesday, Apr 24, 18 @ 2:54 pm:
Biss turning out to be just like Bernie - except for the winning primaries part.
- 47th Ward - Tuesday, Apr 24, 18 @ 3:07 pm:
Does Biss need anyone’s permission to introduce his own bill! Isn’t he still a senator for the next few months? Why not put a bill out there to force the conversation he so badly wants?
Demanding that Pritzker put a plan on the table does nothing but make Biss look foolish and plays into Rauner’s strategy.
Also, losers don’t get to make demands. He should go away, preferably with some grace, but go away nonetheless.
- Cool Papa Bell - Tuesday, Apr 24, 18 @ 3:22 pm:
You can’t explain away a higher top income tax rate in a campaign ad so you might as well skip the brackets for now and run on the idea.
Too bad Rauner wasn’t clear about what his budgeting tactics were going to be when he was a candidate. That could have separated things a bit 3 years ago between him and Quinn.
And what happens if the top rate grazes 6% but the bulk of the middle class winds up paying less and all in all the progressive tax remains fairly revenue neutral. Heads will explode.
- Ron - Tuesday, Apr 24, 18 @ 3:30 pm:
Papa Cool, that won’t happen though. Doesn’t JB promise to increase spending on virtually everything?
- walker - Tuesday, Apr 24, 18 @ 3:37 pm:
There are ways to provide some perspective on objectives for a graduated tax, without a specific structure and rates. This could undercut the Rauner talking point that taxes go up for the bulk of taxpayers, and avoid his current false claims looking at marginal rates instead of effective ones. Something like “We should have the freedom to consider real reforms to our tax structure. Reforms that would cut income taxes for most taxpayers in Illinois, while balancing our budget, paying our overdue bills, and producing enough support for schools that local property taxes could be reduced. Any plan we construct will aim for those four goals.”
- Ron - Tuesday, Apr 24, 18 @ 3:43 pm:
walker, I would love to see the marginal rated needed for that. Illinois is not California.
- Lester Holt’s Mustache - Tuesday, Apr 24, 18 @ 3:49 pm:
To be fair, it took almost three years to drag the embarrassingly low 1.4% ROI from the turn around agenda out of Rauner’s office. Maybe Biss should give Pritzker a couple years? Granted, Biss will likely be profiting off of his well known hypocrisy in a highly paid banking sector job by then, but still should give J.B. some time.
- Maximus - Tuesday, Apr 24, 18 @ 3:53 pm:
Just presume worst case scenario that the tax rate will go up for all tax payers. JB is welcome to state otherwise but until he does we can presume all of us will be paying more.
- Responsa - Tuesday, Apr 24, 18 @ 4:05 pm:
==that’s enough information for the voters this year.==
That doesn’t sound both arrogant and condescending all at the same time. No siree.
- Anon - Tuesday, Apr 24, 18 @ 4:14 pm:
We need a substantial increase in taxes at this point even if not one new dollar of spending was introduced just to meet the growing pension obligations hoovering up the general fund.
Frankly I don’t think there is nearly as much room at the top of the progressive tax as people are hoping.
The idea that we are going to be able to cut anyone’s taxes to implement it is fantasy stuff.
Usually you introduce new spending when you raise taxes. We need to raise them just to meet existing obligations, and I don’t think the political class has really come to terms with that yet.
- Shytown - Tuesday, Apr 24, 18 @ 4:15 pm:
#BissGoAwayNoOneCares
- Sue - Tuesday, Apr 24, 18 @ 4:24 pm:
Question? Since Illinois compete as to which State has the highest property taxes- when JB is elected which State NJ or Illinois will have had the heaviest Governor?
- Silicon Prairie - Tuesday, Apr 24, 18 @ 4:33 pm:
JB seems to think implementing a graduated income tax will stop the exodus of people from leaving the state. Money magazine on their web site today, showed the City of Chicago as the #4 with the greatest amount of skilled workers leaving a city. The worst city was Hartford, then Pittsburgh and Providence. Not good company. A graduated income tax would make it worse
- CapnCrunch - Tuesday, Apr 24, 18 @ 4:39 pm:
“Reforms that would cut income taxes for most taxpayers in Illinois, while balancing our budget, paying our overdue bills, and producing enough support for schools that local property taxes could be reduced…..”
When we add the money needed to pay the pension debt we could be talking really big bucks.
- Concerned Dem - Tuesday, Apr 24, 18 @ 4:43 pm:
Biss putting in the work to be the 2018 Ken Dunkin Award for Most Useful Democrat to Bruce Rauner winner.
- Ron - Tuesday, Apr 24, 18 @ 4:46 pm:
Silicon, that flies directly in the face of what the census says. The city of chicago is experiencing a massive influx of highly educated and high earning people. It is losing lower income and poorly educated people. Maybe More Mag is talking about the entire metro area? I don’t know what the census says about that.
- City Zen - Tuesday, Apr 24, 18 @ 4:52 pm:
==You can’t explain away a higher top income tax rate in a campaign ad so you might as well skip the brackets for now and run on the idea.==
It was already done: the millionaire’s tax. That campaign was pretty effective and easy to understand.
- Al - Tuesday, Apr 24, 18 @ 5:29 pm:
Biss should get out of politics and make America great again by doing what Biss does best. Open up a freak’n baloney factory. His concern is Fein, and his hypocracy HUGE.
Things will not be more fair under a progressive income tax. Let us discuss taxing illinois God given natural resources as well as those created by the General assembly (casino and liquor monopolies). Let us discuss staffing Revenue and going after the big tax cheats.
- Red fish blue fish - Tuesday, Apr 24, 18 @ 5:56 pm:
Biss is a sore loser.
- Honeybadger - Tuesday, Apr 24, 18 @ 9:52 pm:
Senator, you can have my answer now. Nothing not the Progressive tax plan, not a job for you, nothing and I’d appreciate it if you put forth a bill in the Senate and see where it goes.
Hat tip to my favorite movie character of all time Michael Corleone.
- JS Mill - Wednesday, Apr 25, 18 @ 8:00 am:
If I were the JB crew I would respond with something along the lines of….”It is very difficult to get specific on brackets or rates at this times because we do not know how much more fiscal damage this failed governor will do to the state’s finances. Suffice to say that many will see a reduction in taxes while the wealthy will see an increase. Again, this failed governor makes projecting these things ver challenging.”
- this guy - Thursday, May 10, 18 @ 6:53 am:
You made some good points there. I did a search on the issue and found most people will consent with your site.