* Richard Irvin in Jacksonville this week…
“J.B. Pritzker tried to propose the largest tax hike on the residents of the state of Illinois in the history of our state and he failed in that,” Irvin said. “He’s going to have to do it again because he has raised our expenses to a level to match this income of cash that we got, which was a one-time influx of cash for bail out from the federal government. When that money goes away, our expenses are still going to be at a higher level, our revenues will drop lower, so he’s going to have to raise taxes again.”
* Irvin was also on Tom Miller’s program this week…
Tom Miller: The Mayor of Carterville., Brad Robinson, who says is Mayor EIrvin in favor of increasing the LGDF, the Local Government Distributive Fund on taxes back to the original 10 percent?…
Mayor Irvin: Absolutely. And, listen, as the mayor of a city, and, Mayor, you know this, that when that money was taken away from the city, that affected our budget, that was a huge hit on our budget. These are budgets that pay for our police officers, that pay for our firemen, that pay for water, that pay for our streets to be fixed and cleaned that pay for the services that we give our residents every single day to make their lives better and when that money is taken from us, ripped from us to use to balance a budget that these Democrats have disregarded and wasted and spent, you know, use our money, that people we work hard for, to balance a budget? That’s terrible.
Going back to 10 percent, from the current LGDF split of 6.06 percent for individual income tax collections and 6.845 percent for corporate income tax collections, would cost state coffers an additional $1 billion a year.
* So, how’s Irvin gonna close that massive hole? Well, he’ll probably resort to magic beans…
Irvin’s solution would be to use the formula he used in Aurora to entice businesses to expand and which, ultimately, led to lower taxes, he said.
“In Aurora, what I’ve done is expanded our tax base, brought more businesses, more residents living in the city, which draws down what each individual person has to pay in taxes,” he said. “In Illinois, we’re losing businesses and people by the droves and because of it, it’s shrinking the number of people that pay taxes and we that are still here (are) having to pay higher taxes.”
But, hey, the mayors will love him for it.
- Arsenal - Friday, Mar 11, 22 @ 9:45 am:
==he has raised our expenses to a level to match this income of cash that we got, which was a one-time influx of cash for bail out from the federal government==
Also, this is stupid because most of those new expenses are also one-time things that will be easy to scale back. NOT putting money into pensions and the rainy day fund? Yeah, the GA absolutely knows how to do that.
- Google Is Your Friend - Friday, Mar 11, 22 @ 9:48 am:
==more residents living in the city==
Aurora has dropped precipitously in population under Irvin.
- Norseman - Friday, Mar 11, 22 @ 9:48 am:
Griffin paid Irvin Handlers: “Oops, we let him talk too much.”
- City Zen - Friday, Mar 11, 22 @ 9:53 am:
How many businesses in a drove?
Would Irvin be in favor of allocating that $1 billion to underfunded local pension systems and predicate it on municipalities making full pension payments prior to receiving that additional funding?
- Arsenal - Friday, Mar 11, 22 @ 9:56 am:
==Griffin paid Irvin Handlers: “Oops, we let him talk too much.” ==
TBF, I doubt he loses any votes over this. Anyone who actually cares about sensible budgeting was already going to vote for Pritzker.
But man, this guy’s ratio of interviews to causing himself trouble is really something.
- Grandson of Man - Friday, Mar 11, 22 @ 9:57 am:
Chicago metro wins perennially in corporate relocations. It obviously has little to do with Gov. Pritzker and Mayor Irvin, but rather with infrastructure to move products, educated workforce, schools and other attractive features of the area that have been around a long time.
We know that Griffin wants to decimate public employee unions and slash state workers. What will Irvin say, regarding this central feature of Raunerism?
- Donnie Elgin - Friday, Mar 11, 22 @ 10:00 am:
=Going back to 10 percent, from the current LGDF split of 6.06 percent for individual income tax collections and 6.845 percent for corporate income tax collections, would cost state coffers an additional $1 billion a year=
Irvin is in the campaigning phase, so this LGDF promise gets him allies. When/if he moves to the Governing phase he will, like all pols make a stregic shift.
- Norseman - Friday, Mar 11, 22 @ 10:07 am:
Arsenal, understandable point. I just can’t help but think about JB ad makers making some hay on Irvin plans that could raise taxes. Like you said, he’s laying a lot of mines for himself during his interviews. That goes to the need for him to makeover himself into a MAGA lite model candidate.
- Arsenal - Friday, Mar 11, 22 @ 10:08 am:
==Irvin is in the campaigning phase, so this LGDF promise gets him allies. When/if he moves to the Governing phase he will, like all pols make a stregic shift. ==
What an absolutely fascinating justification for a crackpot policy proposal.
What other policy proposals of his should we ignore in anticipation of a “strategic shift” should he win? Maybe his crime proposals (whatever those eventually are), since basically all his claims on that so far have been BS.
- JS Mill - Friday, Mar 11, 22 @ 10:09 am:
=“J.B. Pritzker tried to propose the largest tax hike on the residents of the state of Illinois in the history of our state and he failed in that,” Irvin said.=
…Griffin said.
Fixed it.
What a ridiculous bunch of mush-mouthy garbage and pandering. He is going to cut, cut, cut and increase, increase, increase.
But we already know the Kansas fiscal model does not work and we have the Rauner years as proof. Our economy started growing again when we started investing again.
Why is the ILGOP base si gullible that hey believe this old failed idea?
- Arsenal - Friday, Mar 11, 22 @ 10:11 am:
==I just can’t help but think about JB ad makers making some hay on Irvin plans that could raise taxes.==
Well now that’s an interesting thought. If they can coherently and concisely make that case (so that it fits in a 30 second spot) they could make some hay out of this.
- Carbondale Chronicle - Friday, Mar 11, 22 @ 10:24 am:
The LGDF has not been reduced in terms of dollars. When the state tax rate was increased, the LGDF percentage was decreased. This produced the same amount. For example, if you take 10% of $50.00, you get $5.00. However, if the percentage is reduced to 5% but now the base number is $100.00, you still get $5.00. I know the mayors argue that their costs are increasing and they need the additional revenue and the state should help them out. But there are other ways for local government to raise the needed revenue. This is where, as Mayor Irvin has stated, economic growth comes into play. Mayors need economic growth and need to raise their tax levy. And anyone who criticizes a mayor for raising the tax levy (without raising the tax rate) needs to go back to school to understand local government finances.
- JS Mill - Friday, Mar 11, 22 @ 10:30 am:
=he’s laying a lot of mines for himself during his interviews=
In his defense, I do not think there is any [possible way not to lay these landmines as you so aptly put it.
You would think that people would have learned by now that you cannot have it both ways. You cannot have great infrastructure for free. But the ILGOP continues to sell that.
Of course the LGDF increase will be hugely popular with municipalities because they will get more…wait for it…MONEY from the state. I doubt he realizes it, but in that statement Griffin…oops…I mean Irvin disproves the Rauner fantasy of all the great stuff you want at a reduced tax burden. And proves the case for the need for increased revenue. He just does not realize it. His statement about how the loss of LGDF funds impacted municipalities. They had to raise local revenue to keep the same services or reduce services.
Pritzker has shown how it can happen funding infrastructure and pensions and social services and that it costs money.
I would respect Irvinn if he stated he would advocate for reduced taxes and services. That would be honest.
- TheInvisibleMan - Friday, Mar 11, 22 @ 10:31 am:
A note on specifics, in real money terms nothing was ever ripped away from cities and towns.
The percentage of the LDGF was initially 10% - when the income tax rate was 2.5%.
With a current income tax of just shy of double that (4.95%), the same actual dollar amount would be coming to cities if the LGDF was 5%. The LGDF is higher than that(6.06% and 6.85%), so in real dollar terms cities are getting a *larger* amount of funding from the state than they were when the LGDF first was created.
Playing with percentages to pretend there is a loss, when there is actually a gain doesn’t speak very well for his budgeting abilities.
If anything, the LGDF percentage should be lowered to about 5.05% to match what it was when LGDF was created.
- Oswego Willy - Friday, Mar 11, 22 @ 10:33 am:
To the post,
My problem with “misspeak” or misleading language to math is… math always wins.
Math is undefeated.
Alternative facts to math within policy, and I’m speaking only to fiscal policy, it makes the person speaking to a want or policy… a person looking either uninformed or dishonest to… math.
The reason, I feel, Irvin and his Crew won’t be fazed by any of this or the scrutiny… the fundamentals of Irvin’s candidacy are still a bigger hurdle, as Griffin’s Slate moves forward.
Does Bourne help “downstate” with Republican bona fides?
Is Irvin enough of a Republican in circles where purity and allegiance are constantly questioned?
Does Irvin dislike Pritzker enough publicly to appease the rabid?
So far, each of those are still very much in question.
So, Irvin saying something that fiscally and mathematically makes either no sense or is a campaign liability… it’s like 15th on the list of worries?
- Michelle Flaherty - Friday, Mar 11, 22 @ 10:43 am:
Time for a Reality Check.
Am I the only one who remembers that it was the Senate Republicans who proposed slashing “local government revenue sharing” by hundreds of millions of dollars?
The SGOP “Reality Check” budget called for across the board cuts to LGDF, gas tax sharing, sales tax sharing, etc.
Slashing LGDF and the like was in the section of their plan right above slashing downstate mass transit funding and local tourism funding.
A couple years later, Republican Governor Bruce Rauner liked the ideas so much he wanted to cut even deeper.
March 11, 2015, Civic Federation report:
“Under Governor Bruce Rauner’s proposed FY2016 budget, one of the largest sources of state funding for local governments in Illinois would be reduced by half.”
Spoiler alert: He was targeting LGDF.
Thankfully, these plans never happened.
Look, I too would like to forget all these terrible GOP budget ideas were ever proposed. But sometimes a reality check is required.
- Arsenal - Friday, Mar 11, 22 @ 10:45 am:
==So, Irvin saying something that fiscally and mathematically makes either no sense or is a campaign liability… it’s like 15th on the list of worries? ==
In other words:
“I can’t swim.”
“Ha, are you crazy? The fall’ll probably kill ya.”
- Grandson of Man - Friday, Mar 11, 22 @ 10:50 am:
“He is going to cut, cut, cut and increase, increase, increase.”
We need to be patient with an authentic candidate like Irvin and give him time to come up with a fiscal plan. He’s still in the grooming and messaging prep phase. It starts with a billionaire’s hatred of JB and goes from there. He’s not quite there yet, still early in the backfilling process.
- Oswego Willy - Friday, Mar 11, 22 @ 10:57 am:
=== In other words:
“I can’t swim.”
“Ha, are you crazy? The fall’ll probably kill ya.”===
This is a correct interpretation
:)
- CG - Friday, Mar 11, 22 @ 11:01 am:
And mayors are overwhelmingly men. So, hey, they’re hearing campaign promises of more money and let’s just forget about that whole anti-choice abortion thing shall we?
- Flyin' Elvis'-Utah Chapter - Friday, Mar 11, 22 @ 11:01 am:
…and pension reform, don’t forget about that magical of all beans, pension reform.
- Grandson of Man - Friday, Mar 11, 22 @ 11:07 am:
Kidding aside, one way Irvin could help is to openly not embrace the anti-union part of the Rauner-Griffin legacy. Why should he go down that route when it politically ruined the former governor?
- JS Mill - Friday, Mar 11, 22 @ 11:19 am:
=Playing with percentages to pretend there is a loss, when there is actually a gain doesn’t speak very well for his budgeting abilities.=
@TheInvisibleMan for the win.
=“Under Governor Bruce Rauner’s proposed FY2016 budget, one of the largest sources of state funding for local governments in Illinois would be reduced by half.”=
@Michelle Flaherty- I think this is called “truthiness” and the ILGOP does not like it. But, your excellent recall is noted and appreciated. Well done.
=We need to be patient with an authentic candidate like Irvin=
Thank you for noting my lack of patience. I will try and do better.
- The Velvet Frog - Friday, Mar 11, 22 @ 11:36 am:
==the largest tax hike==
Which would have been what?
- jimbo - Friday, Mar 11, 22 @ 11:43 am:
==Aurora has dropped precipitously in population under Irvin==
Perhaps the talking points/script team Googled and got results for Aurora CO
- Arsenal - Friday, Mar 11, 22 @ 11:58 am:
==Aurora has dropped precipitously in population under Irvin==
I’m not sure if he was trying to say that Aurora actually increased in population or if just more people were brought into the tax base. He’s probably pretty close to losing the benefit of the doubt, tho.
- NorthsideNoMore - Friday, Mar 11, 22 @ 12:01 pm:
Cutting LGDF only makes municipalities have to increase fees/ taxes to cover services. Its all scalable but smaller communities need stable funding not the rollercoaster rides of state budget uncertainty.
- The Velvet Frog - Friday, Mar 11, 22 @ 12:06 pm:
Assuming this website is right, it looks like Aurora’s population peaked at 200k in 2017 and has dropped to 193k since then. I guess it’s debatable if “precipitously” applies, but that is a drop.
https://worldpopulationreview.com/us-cities/aurora-il-population
- low level - Friday, Mar 11, 22 @ 12:59 pm:
== I would respect Irvinn if he stated he would advocate for reduced taxes and services. That would be honest.==. JS Mill
100%. The Republicon artist party wants people to believe you can pay less and get more. “Doing more with less”. For a while, but eventually you will get less with less.
- Primate - Friday, Mar 11, 22 @ 1:29 pm:
Norseman is spot on…. They will pull him back shortly and then push him again with the media in early May. Did Irvin (Rauner) or his city lobbyists ever communicate directly with Madigan, or his staff, for additional municipal funding? Just wondering. Birds are chirping.
- Unconventional wisdom - Friday, Mar 11, 22 @ 2:08 pm:
With tax revenues up you can certainly understand why local government believe that the LGDF split should go back to 10%. And like Irwin I to wonder what the budget will be like in two or three years under the increased spending of Pritzker.
However, just saying I can get more businesses to come to Illinois and encourage overall business activity is putting the cart before the horse. It is disingenuous at best. Ne needs to state exactly what will be cut from the state budget. And then if he successful what will be done with any ‘real’ new money.
- Skeptic - Friday, Mar 11, 22 @ 2:52 pm:
“…and pension reform, don’t forget about that magical of all beans, pension reform.” And selling the Thompson Center.
- Total lie - Friday, Mar 11, 22 @ 4:15 pm:
It’s a complete kie that permanent expenses have been raised to meet funding levels from one time federal relief funds. Just not factual.
- Lester Holt’s Mustache - Friday, Mar 11, 22 @ 4:22 pm:
These kinds of statements are exactly what bothers me about Irvin. Well, not so much Irvin, but the raunerites pulling his strings. They’re very good at getting their candidate to mouth empty platitudes that hide the stupidity of whatever plan/policy/soundbite they think will help draw votes. Griff, Mike Z and the rest think that if they can just get their guy elected, they can figure out the details later. But they couldn’t do it with Rauner, and it almost sunk the whole ship.
- MyTwoCents - Friday, Mar 11, 22 @ 4:26 pm:
The danger to Irvin is if he keeps pushing the LGDF boost not only could he be hit on the State budget hole, if his line is local governments are better stewards of taxpayer dollars than the State, in a political campaign it would be easy to run ads highlighting examples of local governments misusing funds, starting with Dixon and going from there. It’s also possible examples from Aurora could even be dredged up.