One day before Bailey takes the stage at a debate hosted by ISU and AARP, Bailey is caught calling the organization “selfish” and “immoral”
Normal, IL — Just one day before Darren Bailey faces off against Governor JB Pritzker, a newly uncovered video shows Bailey bashing AARP––one of the non-profit, non-partisan organizations hosting the first televised statewide debate.
In a newly uncovered Facebook Live video from 2020, Bailey called the organization “selfish,” “immoral,” and is leading to the “destruction of society as we know it.”
Don’t believe us? Listen for yourself.
“Another article that came out last night, that I shared the money continues to pour in, uh, to Mike Madigan. And it’s coming from organizations like the Illinois Education Association, it’s coming from organizations like AARP who are supposed to be ultimately protecting the rights of, of the elderly. Uh, but they’re not, they’re they’re, they are part of the reason, uh, that government continues to grow erratically. And, and, and now that reason that we need government needs your money. Many of the, uh, state sector unions are behind, uh, are behind a dumping money into Mike Madigan’s pocket. So, uh, again, they have a selfish view of, we want more, that’s their, that’s their message. And that’s what they’re after and why on earth. Um, many of these organizations choose to, uh, solicit to, you know, the immoral ideas like abortion and, and recreational marijuana and on and on and on. I have no idea, but they do, they’re pushing this. It’s just almost, uh, the, the destruction of society as we know it.”
The video is here. Starts around the 7 minute mark.
I checked and couldn’t find any contributions from AARP or the American Association of Retired Persons to Friends of Michael Madigan, the Democratic Party of Illinois, Democratic Majority or the 13th Ward Democratic Organization.
The group did, however, give more than half a million dollars to push the graduated income tax in 2020. And Bailey did talk extensively about opposing the Fair Tax before he went off on the Madigan tangent. So, maybe that’s what he meant?
* She’ll never provide proof to the Daily Herald or anyone else because there is no proof. But, she’s serving what I think is her purpose: Raise lots of small-dollar contributions which then get spent by DC consultants…
Even though the claim has been debunked as a hoax, Republican congressional candidate Catalina Lauf is standing by a recent tweet in which she said some schools provide litter boxes for students who like pretending they’re anthropomorphic animals.
“I hear story after story from teachers and school administrators detailing meetings about this ‘furry’ trend in (Illinois) public schools,” Lauf, of Woodstock, told the Daily Herald in an email.
When repeatedly asked to share proof of such activity, Lauf provided none.
The two candidates for Illinois’ U.S. Senate seat — both suburban women — challenged each other’s records on women’s rights, abortion access, guns and a bevy of other issues in a candidate forum Monday where little middle ground was found.
In the forum organized by the Illinois Associated Press Media Editors collaboration, Democratic incumbent Tammy Duckworth said her opponent, attorney Kathy Salvi of Mundelein, “wants to rip freedom from women” because of her “dangerous anti-choice views on abortion.”
But Salvi argued Duckworth was an “extremist” on the abortion issue, saying “there isn’t an abortion she doesn’t support.”
Duckworth, of Hoffman Estates, reiterated multiple times she supports codifying abortion access as outlined in the now-overturned Roe vs. Wade case.
* Scott Kennedy on vote by mail totals…
The @illinoissbe has updated early vote totals (10/05/22): Total VBM requested: 605,233 Total VBM returned: 1,816 Total VBM outstanding: 603,417 Return Rate: <1% Total Early Vote: 7,519 Total Grace Period: 0 Total Already Voted: 9,335
“Amendment 1 would make our state even less business-friendly and less competitive right as businesses already leave our state in droves. It would empower and make state and city bureaucrats and employees even less efficient and accountable than they are now. This constitutional referendum grants super-legislative powers to union bosses that could only be changed by further constitutional referendums, not legislative action. Illinois voters should reject Amendment 1 as the government union power grab and trojan horse pathway to tax increases that it is,” said Illinois Republican Party Chairman Don Tracy
* Darren Bailey at a Burr Ridge fundraiser yesterday. I can’t tell if they’re social distancing or it’s just a smaller than expected turnout /s…
Also…
The upside: - 30 donations - $1K from IL-Sen candidate Kathy Salvi - $2K from 2020 GA-Sen candidate Kelly Loeffler - $75K in-kind from state party for mail
The downside: - Only about $55K in cash - Donor base mostly from outside Cook/Collars
Latino Leadership Council issues a release urging @ChuyForCongress to "throw his hat into the ring ahead of the February 2023 mayoral primary." pic.twitter.com/4E6IV7MCE1
Among takeaways: McLean County clerk + treasurer express concerns about their offices' security. Clerk wants to be able to keep a gun there. "… they can take me down first. I'm old enough to go. They're not going to take my staff and I want to be able to protect them." https://t.co/M8iBqRXfnb
* GOP contender Scott Gryder says local experience could help him unseat U.S. Rep. Lauren Underwood in congressional race: Republican congressional hopeful Scott Gryder said he was inspired to challenge Democratic incumbent Lauren Underwood after boundaries were redrawn by the Illinois General Assembly based on 2020 census results. The 14th Congressional District shifted away from some of the far western and northwestern suburbs to instead represent Democratic-leaning Joliet and Underwood’s hometown of Naperville westward through conservative Kendall County farmland into rural LaSalle County.
* Durbin weighs in on City Council race: In case you missed it, U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill. has weighed in with an endorsement in one of Chicago’s aldermanic races. Durbin endorsed Kim Walz, running to succeed the retiring James Cappleman in the North Side’s 46th Ward. Currently a community liaison for Walgreens, Walz is a former aide to U.S. Rep. Mike Quigley, D-Chicago, (who also endorsed her) and once worked for Durbin, so the nod is not unexpected.
* Human Rights Campaign Endorses Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul for Reelection: Today the Human Rights Campaign PAC (HRC PAC) announced its endorsement of Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul for reelection. HRC PAC is committed to engaging its volunteers, members and supporters to mobilize the nearly 3 million Equality Voters in Illinois in support of Attorney General Raoul and other pro-equality candidates up and down the ballot.
* ISU students share their most important campaign topics as midterms approach: Senior finance major Freddy Olmedo said how the controversial topic of gun violence is a major concern to him. “Something that has been concerning me is the violence in Chicago that has been out of control lately,” Olmedo said …Senior social work major Daniela Vargas said that she is most interested in hearing about conversations surrounding abortion rights.
* Here’s how to watch Pritzker, Bailey face off in their first Illinois governor debate: Democratic incumbent Gov. JB Pritzker and Republican state Sen. Darren Bailey will participate in an hourlong debate starting at 7 p.m. at the Illinois State University campus in Normal. WGN-TV news anchor Tahman Bradley and WCIA-TV news anchor Jennifer Roscoe are the moderators for the debate, which will be covered by all 10 television markets in the state. Springfield viewers can tune to WCIA-TV, Channel 3 on Comcast, both on TV and through its website for this debate and the one scheduled Oct. 18 at the WGN-TV studio in Chicago.
Q: You’ve been governor for almost four years now — I wonder if you’ve ever been in a position where someone has asked you to do something that made you feel like: Are they asking me to do something unethical or illegal? And what did you do about that?
A: I’ve not had anybody approach me about something that was illegal. I think there are moments when I think, you know, I’m not sure this is something that should be discussed in this context. Maybe it’s something political that someone brings up in a in a governmental setting. And so that’s when I’m quick to say: We should not be talking about that here. You can talk about it in a campaign office, but not in the Capitol, for example, something like that. But nothing that I think anybody intended to be unethical that they’ve approached me about. I think sometimes it’s by accident, you’re in a conversation, you’re talking about something that’s state oriented, and you just sort of transition into something political. And so that’s something I’m very careful about, and I think everybody should be.
But look, we have to address corruption in the state head on. And I’ve said this from the beginning: It’s a scourge that has been plaguing the state of Illinois for far too long. That’s why virtually every year that I’ve been in office — I’ve been in office for four years — three times I’ve proposed and got past ethics reforms. Do we need to do this every year? Yes, we do. We need to review the laws every year and see what it is that we can be shaping and doing better. But most of all we need to hold our public officials to a high standard. People ought to stand up for integrity and honesty in public service. It amazes me, like it does you, that someone doesn’t get it. You can’t stop people from all of a sudden doing something corrupt that you didn’t expect them to do. But you can have laws on the books that hold them accountable. And in the case, as you’ve seen, of a recent indictment, there is a law on the books that says no, you can’t accept a bribe. But it does amaze me when someone is convicted of it that they actually thought they could get away with it or that that was somehow appropriate.
The Question: Has anyone ever asked you to do something unethical or illegal? If so, what was it and what did you do about it?
* Springfield maintains its top spot in most video gambling machines in the state. NPR…
The latest report on gambling from the Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability, the fiscal gurus for the state legislature, shows the city with a total of 757 terminals in operation during the fiscal year that ended this summer. That’s an addition of more than 100 since 2019 and well ahead of second place Rockford, a larger city, which reported 537 terminals.
Springfield sites brought in $47.9 million dollars in the past fiscal year. The state took $12 million in taxes from that amount and local government received $2.4 million. That’s a rebound from when the pandemic caused revenue to drop by 42 percent.
Springfield uses the gambling revenue for infrastructure and maintenance.
Surrounding communities have also taken to video gambling. Decatur was third in the state with 522 terminals. Unincorporated Sangamon County ranked 14th with 281 terminals last year.
With October here, the clock is ticking to get the Golden Nugget Danville Casino building closed in by Thanksgiving for construction to continue in the winter months.
On or around April 1 is the target opening date. […]
Basens also is starting to hire now. Between now and January, he’ll have 15 to 25 people working as department heads to put together operating and other plans. Some he might find locally, but many are outside the area with gaming experience.
He’s in the process of recruiting now. He thinks he’s hired a finance director and operations director, from Indiana and from the Chicago area, with 40 years of experience of casino combined.
Consultants hired by Bally’s Corp. say the gambling company’s temporary casino in the landmark Medinah Temple won’t create the River North gridlock that opponents have warned of when it opens next year, but a local alderperson vehemently against the plan dismissed their traffic study as “seriously flawed.”
The report commissioned by Bally’s - Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s pick to launch Chicago’s first casino - and released by the city Friday found the often-congested area around the temple at 600 N. Wabash Ave. “should be able to accommodate” an influx of hundreds of gamblers per day.
State regulators are still vetting Bally’s application to break ground on their permanent casino earmarked for the site now occupied by the Chicago Tribune’s printing plant at Chicago Avenue and Halsted Street, a project that could take several years to complete.
But pending state approval, city officials hope Bally’s will start churning out gambling tax revenue as soon as next summer at the temporary Medinah site, slated to have enough slot machines and table games for up to 1,100 people to play at a time.
42nd Ward Alderman Brendan Reilly, however, called the study “seriously flawed, overly vague, and clearly written for the sole purpose of concluding a casino will work at Medinah Temple.” […]
Reilly says he disagrees with assumptions made in the traffic study, saying the estimate of vehicular trips to the casino is too low, and that the study over-estimates the number of people “who will be dumb enough to take the CTA or walk to this casino with cash in their pockets.”
* More…
* Bidder tied to Mexican gaming company last applicant for Illinois online sports betting license. But it may be forced to drop out: Overcoming setbacks has been the name of the game since the state’s first sportsbook opened at Rivers Casino Des Plaines at the onset of the pandemic in March 2020, only to close within days amid statewide stay-at-home orders. In June 2020, BetRivers became the first Illinois sportsbook to offer online betting, with the state temporarily waiving an in-person registration requirement while casinos began reopening with capacity limits.
* Aurora continues discussion on fees for video gambling machines: Aurora is continuing to look at the possibility of increasing fees for video gambling machines in the city. The matter is being held at the City Council’s Finance Committee for discussion, and also is being looked at by the mayor’s office. If any change would be made, it would not be until the next round of renewals of the licenses, beginning in October 2023.
* Hard Rock breaks ground on its permanent $300M Rockford Casino: The ceremony came about a year after the opening of the temporary Rockford Casino: A Hard Rock Opening Act. Construction on the permanent facility is set to begin following the approval of the project by the Illinois Gaming Board earlier this month.
Legislators approved the SAFE-T Act at the urging of the Black Caucus in January 2021 as part of Black legislators’ response to the murder of George Floyd.
“This is about trying to build a process that allows people to have faith in the system, and building a process where justice is more fair,” said state Rep. Jehan Gordon-Booth, D-Peoria, a Black Caucus member.
Her own stepson was murdered in 2014.
“Crime is something that has been very prevalent in a lot of communities in Illinois. I myself am a crime victim. My family has seen the absolute worst of every side of this issue,” she said. “For one to think that anybody would be a proponent of crime is silly and it’s quite preposterous.”
More on the murder of Deputy Majority Leader Gordon-Booth’s stepson can be found here. Some of JGB’s work with crime victims is here.
* So, what about her statement that some people are claiming that those supporting the law are a “proponent of crime”? Well, here are just a few quick examples gathered by my associate Isabel Miller…
House Republican Leader Jim Durkin: Until they wake up and repeal their pro-criminal SAFE-T Act, there will be no safe communities in Illinois.
Rep. Andrew Chesney: “How did we get here? During the final hours of the 2021 lame duck session, Illinois Democrats rammed through anti-police, pro-criminal legislation, which Governor Pritzker then signed into law.”
Rep. Joe Sosnowski: “Together with thousands of like-minded citizens across Illinois, we can put pressure on Illinois Democrats to reverse course on their dangerous pro-criminal policies before it is too late.”
Kankakee County Sheriff Mike Downey: No mention of this officer by our anti-law enforcement Governor, no mention of this officer by the authors of HB 3653 Sen. Elgie Sims or Rep. Justin Slaughter both anti-law enforcement legislators who rammed through anti-police/pro-criminal legislation in the early morning hours when no one was watching.
JGB was and remains a SAFE-T Act proponent, but also says that changes will be made in the veto session.
* On to a media advisory…
Illinois House Republican Leader Jim Durkin, along with Representatives Keith Wheeler and Chris Bos, will host a news conference via zoom and broadcast on BlueRoomStream on Wednesday, October 5 at 12:00 pm (Noon) CT.
The SAFE-T Act, which takes effect on January 1st, will end cash bail and increase property taxes to pay for this new government program. House Republicans will discuss the increased costs on local governments which will be heaped upon overburdened property taxpayers in Illinois.
* One of their House Republican candidates laid out the property tax argument in a recent press release…
Illinois House 66th District Candidate Connie Cain will support repealing the SAFE-T Act to protect the community and prevent property tax increases from filling the budget holes that the legislation is creating for local governments.
Last week, the Kane County Board announced it was discussing the first property tax increase in a decade to fill a deficit - about $3 million of which was created by unfunded mandated reforms in the SAFE-T Act - which goes into effect Jan. 1, 2023, as reported by the Daily Herald.
As a United States Army Reserves veteran and a Licensed Certified Public Accountant with over 20 years of financial experience, Cain is concerned that the legislation is fiscally irresponsible and harmful to public safety.
“The SAFE-T Act defunds the police through unfunded mandates and cost shifts to local taxpayers for administering our criminal justice system after January 1st,” said Cain. “This defunding is forcing local governments like ours to increase property taxes, decrease public safety, or both. If elected, I will fight to repeal this legislation and its accompanying hikes to our local property taxes, which are already the second-highest in the nation thanks to tax-and-spend politicians in Springfield.”
While the SAFE-T Act has been receiving national attention for its sweeping overhaul of Illinois’ criminal justice and pre-trial detention system that could threaten public safety, taxpayers are only just becoming aware of the very real defunding and tax hikes the legislation punts to local government officials.
“This legislation undoes all the hard work local officials have put in over the last ten years to avoid local property tax hikes,” Cain said. “We are seeing the defunding play out in real-time and, as always, it will overburden Kane County taxpayers and families footing the bill.”
The Kane County Board has tried to prevent property tax increases by keeping government salaries lower than neighboring DuPage and Lake counties, but new costs are driving the conversation about tax hikes. The SAFE-T Act was opposed by nearly every law enforcement organization in the state, and it was criticized by local governments concerned it would be especially detrimental to smaller police departments and drive up taxes. The final legislation was passed in the middle of the night without a single Republican vote.
Illinois House Republicans proactively filed House Resolution 598 in January, which “Urges the Illinois General Assembly to value and protect crime victims and law enforcement and to repeal House Bill 3653, the SAFE-T Act, in its entirety.” The resolution was never called for a vote. Cain said she would be introducing new legislation to both repeal no cash bail and other dangerous provisions of the SAFE-T Act and to prevent property tax hikes to fund criminal justice reforms.
Leader Durkin is Lying, SAFE-T Act Does Not Require Property Tax Increase
The SAFE-T Act does not require counties to raise property taxes to fund the criminal legal system after eliminating cash bail. For the last two years, the Administrative Office of Illinois Courts has been working with stakeholders from every branch of government to ensure that counties across Illinois have the guidance and resources they need to effectively make this transition. Non-partisan and bi-partisan groups agree that forcibly extracting revenue through a system of cash bail from low-income people and families living in poverty is not a financially responsible, sustainable, or ethical way to fund government operations.
Money bond does not keep communities safe because it allows people who are a safety or flight risk to be released pretrial as long as they have money, and it jails people who are legally innocent solely because they are poor. People should not be jailed pretrial simply because they can’t afford to pay bond.
In today’s press conference, Leader Durkin claimed that eliminating cash bail removes an operational revenue stream for the criminal legal system. Funding government operations should not happen on the backs of and through the incarceration of low-income communities and people of color. Most people who are unable to pay a money bail, and who are consequently incarcerated pretrial, fall within the poorest third of society. Unnecessary pretrial incarceration of those who are innocent leads to the disruption of family, neighborhood, employment, and community ties. Such disruptions can actually increase the risk of recidivism and destabilize community safety.
Wealth-based incarceration has torn families apart. In Chicago, Lavette Mayes, a mother of two and small business owner was jailed for 571 days because she could not afford to pay her bond. During that time, Ms. Mayes lost her home and business and almost lost custody of her children. Several years after her case ended, Ms. Mayes is still recovering from the harms caused by her pretrial incarceration, and her children remain traumatized to this day. Stories like this one are present in communities across the state, which is why legislators worked to eradicate the use of money bond in Illinois.
Money bond extracts wealth from our state’s poorest communities who are forced to choose between paying rent and paying a ransom to free their loved ones. It is also costly for counties across the state. Pretrial incarceration costs an estimated $40,567 per person per year.
By eliminating cash bail, the Pretrial Fairness provisions of the SAFE-T Act makes sure that low-income people are not trapped in a cycle of poverty and jail time in a criminal justice system that violates the basic constitutional and human rights of our community’s most vulnerable people. The SAFE-T Act ensures that decisions about who is released pretrial and who is jailed are based on safety needs and not access to money. Our justice system should focus on public safety needs and not on generating revenue.
Since Governor Pritzker took office, over $1.1 billion annually has been allocated to local governments to assist with costs over and above what they were previously receiving from the state. This is on top of the 49% increase in revenue sharing to local governments over Governor Pritzker’s first term. In addition, the FY23 budget includes, but certainly is not limited to, an additional $30 million in grants to help local governments with the costs of body and vehicle cameras, which have been proven to be a critical element of a reformed criminal justice system. For pretrial services, to date the state has provided an additional $26 million in funding for the Illinois Supreme Court’s requested support for the first phase of a three-part effort to establish comprehensive pretrial services in the counties without such services.
The Governor has and will continue to work with the General Assembly and local governments to ensure the appropriate resources are allocated to support the reforms passed in the SAFE-T act. The Pre-trial Fairness Act creates a system where detention is based on risk, rather than poverty: that’s why domestic violence groups and other victims’ rights groups support it. Public safety is best addressed by focusing on risk to the community, not on who can afford to pay their way out of jail, and a system that supports that is essential to a fair and equal Illinois. It seems that Republicans are advocating for pretrial defendants to uniquely bear the cost of running our criminal justice system, which is not only unfair but also racist, as found by the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.
* COVID-19 hospitalizations have now fallen to under 900. Hospitalizations were above 7,300 in January, dropped precipitously to the 400s in March, then rose to about 1,500 in July, where they held fairly steady until falling below 1,000 in late September.
So, who are these folks in the hospital? The Illinois Department of Public Health looked at data from June 1 through September 26 and produced a quick report at my request. “UTD” means up to date on vaccinations, including boosters, except the most recent booster which wasn’t available until early September. The “Not UTD” category covers everyone from those who are not vaccinated at all to those who hadn’t yet received their third shot.
Hospitalized cases in Illinois by age group and vaccination status…
Based on the table above 42% of all hospitalized cases for this period (2022/06/01-2022/09/26) were 70+ and Not_Up to date and 66 percent are Not Up-to-date and over 50.
* With that in mind, let’s circle back to Mary Ann Ahern’s coverage of last Friday’s joint candidate interviews…
I did follow up with the Bailey campaign to ask ‘Has the candidate been vaccinated?’ They will not answer that question.
Did you know Darren Bailey runs a school? And they use quite the curriculum.
Lessons like:
Women in the workforce have been harmful to America.
Evolution isn’t real.
Dinosaurs and humans were definitely on Earth at the same time.
Gay people have no more claims to special rights than child molesters or rapists.
The majority of slave holders treated their slaves well.
Class dismissed. Darren Bailey is too extreme for Illinois.
The year before he ran for a seat in the Illinois House of Representatives, Bailey and his wife Cindy launched a fundamentalist Christian school based in Louisville, Illinois, in 2016. In that same year, Bob Jones University Press was once again in the process of rewriting its history books to soften or remove some of the more dubious or offensive claims found in its pages. The BJU Press altered its textbooks on several occasions in recent years to remove racially charged content that sometimes spoke about slave owners or the Ku Klux Klan in forgiving terms.
BJU publishers shipped history books to Christian classrooms in the early 1990s that claimed, “The majority of slave holders treated their slaves well.” That line was published in BJU’s second edition textbooks long before Bailey founded Full Armor Christian Academy in 2016.
In its third edition, Bob Jones University Press authors highlighted the Ku Klux Klan’s affinity with strict Christian morals, writing in 2001 that the KKK “tried to be a means of reform, fighting the decline in morality and using the symbol of the cross. Klan targets were bootleggers, wife-beaters, and immoral movies. In some communities it achieved a certain respectability as it worked with politicians.” […]
5 On Your Side obtained hard copies of several of the textbooks on the shelves at Full Armor Academy. While the racially charged language is more subtle than previous editions, it is still present.
For example, textbooks on the shelves at Bailey’s school now teach students that “God regulated but did not forbid slavery.” Teachers are instructed to ask students to compare outlawing abortion to ending slavery, and to ask students to explain the strengths of the Three-Fifths Compromise, the part of the U.S. Constitution that counted slaves as three-fifths of a person. […]
“I think you can see that Darren Bailey would be bad for schools in the state of Illinois,” Pritzker said during a campaign stop in East St. Louis. “Darren Bailey wants to put forward things that I think are ancient ideas, racist ideas. These are ideas that are bad for women, bad for people of color. He’s living in another century.”
* Tuesday press release that I somehow missed in my in-box yesterday…
Today, the Nikki Budzinski for Congress campaign is launching its second broadcast television ad of the general election. The ad, called “Walk the Walk”, is delivered by former Macon County Sheriff Tony Brown, and focuses on law enforcement’s support of Budzinski. The Illinois Police Benevolent and Protective Association endorsed Nikki earlier this summer.
Budzinski was the first candidate to begin paid advertising in IL13. “Walk the Walk” will run on broadcast in the St. Louis, and Springfield, Decatur, Champaign media markets.
Thursday at 7 p.m.: An IL-13 debate between Republican Regan Deering and Democrat Nikki Budzinski. Sponsored by Illinois Public Media, WAND News and the League of Women Voters of Champaign County. The debate will be broadcast live on WILL-TV, WILL-AM 580, WILL-FM 90.9, WSIU-TV, WSUI-FM out of Carbondale, the 9 Network, KSDK (online only), STLPR NPR out of St. Louis, WAND out of Decatur and NPR Illinois out of Springfield. It will also stream on Illinois Public Media’s Facebook and YouTube pages.
Laurence Msall said state law was used to create the police, fire, laborers and municipal employees pension funds, and the Illinois General Assembly dictates “who the members are, what their contribution levels must be and what benefits” those retired city employees receive.
That’s why Msall believes it’s time state lawmakers live up to their responsibility to consolidate, reform and fund local pension funds to relieve Chicago and municipalities from Peoria to Rockford from the “enormous pressure” they face to raise property taxes.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker “took an important step three years ago when he rolled up many of the smaller police and fire pension funds investment oversight into one state board. The next step would be to take over the local police and fire pension funds and municipal pension funds and have the locals manage the current obligation. And the unfunded liability should be absorbed by the state,” Msall told the Sun-Times. […]
Pressed to identify funding sources, Msall said: “Regardless of whether you’re a pensioner or a multimillionaire who has millions of dollars in investments, you pay no Illinois state income tax. The federal government taxes retirement income. Illinois is one of the few states that doesn’t tax any amount of retirement income.”
What about broadening the sales tax umbrella to include professional services or amending the Illinois Constitution to eliminate the pension protection clause?
“Certainly, those should be on the table,” Msall said.
60-30-1. Not one of those three numbers currently exists in any shape or form to impose a tax on retirement income. The mayors of this state have, in the past, generally opposed income tax increases. I doubt the unions will touch such a thing. So, who’s gonna get this done? The governor is on record opposing the whole idea, even in a graduated income tax format.
