Capitol Fax.com - Your Illinois News Radar

Monday, Mar 5, 2007 - Posted by Rich Miller

I don’t plan on putting up many new posts the rest of this afternoon, but I have to work anyway so I figured I might as well open comments.

Scroll down for fresh threads on the governor’s healthcare plan and his tax ideas. He’s no longer just talking about a multi-billion-dollar gross receipts tax. A payroll tax is now on the table.

By the way, I’ve sent the governor’s office an e-mail asking if he is truly able to discern the mind of God. I eagerly await the response.

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Sunday Extra - Governor unveils health care plan *** Updated x1 ***

Sunday, Mar 4, 2007 - Posted by Rich Miller

There are several components to the governor’s just-annouced, multi-billion dollar health care plan. So download the press release here. I assume that the press release will eventually appear at his “Illinois Covered” website, which can be found here.

* Initial AP coverage:

Blagojevich’s plan has several parts.

For people below the federal poverty level, there would be a free new program called “Illinois Covered - Assist.” This would primarily serve people without children, who cannot join existing programs such as Medicaid and FamilyCare.

For people who cannot obtain insurance through their jobs, the state would offer “Illinois Covered - Choice.” That would be low-cost coverage that regular insurance companies would be required to provide. The state would help people pay the insurance premiums, with the amount of help based on their income.

People making more than four times the poverty level would be able to get this coverage, but the state would not help them pay for it. Businesses that can’t afford to provide insurance for their employees would be able to offer it through this program.

The state would also offer “Illinois Covered - Rebate” for people who can’t afford the insurance offered through their jobs. Essentially, the state would help them pay the premiums for existing insurance programs.

Finally, the state would expand eligibility for existing programs that serve some parents and disabled people who are returning to work.

* Sun-Times:

Employers who do not provide health insurance would have to pay an assessment to the state. This would cover part of the cost of Illinois Covered. But Maisch said assessments might force some employers to reduce operations or shut down.

Blagojevich will identify other funding sources in his budget address Wednesday.

Lobbyists and experts in state finance said Blagojevich has been considering a new levy on all business transactions, called a gross receipts tax. Maisch said such a tax would be “catastrophic for the economy.”

The state expects about 500,000 residents — roughly one-third of the uninsured — to sign up for Illinois Covered.

“It’s nice to expand coverage, but two-thirds will get nothing,” said Nicholas Skala of Illinois Health Care for All, which advocates a government plan like Medicare for all residents.

* Copley:

To prevent employers from dropping their own insurance and leaving workers uninsured, the plan would require an 18-month waiting period in most cases before newly uninsured workers could get insurance from Illinois Covered’s statewide pool.

But she said state officials expect some in the insurance industry to oppose the pooling, as well as the governor’s interest in considering caps on profits that insurers could earn when insuring people in the pool.

*** UPDATE *** I’m not sure exactly where this is in Scripture, but the governor invoked the Almighty yesterday as an all-powerful ally for his health care plan…

“If you can have health care but your neighbor can’t that isn’t how God intended it to be.”

And…

“We are all God’s children,” the Democratic governor said. “He intended for all of us to have an equal opportunity to live good, quality lives and to have equal opportunity to have access to things like fundamental quality health care.”

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Blatant familial promotion

Saturday, Mar 3, 2007 - Posted by Rich Miller

[Bumped to the top because it’s my blog and I felt like it. ]

My brother Devin’s new album, You Can’t Win, is now available on I-Tunes.

It’s some loud, raunchy, rollickin’ rock and roll, baby. His best effort to date. Go buy it and I guarantee you’ll dance until you drop.

You can sample some songs at Devin’s MySpace page. From his bio…

I was raised to be in a rock’n'roll band considering I have 4 older brothers who all were/are musicians. Some folks learn nursery rhymes, I learned Dirty Deeds and Brown Sugar. It’s all I thought about from age 6 or so and here I am still doing it.

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Weekend Extra - Guv plans new payroll tax? *** Updated x1 ***

Saturday, Mar 3, 2007 - Posted by Rich Miller

This has been mentioned before in at least one other place I think, but Crain’s fleshed it out a bit more last night. On top of the gross receipts tax, Gov. Blagojevich also wants to impose a payroll tax on business to help finance his universal health care plan.

Illinois business would face a second major new levy â€” a payroll tax of about 3% â€” under the proposed fiscal 2008 state budget that Gov. Rod Blagojevich is scheduled to unveil Wednesday.

A spokeswoman for the governor confirmed Friday that â€œa tax based on some portion of payrollâ€ of most companies that do not now offer health insurance to their workers will be included in the new budget proposal.

Proceeds would be used to subsidize a new universal health care system that Gov. Blagojevich is expected to roll out as early as this weekend.

As previously reported, Mr. Blagojevich also is expected to propose a new tax on gross corporate receipts that would net as much as $6 billion for health care, schools and other needs and which would replace the stateâ€™s existing corporate income tax. […]

Sources familiar with the governorâ€™s plan say the new payroll tax would technically be levied on all companies, but companies would receive full, dollar-for-dollar credit for expenditures they already make for worker health insurance. Also exempt would be companies with 10 or fewer employees each, insiders say.

* Meanwhile, also in Crain’s, another tax is being proposed

The Senate’s point man on electric rates is floating the idea of a tax on Illinois power generators to produce revenue for rebates to utility customers reeling from higher electric rates.

Sen. James F. Clayborne Jr., D-Belleville, a close ally of Senate President Emil Jones, has asked power plant owners including Exelon Corp., Ameren Corp., Midwest Generation LLC and Dynegy Inc. to meet with him Wednesday to discuss a tax or revenue-raising alternatives they could offer. […]

The development is seen in Springfield as evidence that Sen. Jones, a staunch backer to date of Commonwealth Edison Co. in its opposition to reducing or rolling back the rate hikes, wonâ€™t support the utility unconditionally in the face of customer outrage over the increases. Springfield erupted last week as Downstate consumers told their stories of electric-bill increases in some cases exceeding 200% and 300% during an unusual hearing before the full House. […]

â€œThe (tax) mechanisms that are being talked about are an elegant solution to the problem,â€ says David Kolata, executive director of the Citizens Utility Board, a consumer watchdog group. â€œWhatâ€™s happened (with the rate hikes) has been a tremendous transfer of wealth from consumers to Exelon, Ameren and Wall Street.â€

*** UPDATE *** The Tribune mentions the payroll tax in a Monday story. This is, at the moment, the most underreported story of the upcoming budget fight.

Sources have said that in addition to the $6 billion tax on business gross receipts, which would require businesses to pay the state each time they got paid for a product or service, the governor intends to propose a new payroll tax to generate money from businesses that do not provide health insurance to their employees.

The governor is expected to detail both taxes Wednesday during his budget address to the General Assembly. The governor’s administration has been promoting the speech, going so far as to send out e-mails to an array of Illinois groups and residents encouraging them to gather to watch it. The e-mails ask recipients to RSVP to 15 pre-selected locales around the state where his budget address will be aired and where staffers from his office will be on hand to answer questions.

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