House Democrats seeking common ground with Gov. Bruce Rauner in order to end the budget stalemate and put the state on a path to fiscal stability will outline additional reforms they plan to present to the governor at a press conference Tuesday at 10 a.m. in the Capitol Blue Room.
Democrats declined to provide details of their plans in advance of a Tuesday morning news conference, but Madigan’s previous proposals included cutting the corporate income tax rate by at least 50 percent but applying that rate across the board so that a vast majority of businesses that currently don’t pay any income taxes will have to pony up.
He also called for keeping in place a sometimes controversial tax credit for businesses that create new jobs, and banning “any future tax incentives for corporations that ship American jobs out of our country.” The speaker has also pushed for expanding the earned income tax credit for low-income families, raising the minimum wage and taxing those who earn over $1 million.
With only a few weeks to go before the end of the spring legislative session, Rauner’s office said it was “skeptical” about Madigan’s intentions.
“After two years of playing games and refusing to negotiate, call us skeptical that all we will see from Madigan Democrats is another set of phony reforms to disguise a massive tax hike and bailout for Chicago,” spokeswoman Eleni Demertzis said.
*** UPDATE *** From the House Democrats…
House Democrats seeking common ground with Gov. Bruce Rauner in order to end the budget stalemate and put the state on a path to fiscal stability are asking the governor to consider their reform proposals that will improve the business climate while lifting up the middle class.
“House Democrats believe the budget crisis demands immediate action, and it is our hope to show Governor Rauner that we stand ready to work with him,” state Rep. Barbara Flynn Currie said. “We plan to seek common ground with the governor on his proposals, and present him with items we believe should be part of the bargaining in order to encourage economic growth while lifting up the middle class.”
Last week, House Speaker Michael J. Madigan appointed Currie and House Leaders Lou Lang, Arthur Turner and Jay Hoffman to work with Rauner to find compromise on issues unrelated to the state budget.
The legislators plan to present the governor with House Democratic Caucus proposals that will improve the business climate while lifting up the middle class. While the governor has prioritized changes to the workers’ compensation system, Democrats are pushing for additional reforms that would prohibit insurance companies in Illinois from eliminating an insurance policy due to a pre-existing condition and would also create an Insurance Rate Review Board to prevent insurance companies from unfairly gouging consumers.
The House negotiators also plan to ask Rauner to stand with Democrats in working to close corporate loopholes that allow large businesses to pay nothing in taxes. House Democrats have prioritized cutting the overall corporate income tax to level the playing field for small and medium-sized employers, while also cracking down on large corporations that game the system to avoid paying anything in taxes.
“House Democrats have put forward a number of reforms that address the governor’s goals, and we will continue pushing ideas that will strengthen the economy while also lifting up the middle class,” Lang said. “We believe we can create jobs without hurting the people who work in those jobs every day. We look forward to working with the governor to find common ground and move this conversation forward by discussing his ideas in depth, and presenting him with ideas of our own.”
J.B. Pritzker is under fire this week for abusing vacancy laws to get massive property tax breaks on his two Gold Coast mansions totaling nearly a quarter million dollars.
And Pritzker is slated to get the same tax breaks this year.
But questions remain – such as why the Pritzkers felt it necessary to disconnect all the toilets in the home – allowing them to claim the home as uninhabitable.
Pritzker is taking money from Chicago Public Schools and other City services, and even liberals are taking note.
Mark Brown from the Chicago Sun-Times penned a column yesterday saying that Pritzker “is not paying his fair share of taxes”.
This is not about the commonplace practice of appealing property taxes on someone’s principal place of residence. This is about a very unique situation of a homeowner buying an expensive property next door and being rewarded for being a lousy owner.
As explained by the assessor’s office, this tax break is intended for someone buying a property to rehab it, the idea being they shouldn’t be required to pay full price on their taxes if nobody can live there.
I can’t speak to the exact condition of the home when Pritzker bought it, but I can tell you it was definitely habitable.
At some point afterward, however, all the toilets in the home were disconnected. The Pritzkers haven’t explained when this happened or why it was necessary.
* Pritzker told reporters yesterday in Springfield that the photos shared yesterday by the Republicans didn’t show the house’s problems. He claimed, for instance, that the staircase was falling off the wall…
“It was in terrible disrepair. Actually, the stairs were coming off the wall, the basement is unfinished and has a dirt floor, and so there was nothing in good shape in that house at all, and there was nothing that we did other than we asked that our taxes be reassessed because it wasn’t worth what we paid for it,” Pritzker said. “The truth is we probably over paid for the house, and lots of people have done that, especially in the environment of falling home prices.”
He also said he plans to rehab the house sometime in the future.
Pritzker paid $3.7 million for the building, below the original list price of $6 million. According to a Chicago magazine story by my colleague Dennis Rodkin, he became only the third owner in 118 years of a building designed by Holabird & Root with unique features. […]
It’s unclear if the building declined with age or if there was internal demolition prior to a possible rehab, but in an appeal filed with Cook County Assessor Joe Berrios, the assessed value of the property dropped from $6.3 million to $1.1 million, saving Pritzker $230,000 in property taxes so far.
OK, so read between the lines a bit. Pritzker paid $3.7 million for the house, but it’s assessed value remained at or above its original $6 million list price. Usually, you’d file for a reassessment right away if you bought a house for much lower than its assessed valuation, but Pritzker didn’t, which cost him some bucks he didn’t need to be paying.
Not defending him or anything, but on that point some of this isn’t totally out of the realm of reasonableness.
Greg also reports that Pritzker claims to have used the mansion next door “as a staging area for the complete renovation of his home next door.
Still, this is all kinda weird to me.
* Meanwhile, Mark Maxwell reports that Pritzker’s property tax appeals attorneys contributed $25,000 to Assessor Joe Berrios (no surprise in that county). He also has Chris Kennedy’s reaction…
“It’s an inherently corruptible system. We ought to reject it. Nobody is confident that the system yields a fair outcome either for individuals - but most importantly - for the kids who depend on the income to fund their schools.”
“This is an attack by Bruce Rauner and by the GOP because they really have nothing else to talk about, no accomplishments to tout, and so they’re taking any shot they can take. Obviously they are taking a shot at me because they think I’m a threat to them.”
* Sen. Daniel Biss gets the last word…
Right now, two billionaires running for #ilgov are fighting each other over who did the better job of getting out of paying their taxes.
