* This Chicago Sun-Times editorial made me chuckle today…

Should the state Constitution be amended to tax the incomes of millionaires an extra 3 percent, money that would go to schools? We urge a strong Yes vote on the concept embedded in this question, even if you disagree with the particulars. Illinois should move to a progressive or graduated income tax system, one that imposes higher rates on higher earners and is based on the ability to pay.

This is the same newspaper which endorsed Bruce Rauner, who is flatly against a progressive tax, including a millionaire’s surcharge.

* Meanwhile, from a Tribune editorial…

That bogus budget has Illinois spending nearly $36 billion this fiscal year, with $8 billion of that coming from the income tax increase. The Jan. 1 partial rollback will shave second-half revenues by about $2 billion. What to do?

Recall that the taxers of 2011 have continued to raise spending. The threat of an aggressive cost-cutter being elected governor explains why so many vested interests fear one outcome in the race: As we’ve noted, different candidates have different ideas about what Springfield “needs” or “must have” or “can’t possibly cut.”

With Illinois in an emergency, its credit rating dismal and its economy moribund, we’d take hard looks at capital spending (read: politicians’ pork projects) from general funds, the eligibility of Medicaid recipients, the salary structure of state government and all the multimillion-dollar line items that Springfield’s apologists dismiss as too insignificant to deliver big savings. When you only have to cut $2 billion, every million helps. (Mr. Madigan, about that $35 million for a school in your district ….)

Illinois collects $18 billion a year in income taxes and $8 billion in sales taxes. That gouges working-class and middle-class families more on how much they work than on what they consume. We would expand Rauner’s proposed broadening of the sales tax to include virtually all consumer services, which account for two-thirds of Americans’ consumption. Done right, broadening the sales tax base while letting Quinn’s income tax surcharge die could let the sales tax rate drop.

* Look, cutting $2 billion worth of programs in the second half of a budget year is like cutting $4 billion for the full year. That’s painful, no matter how you look at it. And the longer you wait to do it (the budget address isn’t until late February) the harder it becomes.

Sure, you can do some things, like no new capital projects (but you still gotta pay off the bonds from the rest of the projects), you can move money around with interfund transfers, slice here and dice there, put off paying bills, etc. and limp through the rest of the fiscal year. You could ask AFSCME to reopen the contract, but good luck with that, so there will be no real savings until the following fiscal year or unless the GA goes along with any schemes to bust the union.

And the following fiscal year is where the real pain comes - particularly if too many cans are kicked down the budgetary highway - and that’s why Rauner is now saying he’ll gradually step down the tax hike instead of eliminating it immediately.

* And, yes, spending has gone up in the past four years mainly because the state is finally making its pension payments and the GA and the governor refused to cut education funding. And despite some big cuts to Medicaid, growth is still high.

Also, implementing a brand new service tax right away just can’t happen. Most of these businesses have never, ever paid sales taxes. Getting that program up and running just can’t be done overnight. You can hike income taxes and implement it right away (even do it retroactively) because the system is already in place. But it’ll take time for barbers, laundromats, lawyers and everyone else to get up to speed on a totally new tax (not to mention the time it’ll take to pass a tax like that).

And a service tax will only replace about a quarter or so of that $8 billion in revenues lost when the income tax hike goes away.

* The Tribune is also conveniently forgetting that Rauner wants to massively increase education and higher education funding and has promised spending increases for IDNR, DCFS, IDOC and lots of other stuff, including a huge new capital plan. That will necessitate even more cuts elsewhere or more revenues.

Getting back to the Sun-Times editorial for a moment…

Raise minimum wage to $10 an hour by Jan. 1

As noted in our recent endorsement of a $13 minimum wage for Chicago, it’s past time to raise the minimum wage. Both Chicago and the state need a higher wage, if only to make up for an stagnant low wage that hasn’t kept pace with inflation. We urge a Yes vote to send a strong message to state legislators to get cracking.

That’s diametrically opposed to an editorial the Sun-Times published just last year...

Right now, Illinois’ minimum wage of $8.25 already is $1 higher than Kentucky, Indiana, Iowa and Wisconsin and 90 cents higher than Missouri. In fact, Illinois’ minimum is the fourth-highest in the nation. Raising it any further would put the state at too much of a disadvantage in the competition for jobs.[…]

Any hike in the hourly minimum wage should be done nationally