* 1:20 am - The Senate passed the tax increase bill with 30 votes.

During his closing remarks, Senate President John Cullerton promised the Republicans that he would close any loophole in the expenditure cap that they might find. Republicans had suggested the bill would allow the governor to skip pension payments. Democrats countered with intent language that declared this was not the case.

* 1:25 am - The Senate passed the pension bond biill with 42 votes. Republicans had vowed to oppose the bill. They apparently changed their minds.

* 1:48 am - Gov. Pat Quinn has not talked to the Statehouse press corps since the passage of the civil unions bill. But we caught up to him behind the Senate chambers after his visit with Democrats who voted for the tax hike bill. Nobody thought to hold an elevator for him, so there was a welcomed delay for us as we tried to get him to answer questions. He didn’t say a whole lot, promising to talk to us tomorrow. Notice the last little bit in the video. I couldn’t resist…

* Roundup…

* Daily Herald: “When would we run out of money?” Rep. Linda Chapa LaVia, an Aurora Democrat, asked during a hearing Tuesday. “Some would argue we already have run out of money,” replied David Vaught, Quinn’s budget director.

* Tribune: With no votes to spare and no Republicans on board, the House approved the plan to hike the personal income tax-rate by 67 percent and the business income tax by 46 percent. The plan nearly faltered in the Senate hours later when black lawmakers balked at the House’s decision to remove a property-tax relief component from the plan and failure to approve a cigarette tax hike for schools. But after a late evening closed-door meeting of several black lawmakers with Gov. Pat Quinn, a fellow Democrat, an agreement was reached and the Senate approved the tax increase plan 30-29 without a vote to spare shortly before 1:30 a.m. The action came as a new General Assembly was to be sworn in midday Wednesday, replacing a handful of departing Democratic lawmakers whose support was counted on for the tax plan.

* Sun-Times: The House twice voted down a bid to borrow $8.75 billion to pay unpaid bills owed by the state and rejected a $1.01-a-pack hike in the state cigarette tax that would have pumped $375 million into cash-strapped school districts. Other things thrown on the legislative scrap heap included a $1 billion-a-year plan to open a Chicago casino and four others and a proposal to overhaul the state’s worker’s compensation laws that was bitterly opposed by labor unions.

* SJ-R: Cross was also said the notion the tax would be temporary is “clearly false.”

* ISN: GOP leaders also point out that the 2-percent cap builds upon itself. Even with the spending cap Illinois government will grow nearly 17 percent in four years, they said. Quinn budget director, David Vaught, said the administration needs some room for the spending caps. He expects Illinois to have to pay its multi-billion dollar pension payments and cover the rising cost of Medicaid in the future. “Just those two forms of increased spending, that are very difficult to control, will eat up this spending cap change. Everything else will have to be flat or decline,” Vaught said.

* AP: The increase means an Illinois resident who now owes $1,000 in state income taxes will pay $1,666 at the new rate. After four years, the rate drops to 4 percent and that same taxpayer will then owe $1,333.