* The possibility of a do-nothing budget takes front and center in two weekend columns from longtime Statehouse reporters. First, Kurt Erickson…
Could Illinois lawmakers leave Springfield on May 31 without approving an income tax hike to help bail the state out of its deficit-addled condition? With two weeks to go before lawmakers are scheduled to adjourn for the spring, that possibility seemed very real last week.
Here’s an example: State Rep. Frank Mautino, R-Spring Valley, entered a hearing room in the Capitol to present a bill to a House committee.
Before he sat down to present his proposal, he told a lobbyist that Gov. Pat Quinn’s proposed 50 percent hike in the income tax hike was going nowhere.
Mautino’s alternative: Legalize video poker.
Video poker would raise maybe $500 million in time… maybe. An income tax hike, whether the 1.5 percent proposed by Quinn or the alternate 1 percent floated by Senate President John Cullerton, would bring in more than $3 billion. That’s a whole lot of extra cutting.
Given the amount of work still to do, you have to figure it’s even odds Cullerton will fail [to adjourn by May 29th]. All four legislative leaders met together (a rarity) Friday and apparently agreed to go full speed ahead on ethics reforms and a capital plan, and both of those may be close to agreement.
But from the way Cullerton and others talked, the basic state budget is another matter.
Lawmakers could always decide just to punt, slap together a budget they know isn’t balanced, drop it on the governor’s desk and let him work it out. We’ve all seen how well that idea worked when they did it in 2008.
The budget is, indeed, the big problem. My own syndicated column talks about this, and quotes Cullerton on that problem. We’ll get to that tomorrow.
* Progress Illinois recently pointed to this quote by a Chicago legislator which may be quite accurate…
[Rep. Greg] Harris estimates there are currently 42 state representatives in support of the income tax increases needed to avoid programming cuts. The measure would need 60 votes to pass in the State House this month or a supermajority of 71 votes to pass after May 31.
It’s definitely an uphill climb.
* This lede is exactly why the governor and others want to exclude beer from any sales tax increase and just hike the tax on wine and liquor…
Look out, Joe Sixpack. The taxman is looking for you.
Key legislative leaders contemplated hiking the state’s tax on beer by 2.6 cents per six pack for the first time in a decade to help underwrite a proposed multibillion-dollar statewide construction program.
Senate President John Cullerton (D-Chicago) confirmed talk of a beer tax, which would be part of a trio of liquor tax increases under consideration. Taxes of 13 cents per bottle of wine and 80 cents per bottle of hard liquor have been on the table.
“The beer people feel left out so we’re considering adding them,” Cullerton quipped.
That’s a silly thing to say by Cullerton. All he’s gonna do is make the reaction even more heated.
* And Kristen McQueary takes a look at the vote against Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s pension reform bill last week, which is hotly opposed by AFSCME and the teachers unions. The Republicans were the ones voting “No”…
Funny, isn’t it? That the Democrats, supposedly moored to labor unions, are spearheading pension reform, and the Republicans on McCarthy’s committee were the ones voting against it?
The Republicans who voted “no” were Raymond Poe and Rich Brauer, of Springfield, Dan Brady, of Bloomington, and Michael McAuliffe, of Chicago’s Northwest Side.
Now that’s political ideology upside-down. Welcome to Springfield.
Actually, that’s not so odd. Poe and Brauer both represent Springfield. Brady represents a public university and most of its employees. McAuliffe has been regularly endorsed by the AFL-CIO.
* Here’s a video I shared with subscribers on Friday. It’s Senate GOP Leader Christine Radogno talking about what the leaders have decided so far on capital bill funding…
