* Gov. Quinn says he’s willing to sacrifice his own career to raise taxes and balance the budget…

Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn says he realizes that his proposal to raise income taxes could cost him another term, but he has to do what’s right.

Quinn said at a press conference Sunday that he thinks the state’s residents want a governor who levels with them. And he says that the tax proposal was the only honest and honorable thing to do.

Some have derided Quinn for taking a voluntary $25,000 pay cut as meaningless symbolism. They’re completely missing the point. He’s put his entire career on the line with this budget.

* The Sun-Times takes a look…

Voters hate tax hikes, which is why Gov. Quinn’s push for the state’s first income tax increase in 20 years is such an intriguing political gambit with the 2010 gubernatorial campaign ready to launch.

But do voters really hate tax hikes, or is this a media creation? The Paul Simon Public Policy Institute at Southern Illinois University conducted a poll last fall which showed voters were open to higher, more progressive taxes…

Interestingly, while 74.2 percent of respondents who make less than $50K annually favored a progressive tax, and 68.9 percent of those who make between $50K and $100K favored the tax, more than half of the people who make more than $100K and would presumably pay the higher rate still favored a higher rate for themselves. 57.5% of the respondents who make more than $100,000 support a higher rate for higher incomes.

My own opinion on this is that voters may support a tax hike in the abstract, but maybe not so much when a tax hike is imminent. And the world’s economic conditions are far worse now than they were when that poll was conducted.

Still, nobody in the General Assembly lost their seats after Gov. Jim Thompson increased taxes in the 1980s. And I don’t believe that any legislators lost after Gov. Ogilvie instituted the income tax after the constitutional convention. Ogilvie lost, however, so Quinn has that bit of history going against him.

And then there’s this story from New Jersey that’s worth a look…

New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine says his plan to shrink a $7 billion budget gap by raising taxes and cutting workers’ pay will create “a stronger footing for tomorrow.” By the time that tomorrow comes, Corzine may be out of a job.

The governor, a former chairman of Goldman Sachs and the only incumbent up for re-election this year, is trailing his likely Republican opponent amid voter anger over the economic crisis — and the steps he’s taking to deal with it: a fiscal 2010 budget that lops 9 percent from the current one, a wage freeze and unpaid furloughs for state workers, and possible cuts in property-tax rebates along with higher taxes on the wealthiest residents and on cigarettes and alcohol.

Keep in mind that New Jersey polling is notoriously inaccurate, but it certainly ought to give Quinn pause.

* And this Gatehouse story shows just how difficult Quinn’s task will be…

Pat Abney, a 63-year-old from Springfield, said that between buying medicines and paying monthly bills, many senior citizens are barely able to survive with their bills, let alone additional fees.

“Ninety-nine dollars for a little sticker every year is just a little too much,” Abney said. “But it is something that I’ll have to have to buy. I’ll have to pinch some pennies to pay for it and it could be kind of a tight squeeze.”

1) Not mentioned in the piece is that senior citizens don’t pay income tax on their pension incomes.

2) The governor’s proposed sticker vehicle registration fee increase is $20 per year, which isn’t mentioned anywhere in the story’s main body.

3) Expect many more misleading “woe is me” stories like this in the future.

* Meanwhile, the Tribune finally discovers the governor’s proposed sales tax expansion…

Buried deep within the massive budget proposal Gov. Pat Quinn presented last week to lawmakers was a caffeinated jolt to the bottled tea and Frappuccino crowd.

Quinn wants to apply the state’s sales tax on soft drinks to the coffee and sweetened tea products in grocery stores, adding a quarter for the state treasury for every $5 six-pack of sweet green tea.

* And the SouthtownStar has words of praise…

Former Gov. Rod Blagojevich once bragged of his “testicular virility” for standing-up to his father-in-law, Chicago Ald. Dick Mell, over a landfill deal.

We think Quinn, by introducing an income tax increase, earns that distinction.

* But Chris Krug makes an interesting point about why the voters elected Blagojevich twice and why Quinn finds the going so tough now…

I’m not sure that any of us wanted a governor who was all that interested in doing something. I’m almost positive we just didn’t want Blago in there doing anything.

* Related…

* Quinn shows ‘testicular virility’

* Lawmakers Speak Out In Opposition of Quinn’s Recovery Plan

* Critics: Budget plan fails to ‘cut, cut, cut’

* How the governor reaches $1.3 billion in proposed cuts