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Quinn offers locals an option

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Illinois

* Buried way down in this Sun-Times story is something I told subscribers would happen the day after Gov. Quinn unveiled his budget. Quinn’s trying to get the mayors to agree to lobby for his income tax hike in exchange for killing off all or part of his proposed $300 million cut to local governments….

To settle the differences, Quinn has lobbied members of the Metropolitan Mayors Caucus, a consortium of 272 Chicago-area mayors, to back his 1 percent income tax surcharge by offering them a portion of the $3.1 billion it’s expected to raise to offset what they’d lose in income tax proceeds, said David Bennett, executive director of the caucus.

Quinn spokesman Bob Reed would not confirm the governor offered such a trade-off.

It’s been on the table all along.

* Meanwhile, Quinn has taken one major item off the budget cutting table…

State officials have dropped plans to increase monthly fees for residents at four veterans homes in Illinois.

That’s according to letters from Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs director Dan Grant, which were delivered Saturday.

The increase would have been about $400 a month.

The letter says that Gov. Pat Quinn has directed the fee increase be postponed until further notice.

Yet one more reason why nobody really believes Quinn will ever go through with his threatened cuts.

* This makes little to no sense…

That’s why [GOP state Sen. John Millner] personally feels protecting special education funding for children is a much higher priority than providing free public transportation for seniors without first considering their income levels.

The costs for those free rides is mostly borne by the locals

* Related…

* Groups up budget pressure on state lawmakers

* Glen Ellyn school for blind, deaf children to stay open

* Making decisions, Springfield-style

* Concessions, pay freezes good moves

* Cook County’s big, fat tax lie: Trouble is, [Houlihan] sent out notices to homeowners emphasizing the lower assessment percentages without warning homeowners that they would see a jump in market value. So tax bills actually are going up, despite assessment notices showing a drop. And by the time homeowners figure it out, they may miss deadlines to appeal their assessments.

posted by Rich Miller
Monday, Apr 12, 10 @ 11:42 am

Comments

If I were the mayors, I would just wait for him to cave.

Comment by OneMan Monday, Apr 12, 10 @ 12:11 pm
If I were the mayors, I would just wait for him to cave.

Bravo! Absolutely!

Comment by VanillaMan Monday, Apr 12, 10 @ 12:49 pm
Is this the same Metropolitan Mayors Caucus who were promised by Quinn in early February 2010 that he would not touch the LGDF funding formula?

Comment by One of the 35 Monday, Apr 12, 10 @ 2:27 pm
Whoa! I thought for sure there’d be more comments on this thread. Hmmm…

Comment by Rich Miller Monday, Apr 12, 10 @ 3:26 pm
The tax increase has to get political support somehow. Getting local mayors on board will build up good momentum for what is the best available option to fix the state’s deficit.

Comment by jonbtuba Tuesday, Apr 13, 10 @ 9:42 am