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Rauner denies being “disingenuous” about tax hike

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REPORTER: “You just signed a budget that spends the money from the tax increase that you opposed. Over the summer we’re moving into a campaign season. Are you going to out there on the campaign trail and tell people that you object to this tax increase that you’re approving the spending on?”

RAUNER: “Absolutely.”

REPORTER: “Isn’t that disingenuous?”

RAUNER: “Not at all. If we introduced – if we passed a budget that I introduced, the spending plan that I introduced we could begin to rollback that tax hike and we would be running a $1.5 billion surplus in this coming year and we could – “

REPORTER: [INAUDIBLE]

RAUNER: “This is bipartisan compromise, this is a compromise. It’s not perfect, none of us got everything that we were looking for. This budget does not pay down bills so I was very frustrated. It did not pass the comprehensive pension reform that the Senate Democrats passed last year, we need to do that. It did not get regulatory relief for businesses, and workers comp and other regulations so we can grow more jobs. And most importantly, or I should say maybe very importantly it did not get the mandate relief on our schools, our schools need mandate relief and we need mandate relief on our local government so we can consolidate governments more effectively and efficiently and bring down our tax burden. These are the changes we will continue to strive to make, but this budget for the first time in many years even prior to me being Governor is balanced, through some hard work and some great efforts we will have it balanced and it stops some excessive spending that would have otherwise happened. And it’s a good step in the right direction.”

Notice he didn’t answer the question.

* Another exchange…

I’ll add one other point that I think is salient, if we had passed the budget that I had introduced in February – that I had proposed in February – and then just used the rest of the assumptions and programs that are in this budget we would be running about a $1.5 billion surplus in the coming fiscal year. We could use that for a tax reduction, we could use that to invest more in infrastructure, and we could use that to pay down bills.

OK, now that’s disingenuous. He talks like $1.5 billion is a huge amount of money that can easily be divvied up for a tax cut, infrastructure and paying off bills. The bill backlog alone will be more than $7 billion at the end of the fiscal year.

A $1.5 billion tax cut would reduce the income rate by 0.375 percentage points. So, instead of a 4.95 personal rate, we’d have a 4.575 rate. Great news! The exodus will surely end! But since much of what they used to “balance” the budget are one-time revenue sources, including borrowing $800 million from special funds for two years and selling the Thompson Center, we’d be in an even worse hole.

Divide it up three ways and you’d trim the backlog by a mere $500 million, reduce the income tax rate by 0.125 points to 4.825 and have a half a bil left over for capital - and you’d still have a $6.6 billion backlog with even less state money to address it.

posted by Rich Miller
Tuesday, Jun 5, 18 @ 1:43 pm

Comments

===”disingenuous”===

Interesting word choice. Synonyms for that word include:

insincere
dishonest
untruthful
false
deceitful
duplicitous
lying
mendacious
hypocritical

Comment by 47th Ward Tuesday, Jun 5, 18 @ 1:52 pm
With his signature, Bruce Rauner validated and certified his disingenuous statement that the 32% tax increase isn’t needed, as the budget signed by Rauner requires that 32% tax increase to balance.

Bruce Rauner failed to get reforms, in part, because his “give” of signing a tax increase was in of itself disingenuous too, as a give can’t be something that is 100% required.

Rauner is a phony. It’s disingenuous to a fault, but that’s Rauner’s three plus years in a nutshell.

Comment by Oswego Willy Tuesday, Jun 5, 18 @ 1:52 pm
Billions in unpaid bills, no infrastructure funding for years, pension debt in the stratosphere … yes, let’s cut taxes. We have another stable genius.

Comment by Sir Reel Tuesday, Jun 5, 18 @ 1:55 pm
==We have another stable genius.==

Marching orders for the PritzkerBots today, and this week, this month, and this year–Rauner is Trump, Trump is Rauner, eliminate nuance.

Comment by Chris Widger Tuesday, Jun 5, 18 @ 1:58 pm
“begin to rollback that tax hike and we would be running a $1.5 billion surplus”

I mean, that’s just a lie. His proposal was $500 million to pay bills and a $1 billion tax cut. It wasn’t both.

Comment by Juice Tuesday, Jun 5, 18 @ 2:01 pm
The Governor has the ability to manage the budget. He doesn’t have to spend something just because it was appropriated. He just can’t seem to grasp the concept of governing.

Comment by Demoralized Tuesday, Jun 5, 18 @ 2:04 pm
What the governor seems to be saying, of course with out actually saying it, is that we will need more revenue next year.

Comment by JS Mill Tuesday, Jun 5, 18 @ 2:07 pm
Which question wasn’t answered?

Comment by Birdseed Tuesday, Jun 5, 18 @ 2:08 pm
Disingenuous is such a great word. A reporter can’t really say aren’t you a liar? So this fits the bill rather nicely.

Comment by DuPage Bard Tuesday, Jun 5, 18 @ 2:11 pm
[INAUDIBLE]

Comment by Streator Curmudgeon Tuesday, Jun 5, 18 @ 2:12 pm
===eliminate nuance===

lol

Yeah, you would never do that.

Comment by Rich Miller Tuesday, Jun 5, 18 @ 2:13 pm
47, put me down for deceitful.

Comment by Norseman Tuesday, Jun 5, 18 @ 2:13 pm
====== Marching orders for the PritzkerBots today, and this week, this month, and this year–Rauner is Trump, Trump is Rauner, eliminate nuance. =====

Yeah, because…. Madigan.

See, that’s how it feels.

Comment by Try-4-Truth Tuesday, Jun 5, 18 @ 2:22 pm
Unfortunately, for most Illinois voters who might possibly read of this exchange, the irony, outright denials, the lack of candor and distortion of the facts will be lost on many who will determine his fate.

Am I right?

Comment by illini Tuesday, Jun 5, 18 @ 2:23 pm
Demoralized 204. Bingo

Comment by Anonymous Tuesday, Jun 5, 18 @ 2:25 pm
Disengenuous?

You mean like JB and the Speaker saying they are going to pass a progressive income tax to magically solve all of Illinois problems, even though it was fell 10 votes short in the House a few weeks back.

And that JB and the Speaker were all about the wealthy paying their fair share despite the off shore accounts and the removed plumbing and the fact that the Speaker clients are all “miilionaires and billionaires” who hire him so they do not have to pay their fair share.

They aren’t phonies right OW?

Governor Rauner has always supported revenue with reform because he does not think just raising taxes will fix Illinois.

Comment by Lucky Pierre Tuesday, Jun 5, 18 @ 2:27 pm
==Marching orders for the PritzkerBots today, and this week, this month, and this year–Rauner is Trump, Trump is Rauner, eliminate nuance==

Sir Reel using the trump term “stable genius” about Bruce isnt all that different than you taking a term Rich Miller coined and turning it around to say “PritzkerBot”. Talk about eliminating nuance

Comment by Lester Holt’s Mustache Tuesday, Jun 5, 18 @ 2:36 pm
I vote for “mendacious”

I also like it starts with an M and has three syllables

Comment by I Miss Bentohs Tuesday, Jun 5, 18 @ 2:54 pm
==Disengenuous?==

I could see where that could be a question. Disingenous implies one is pretending. I’m not sure the Governor is pretending when he says false things. I think he actually believes the nonsense he says.

Comment by Demoralized Tuesday, Jun 5, 18 @ 2:56 pm
disingenuous

“not candid or sincere, typically by pretending that one knows less about something than one really does.”

https://www.google.com/search?q=disingenuous

Comment by Precinct Captain Tuesday, Jun 5, 18 @ 2:58 pm
“Governor Rauner has always supported revenue with reform because he does not think just raising taxes will fix Illinois.”

No he hasn’t. Rauner has always wanted others to pass the revenue and then be able to verbally abuse them for their vote. He’s a political coward. But of course he never introduced a balanced budget anyway.

Comment by Anon0091 Tuesday, Jun 5, 18 @ 3:07 pm
===…with reform…===

A required element can’t be held as a “give”

Bruce Rauber proves that, signing a budget, validating and certifying that 32% tax increase is required to balance a budget.

Rauner signing the budget blows up your whole argument. The tax increase was 100% necessary. Without it, Bruce woulda signed a budget lacking more revenue, lol

===You mean like JB and the Speaker saying they are going to pass a progressive income tax to magically solve all of Illinois problems, even though it was fell 10 votes short in the House a few weeks back.===

Now it sounds like a campaign promise, not unlike Rauber saying term limits or fair maps.

Yeah, about that 10 votes shy, that’s how legislation passage works. You fall short, it fails. Good on you to see the process.

===They aren’t phonies right===

Weee talking about the Governor, the disingenuous way Rauner thinks his signature and the validating the tax increase isn’t ridiculous.

So you agree it’s ridiculous? That’s what it sounds like.

Comment by Oswego Willy Tuesday, Jun 5, 18 @ 3:14 pm
Nuance, schmuance.

In three years, we have never heard our Governor Rauner state an accurate fiscal number. I have given up on that expectation. He cannot possibly be that unaware.

Comment by walker Tuesday, Jun 5, 18 @ 3:36 pm
OW,
With respect and out of genuine curiosity, do you sometimes deliberately type Rauber instead of Rauner? A German-English dictionary will tell you why I ask. Again, with respect and genuine curiosity.

Comment by Flapdoodle Tuesday, Jun 5, 18 @ 4:01 pm
Typo.

If it is a bad form or an off-color meaning, I have been wrong in these typos.

I’ll need to see what you are referring to, and be much more careful in the future.

Comment by Oswego Willy Tuesday, Jun 5, 18 @ 4:03 pm
Flap doodle…..”B” is next to “N”…..simple mistake.

Comment by Anonymous Tuesday, Jun 5, 18 @ 4:15 pm
=Notice he didn’t answer the question.=

What else is new? I don’t think he could answer a question to save his life (or his governorship).

Comment by JoanP Tuesday, Jun 5, 18 @ 4:20 pm
Delirious or mentally confused.

===LP-Governor Rauner has always supported revenue with reform because he does not think just raising taxes will fix Illinois.===

Rauner’s turn around agenda estimated at 1.4% or $500 million. Rauner’s crisis creates opportunity bill backlog estimated at $7 billion.

Comment by XDNR Tuesday, Jun 5, 18 @ 6:38 pm