Get ready for more pain... Nice to know our state $ucks really hard! and getting $uckier! we need more money for education, right? http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123759961761001591.html The Taxin' Illini Article As if Illinois voters didn't have enough to be angry about, this week their new Governor announced plans to raise state income taxes by 50%. Pat Quinn, the man who replaced Rod Blagojevich, is proposing to raise the personal income tax rate to 4.5% from 3% and the business tax to 7.2% from 4.8%. At least Blago's outrages were entertaining. Mr. Quinn ran as Mr. Blagojevich's Lieutenant Governor on a platform of no new taxes. But now he defends his huge tax increase by saying this will only hit those who have the "ability to pay." Of course, employers and the wealthy also have the ability to leave -- which they have been doing. In the last decade 736,000 more Americans have left Illinois than have entered, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. Over the last six years, Illinois has ranked 45th out of 50 states in job creation, according to the American Legislative Exchange Council. In 2008, 175,000 jobs vanished -- a medium-sized city of lost jobs. Mr. Quinn's tax increase will mean 50% higher taxes for nearly every small business, subchapter S company and corporation in the state. This is a state that does almost everything wrong economically. It is not a right-to-work state and is thus heavily unionized, repelling new business investment. It has the fifth highest minimum wage among the states, the fifth most trial-lawyer friendly legal code, the sixth highest workers' compensation costs, and the 11th highest property taxes. It has one of the highest inheritance taxes, at 16%, so retirees flee to states with no death tax, such as Florida and Arizona. A rare Illinois advantage has been its relatively low income-tax rate, but that will shrink or vanish under Mr. Quinn's increase. Over the last six years the state's revenues climbed by $7 billion, but the flush times led to flush spending. Per capita state expenditures after inflation have climbed to $4,700 in 2008 from $3,200 in 1998. The state now spends roughly $13,000 per public-school student in Chicago, but the money has done little to reverse a dismal high school graduation rate of 51%. The charter schools in Chicago take a demographically similar group of students and achieve 77% graduation rates, but Democrats have put a cap on more charters. One of the articles of impeachment against Mr. Blagojevich was that he illegally, and without legislative approval, expanded Medicaid eligibility to 400% of poverty from 185%. So now families with incomes of up to $80,000 can get taxpayer-supported health care, and the state's Medicaid rolls have exploded to 2.7 million today from 1.7 million in 2000. The unfunded liabilities for its pension program have nearly doubled over the past decade to $70 billion in part because the state has routinely robbed the pension fund to finance current programs. As to Mr. Quinn's claims that only the wealthy will pay more, a new analysis by the Illinois Policy Institute finds that the tax hike would hit single people with an income of more than $14,000 and couples of more than $28,000 if they have no kids. His plan increases the per person exemption to $6,000 from $2,000, but for low-income workers or families with only one child or less the more generous exemption doesn't offset the higher tax rate. For six years, Democrats have held virtually every statewide elected office in Illinois and they control both chambers of the legislature; in the Senate they have a veto-proof majority. They can raise taxes as they please, and they probably will pass Mr. Quinn's plan to repudiate his campaign promises. We'd like to think Illinois voters deserve better, but then again they keep re-electing this crowd. Hello, Vero Beach. Please add your comments to the Opinion Journal forum.
