NYCmetsfan
Banned
raise taxes on the wealthy
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How Illinois became America's failed state (Politico)
- Thread starter RumblingRosco
- Start date
Illinois is currently a flat tax, so restructuring into a progressive tax requires way more political willpower than exists today. Quinn would have done it, but he pretty much lost over wanting to raise taxes to save the state.
I live in Illinois and up until a few weeks ago was a state employee.
This is fucking bullshit. Utter garbage nonsense. Go write campaign ads for Donald Trump or some shit. This is delusional. Explain to me how Madigan got a budget done for like twenty years UNTIL Rauner, but it's somehow Madigan's fault. Explain to me how both parties coming together for a compromise budget, and then Rauner himself scuttling it last minute, is Madigan's fault. Go back to Carbondale with this bullshit.
MacGurcules
Member
Anecdotal, but one of my college instructors was retired Illinois State Police and he said when he retired that it was pretty standard practice to promote a guy on his last day so his pension would figure off of the higher pay bracket.
Snowman Prophet of Doom
Member
Just getting a budget done doesn't matter if said budgets do not confront the underlying long-term insolvency issue that Illinois has been facing for decades. Rauner inherited the problem and made it worse, but Madigan is intensely complicit in the problems of the state.
Sho_Nuff82
Member
Sales taxes are high to attempt to compensate for income tax being a joke. Kansas tried the same thing to fix their budget shortfall.
Illinois is like, 20 years behind the curve on having a sustainable tax rate compared to their budget requirements.
Velcro Fly
Member
Illinois was fucked and bankrupt before Rauner got in office. He's not helping any but this is definitely not entirely his fault. And the problem is so big that just getting a budget done isn't going to fix things.
RumblingRosco
Member
Illinois has the 6th highest property taxes among the 50 states. That is something that's important to keep in mind.
Kor of Memory
Member
Of course just getting the budget done isn't going to instantly fix the problem. We're talking about decades worth of damage here.
But obviously NOT having a budget is making the problem worse.
theepicoftyler
Member
Illinois is definitely a mess.
My mother was given early retirement in her late 40s in a short sighted effort to reduce spending costs. The state offered her early retirement in exchange for her using all of her years (I think she had 3 years 'saved' up) of accrued time off at once and now she's been receiving a state pension since her early 50s. She happily took the deal as it was as physically grueling job, and she was having a difficult time continuing doing it (A developmental home for severally mentally handicapped adults; a lot of the clients are prone to involuntarily violent episodes, and she was one of the people who took a lot of the brunt of it).
They've been trying to shutter that facility ever since, which would be a disaster, but their solution to budget issues in the meager budget of the Department of Human Services was to add more strain on the concrete shoes that is the overtaxed state pension system.
I'm not exactly sure how to fix the issue(s) in a way that' sustainable without gutting major programs (which Dems and Republicans a like have been want to do). Most people seem to be content with kicking that can down the road.
My mother was given early retirement in her late 40s in a short sighted effort to reduce spending costs. The state offered her early retirement in exchange for her using all of her years (I think she had 3 years 'saved' up) of accrued time off at once and now she's been receiving a state pension since her early 50s. She happily took the deal as it was as physically grueling job, and she was having a difficult time continuing doing it (A developmental home for severally mentally handicapped adults; a lot of the clients are prone to involuntarily violent episodes, and she was one of the people who took a lot of the brunt of it).
They've been trying to shutter that facility ever since, which would be a disaster, but their solution to budget issues in the meager budget of the Department of Human Services was to add more strain on the concrete shoes that is the overtaxed state pension system.
I'm not exactly sure how to fix the issue(s) in a way that' sustainable without gutting major programs (which Dems and Republicans a like have been want to do). Most people seem to be content with kicking that can down the road.
Not to mention our extra tax on gas, garbage like Chicago's entertainment tax, and their problem with the fuckery around the teachers pensions in Chicago and and the funds not being used correctly that almost boiled over to the rest of the state footing the bill.
Additionally property taxes have been absolutely spiraling out of control in many suburbs thanks to the school districts and other factors, and they're nearly the highest in the nation.
BladeoftheImmortal
Member
I don't know. They are already talking about pensions and how it's such a strain....Pretty much means they think Illinois should try and go away from them...Towards 401k.
This could be partly addressed by reforming the appraisal process for property taxes. There is a lot of property in Cook County that much less relatively in taxes compared to the value of their property than others.
It's definitely an issue, yeah.
Illinois has an extremely low income tax rate, at 3.75%. It used to be 5.00%, but that was lowered in 2015.
By comparison, CA (which as a progressive tax, not a flat tax, so I'll just pull a few mid-tier brackets) charges:
~$30k-$40k = 6.00%
~$40k-$52k = 8.00%
~$52k-263k = 9.30%
IL has stupid cheap income tax, especially when you take the budget issues into consideration.
Our lawmakers finally kicked Brownback to the curb. Things still aren't perfect, but going better than Illinois.
RumblingRosco
Member
The Illinois Senate just voted to override the Governor's veto of the latest attempt at getting a budget set for the state. The House will vote, presumably on Thursday, as to whether they also support the override. It seems like they will override the veto, which should mean that Illinois will have a $36 bln spending plan in place, their first budget since 2015.
However, with this budget comes a 32% increase on personal income tax (from 3.75% to ~5%; Illinois has a flat tax) and 29% increase on corporate income tax (from 5% to 7%).
Basically, this figure is about to get a bit uglier for Illinois:
Happy to see a budget possibly go through though. It'll go a long way to helping with our credit rating as well as support for universities, rural communities, and infrastructure.
However, with this budget comes a 32% increase on personal income tax (from 3.75% to ~5%; Illinois has a flat tax) and 29% increase on corporate income tax (from 5% to 7%).
Basically, this figure is about to get a bit uglier for Illinois:
Happy to see a budget possibly go through though. It'll go a long way to helping with our credit rating as well as support for universities, rural communities, and infrastructure.
LinkAndEpona
Banned
Pretty spot on.
I wonder of Kansas will be next due to how they changed the taxes.
RumblingRosco
Member
We got a budget boys!