Income, Sales, and Sin Taxes May Increase to Cover $13 Billion Deficit
The New York Times is reporting that the State of Illinois has a budget deficit of $13 Billion that is forcing the new legislature to consider increasing every tax that it is within their power to increase just to keep the bills paid. In addition to the massive deficit the State if Illinois is reported to have current unpaid bills of $6 Billion causing concerns about debt ratings and bondability.
To deal with this Illinois is considering increasing the income tax by 75%, a yet to be defined tax increase on businesses, and of course the always popular increase on cigarettes by $1 per pack. The tax increases are being designed to raise about $7.5 Billion per year in additional tax revenue. When asked what the legislature would do with this money, John Cullerton the President of the Illinois Senate simply said “we would pay our bills”.
So what has happened to cause our friends and relatives across the Wabash River to be facing massive tax increases? Illinois more than nearly any other state is dominated by a single large urban city in the form of Chicago that has the population and the votes to dictate state policy. Thus the State of Illinois is governed like a Midwestern city. The rest of Illinois including the parts that we all consider to be part of the Tri-State are much more like rural America. It is somewhat like the City of Chicago has annexed the rest of the state. It will be interesting to see how the rest of Illinois responds to these massive tax increases that are largely necessary because of the excessive spending of elected officials on keeping the bills paid in the northeast corner of the state.
Here is a link to the full article.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/10/us/10illinois.html?pagewanted=1&hp
Wait a second.
You mean eventually someone has to PAY for all that spending????
Ruh-roh.
If I lived in Southern Illinois, I’d be pushing for secession from Chicago right about now.
“It will be interesting to see how the rest of Illinois responds to these massive tax increases that are largely necessary because of the excessive spending of elected officials on keeping the bills paid in the northeast corner of the state”
It will be interesting to see how the rest of VanderBORG County responds to these massive tax increases that are largely necessary because of the excessive spending of elected officials on keeping the bills paid in the former city of Evansville, now, after consolidation, known as Vanderville.
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