BGA pusheding for a tax on pensions.
The Better Government Association perhaps should change its name to the “Better Government with More Taxes Association.”
Bad acronym, but that certain describes its pitch in this article.
Just looking at the graphic the BGA used in its article tells you that it favors removing eggs from peoples nest eggs.
And in its weekly email blast, the article is described thusly:
“Support builds for a controversial tax on seniors but the burden is on the governor and lawmakers to forge a comprehensive budget plan, a BGA Rescuing Illinois report finds.”
Leading the fight against taxing retirement income is State Rep. David McSweeney:
“I’m still a HELL NO on a retirement tax!
“I’m continuing to work hard against it.”
Here are those who have signed onto the proposal that McSweeney has introduced:
House Sponsors
Rep. David McSweeney – Brandon W. Phelps – Jeanne M Ives – Martin J. Moylan – Mark Batinick, Margo McDermed, Steven A. Andersson, Jack D. Franks, Sue Scherer, Deb Conroy, Jerry Costello, II, Anna Moeller, Katherine Cloonen, Daniel V. Beiser, Mike Smiddy, Natalie A. Manley, Sam Yingling, Stephanie A. Kifowit, C.D. Davidsmeyer, Reginald Phillips, Thomas Morrison, Bill Mitchell, Adam Brown, Avery Bourne, Dwight Kay, John M. Cabello, Ron Sandack, Terri Bryant, Christine Winger, Michael P. McAuliffe, Randy E. Frese, Joe Sosnowski, John D. Anthony, Anthony DeLuca, Patrick J. Verschoore, John Cavaletto, Sheri Jesiel, Jay Hoffman, Tom Demmer, Andrew F Skoog, Frances Ann Hurley, David B. Reis, Rita Mayfield, Norine K. Hammond, Jaime M. Andrade, Jr., Camille Y. Lilly, Kenneth Dunkin, Donald L. Moffitt, Mary E. Flowers, John C. D’Amico, Linda Chapa LaVia, Emanuel Chris Welch, Peter Breen, Cynthia Soto, Sonya M. Harper, Monique D. Davis, Thaddeus Jones, Marcus C. Evans, Jr., Silvana Tabares, Keith R. Wheeler, André Thapedi, Eddie Lee Jackson, Sr. and La Shawn K. Ford
Note that the Wheeler listed is not Crystal Lake State Rep. Barbara Wheeler.
Of course, some of those are co-sponsoring the House Resolution for purely short-term political reasons.
If a vote is required to tax pensions, Social Security and other retirement income, some of the co-sponsors will do so, just as they voted to increase in State Income Tax 67%, when Democratic Governor Pat Quinn asked them to.
Some of those who broke campaign pledges not to support a higher income tax got cushy jobs in State government from Quinn.
Would this be a tax on all forms of retirement income or is this a tax only on pension income derived from State pension programs (i.e. TRS, IMRF, SURS, etc.)?
I absolutely hate taxes, although I am all in for taxing Cadillac pensions (not all pensions).
There is a uniformity clause with regard to taxes in the Illinois State Constitution.
Rather than taxing pensions, why not go the other way- offer property tax discounts to households with no public pensioner in residence?
They won’t propose taxing only public sector pensions because the unions would sue on the basis the tax targets public sector pensions and thus diminishes or impairs pensions and thus is against the state constitution.
Why is one reason why the pensions sentence should be repealed in its entirety from the Illinois State Constitution.
The result of the pension sentence was hiked pensions benefits and hiked pay, both which hikes the pensions.
Pension benefit levels should have been frozen until pensions were fully funded.
Salary hikes should have been nominal until pensions were fully funded.
Instead the unions and administrators and pension contributors and recipients wanted to have their cake and eat it too: unfunded or underfunded pension benefit hikes, hiked salaries, hiked pensions, divert pension funding partially to salary hikes and other projects which benefit public sector workers, all while pensions in most of the 20 pension systems were underfunded every year, pensions are contractual, pensions cannot be diminished or impaired.
Illinois Pension Scam.
You can’t solve problem one way, solve it another.
Ordinary citizens are being punished by destructive property tax rates and other taxes in order to fund these pension rackets.
Taxes must abide by uniformity clause.
But local tax abatements are granted to individually defined groups (such as seniors’ property tax exemption, reduced fares on public transit, for example).
Why couldn’t local taxing bodies grant property tax exemptions to households without a resident eligible for public pension?
Even renters with this exclusion could pass it to property owners pro rata per rental unit, and thus lower their own rent.
This would serve justice in that the burden to fund inequitable public pensions would fall more squarely on the lucky beneficiaries of said pensions.
right you are susan,im takeing money out of whats left of my 401 to pay my out of control PROPERTY TAXS
I’m with Mark.
The sentence needs to be removed from the Constitution.
Heck, I’m surprised there’s been no challenge that any tax increase diminishes the value of a pension.
Cal, I know that you and many others worked hard in the service of our community.
Yet, aside from what’s encoded in the constitution, what makes the pensioner group more special or deserving of a tax break than any other hard working citizen?
As the public pension benefits continue to grow unabated, my future retirement benefits continue to shrink because I will be forced to pay for their uncapped gains through increased taxes on my income.
It’s unconscionable.
It was my understanding the original proposal was to tax pensions up to the age of 65 meaning those who are drawing a pension when likely working as well.
That State Constitution you all so revere, is nothing more than toilet paper.
The careless scrawl by Government Employees for Government Employees.
If they start taxin’ people’s natural teeth … it won’t affect me ’cause I wear dentures.