“Taxpayer Lives Matter,” says this bumper sticker being distributed by Steve Reick.
Can’t remember where I read that Governor Bruce Rauner was saying that there would be no budget until January, but I can tell you why there won’t be a budget and massive tax hike passed before the end of filing petitions for State Representative and State Senator.
The reason is simple.
If the vote were held before the end of petition filling, someone might run against the incumbent voting to hike taxes.
Karen McConnaughay represents Sun City.
Steve Andersson represents Sun City.
Think of what would happen, for example, if a legislator representing Sun City voted in favor of taxing pensions and other retirement income before the end of filing at the end of November.
Someone might be angry enough to run against them.
Someone tied to the area because of grandchildren.
In 2010, according to the U.S. Census, 12.1% of McHenry County residents were over 65 years of age.
Statewide the figure was 13.9%.
While seniors in Chicago tend to vote Democrat, those out here vote disproportionately Republican.
If State Senator Pam Althoff and State Rep. Barbara Wheeler voted in favor of taxing pensions and IRAs or were forthright to say they were planning to do so, my guess is that tax fighting opponents would run against both.
Althoff is a member of the Senate Republican Leadership Team and I expect her to vote for the tax hike’s passage, as I do retiring State Rep. Mike Tryon, who is a member of the House Republican Leadership Team.
Wheeler’s reply to my question of whether she would vote an income tax on retirement income and subsequent interchanges follows
- 2:28 PM – This is the first I’ve heard of it.
- 2:33 PM – My reply: And, are you going to vote to tax retirement income?
- 2:46 PM – I don’t know anything about it….
- 2L47 PM – My reply: With all due respect, that does not answer my question. Conceptually are you open to voting to tax retirement income?
- 2:51 PM – With all due respect former legislator… How can I formulate an opinion about something I’ve never heard of, haven’t read about, and I don’t know how it fits into the whole comprehensive budget fix?
- 2:52 PM – I know the answer you’d like me to say, but I’m not comfortable saying it unless I know about it.
- 2:53 PM – And let’s face it… There are enough politicians who talk a lot of things they know nothing about. It’s how we got into this mess don’t you think?
That does not sound like a person committed to protecting the income of those planning to retire in Illinois.
David McSweeney
Compare Wheeler’s response to that of State Rep. David McSweeney:
I’m still a HELL NO on a retirement tax and any tax increase!
Republicans shouldn’t be tax collectors for big government.
With Governor Bruce Rauner ready to pour tens of thousands of dollars to protect Republicans who will vote to raise taxes, even on senior citizen income, those who might have considered running for the legislature will be discouraged.
Raunrer’s money will hold an umbrella over incumbents who otherwise would feel the rain of tax hike protesters
Wheeler’s response was an appropriate response.
Your implication that somehow McSweeney’s knee jerk answer was superior puts you in the same category as John Harwood.
Wheeler has an excellent voting record.
Unlike many legislators, it sounds like she plans to READ and UNDERSTAND the legislation before rendering an opinion or vote.
I don’t support taxing retirement income, not because of the political fallout that would result, but because to do so would only further delay the day of reckoning for our entire tax system.
As I’ve written elsewhere:
Joseph Henchman of the Tax Foundation wrote in 2014:
We need new blood in Springfield, new ideas that will change the way we educate our kids, care for the less fortunate and encourage economic growth, and new ways to pay for it.
This will never happen until the General Assembly is no longer held hostage by the super-majority of the status quo.
All we ever hear from our representatives is the same old same old: freeze this, tweak that, don’t you dare touch the programs that benefit the people who pay for my campaign.
The State’s problems are too big, we need big solutions.
Illinois is like the man who’s fallen out of a 40-story building, he’s 39 stories down and thinks: “well, nothing bad has happened yet.”
https://illinoyances.wordpress.com/2015/10/23/taxing-retirement-income-adding-a-second-story-to-a-house-with-a-crumbling-foundation/
Too bad representatives of both sides wanted to solve problems and listen to the people but there is always another election around the corner.
It matters not to me, or thousands of other Illinois residents.
We have already made it our mission to join the Great Exodus from Illinois before time runs out.
And time is running out, no one can stop it.
So many retirees will be leaving.
I do not say this from how I feel about taxes but instead of how people around Cary, Fox River Grove, and Algonquin feel.
I knocked on their doors and asked.
Almost without exception everyone I spoke to wants to leave Illinois due to the high taxes.
Raising taxes even more will simply speed up the exodus.
What will happen when the tax base simply says enough?
There is a tipping point for Illinois.
When retired teachers on fixed income and no social security can no longer afford their homes in Algonquin 47 and 32 and even they are complaining about taxes, you know there is a problem.
We as a state are broken.
The McHenry County Board cut its budget by $10 million and we will cut our levy by at least $750k – but it won’t matter if every other taxing body in the county takes PTELL.
We all, who serve on elected boards who levy taxes against the citizenry, need to realize we cannot tax our way out of the problems that have been handed down to us.
Most popular destination states are Florida and Tennessee.
Taxing retirement is political suicide and bad for IL.
Find it somewhere else cut then cut some more, don’t stick it to the retired citizens.
This state will be 100% democratic welfare state when the seniors give up and get outta here.
**“If you were to get all of the nation’s state tax experts in one room and ask them what good policy is, the answer you’d get from 9 out of 10 of them is four words: Broad Bases, Low Rates**
Ummm… you do know that taxing retirement broadens the base, right?
**Ummm… you do know that taxing retirement broadens the base, right?
Of course I do.
But I’m talking about the entire structure of taxation in the state, not just putting another layer of income onto a broken system.