Why I'm Leaving Illinois

Your Illinois income tax hike? Right now. Reforms? Maybe later — maybe.

Finalizing a 32 percent income tax hike, the Illinois House on Thursday approved a budget for the fiscal year that began July 1. Illinois taxpayers will begin paying a 4.95 percent individual income rate, up from 3.75 percent, retroactive to July 1.

What are taxpayers getting for sending another $5 billion to Springfield?

Business as usual.

You might think that Democratic legislators — for 14 years the primary architects of a financial fiasco that has created enormous taxpayer debts — would acquiesce on pro-growth economic reforms that our neighboring states have adopted.

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You might think the majority party would listen to large and small business owners about the urgent need for more reasonable workers' compensation insurance costs.

You might think Democrats would have advanced another pension reform bill or created a lower-cost, defined contribution plan for new employees, or attempted to change the Illinois Constitution's crushing pension obligation language.

You might think they would have been alarmed at the exodus of residents escaping to states with lower taxes, far fewer debt obligations and less dysfunction.

You might think Democrats would have agreed to a property tax freeze.

And on every count, you'd be wrong. The budget that Democrats crafted and that more than a dozen Republicans supported includes minor changes to the woefully underfunded pension system and yes, wide-ranging across-the-board spending cuts. It includes $350 million in new education money — provided Gov. Bruce Rauner signs a separate school funding bill that revamps the way the state partially funds K-12 education.

Illinois income tax increase calculator: How much will it cost you?
But this budget, like those Democrats advanced for the past two decades, also spends taxpayer money on untested, unproven programs. It includes money for pork projects. It includes money for a clouted downstate shooting complex. It includes money for state fairs, fisheries, diversity programs, agriculture studies, and $330,500 above Rauner's requested amount for Choose Chicago, the city's public-private economic development arm that doesn't make its spending public.

What the budget agreement doesn't do is adopt the sensible, pro-growth reforms Rauner championed as a candidate and during his 2 1/2 years in office. No meaningful workers' comp changes. No property tax freeze. No major downsizing of the state's 7,000 units of government. No votes — that's all Rauner requested — on redistricting reform or term limits to rebuild trust in government.

And while Democratic sponsors said the spending plan should start paying down a backlog of bills and reduce costs in the pension system, rating agencies that monitor state finances weren't convinced. Moody's Investors Service cited the state's crippling debt — again, taxpayers' crippling debt — as reason to potentially drop Illinois' bond rating to junk.

Rep. David McSweeney, R-Barrington Hills, chided his colleagues for assuming the role of rating agency experts. What the bond market looks at, he said, is simple: the ability to pay back the debt. "If we pass this tax increase, Moody's is telling us we're going to junk. They're giving us a road map," he said.

About a dozen Republicans who supported the budget and tax hike assured colleagues these were steps forward but not a finished product. The GOP members seemed certain Democrats eventually would come around on pro-growth changes.

"Are we done? No, we're not done," said Rep. Steven Andersson, R-Geneva. "But we're moving in the right direction. Impasse politics do not work."

We're afraid the joke's probably on Andersson. The Democrats did this week what they did on that notorious night of 1/11/11, except this time with GOP help. They passed a massive tax hike without addressing their addictive spending that is the root of the debt problem, and they did not adopt pro-growth reforms to get Illinois' economy humming.

Taxpayers, we wish we could say the additional income you'll fork over will be the tourniquet that saves Illinois' failing government and flailing economy.

We can't say that. The money, we're afraid, will merely chase debt that, despite this revenue, keeps rising.

A 32 percent tax hike should have been directly linked to a major overhaul of the way Springfield does business. That was the intent of the original Senate negotiations on a grand bargain, which this page supported.

But Rauner, unfortunately, collapsed those talks. Many Democrats saw an escape route and took it. Trust evaporated. True compromise didn't happen. Instead, a tax hike that makes Illinois even more unappealing for employers and other citizens.

Welcome to the new Illinois. Same as the old Illinois. Except 32 percent pricier.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/editorials/ct-illinois-budget-tax-veto-edit-0707-jm-20170706-story.html