In the News

Pioneer Press, January 14, 2011

Lake County lawmakers were sharply divided over the Illinois legislature's decision to raise state income taxes on individuals and corporations earlier this week.

The plan, which raised state personal income tax from 3 to 5 percent and the corporate tax rate from 4.8 to 7 percent, was approved just before the end of the lame-duck session by razor-thin margins in the Illinois House and Senate.

State Sen. Terry Link, D-30th, of Waukegan, who supported the tax increase, said the vote was a difficult decision but a necessary one to help close the state's $15 billion budget shortfall.

"Nobody wants a tax increase," he said. "Nobody wants to vote for a tax increase, but we are in one of the worst recessions we've ever seen. We could not cut our way out of this problem."

Link said the state has slashed about $2 billion from its budget and implemented a number of new safeguards to limit the growth of spending and new programs. However, because of the economy, state tax revenues are down significantly and the state has fallen way behind in paying bills to school districts, business vendors and social service agencies.

"We're behind on all our bills," he said. "We owe a lot of school districts a lot of money, we owe a lot of businesses a lot of money. It's a domino effect."

While the tax plan was approved along partisan lines by the Democratic-controlled General Assembly, some local Democratic lawmakers opposed it.

State Sen. Susan Garrett, D-29th, of Lake Forest, voted against the income tax hike, saying the legislature needed a more specific plan for spending cuts before raising taxes on Illinois residents.

"While I believe that action must be taken before the state goes bankrupt, I also believe it's risky to impose high taxes without a blueprint for reductions in spending," she said.

Garrett said she was also surprised by the decision to raise personal income taxes to 5 percent, while previous discussions before the election had been for a lower rate in the 4 to 4.5 percent range.

'A surprise'

"It was a steeper tax increase than the ones that had been previously discussed," she said. "I think it was a surprise to many of the voters as well."

Garrett said she also been contacted by many constituents who were upset by the process and the fact the tax hike was approved in the wee hours of a lame-duck session Wednesday morning.

State Rep. Carol Sente, D-59th, of Vernon Hills, also opposed the tax increase, citing similar concerns.

Sente said about 50 people attended a recent coffee shop meeting in Vernon Hills to voice their concerns about the tax hike, and she also received many more e-mails and phone calls and constituents who opposed it.

"I heard loud and clear from the people in my district that they're against it," she said. "I don't want to rush into a tax increase at a time like this when everybody is struggling. I think businesses will leave the state and I don't think we were being responsible."

Sente said she has been working the past several months on legislation to reform the state's budgeting process and believes the state needed to take a harder look at ways to cut wasteful spending and eliminate overlapping programs before considering a tax increase. "Let's really take a hard look and see what we can cut," she said.

State Rep. Karen May, D-58th, of Highland Park voted for the tax increase.

"We can't pay our bills. We're on the brink of collapse as a state," said May, predicting Illinois government could soon default on loan payments, before the vote. "We're about to be junk status."

Meanwhile, Republicans stood united against the tax increase, with not a single Republican in either chamber voting for it.

"Illinois Democrats didn't want to work with Republicans so they rushed this through in a very partisan manner, completely cutting off any discussion from the minority party," said State Rep. Ed Sullivan, R-51st, of Mundelein.

Sullivan said statewide Democrats have only talked about slowing the growth of state spending, but did not have any serious discussions about cutting spending levels or reducing the overall size of state government.

"Only in Illinois would we say we are going to fix our problems is by spending ourselves out of debt," he said.

Sullivan said he believes Illinois Democrats will pay a price at the polls in two years for raising taxes during a lame-duck session without making significant spending cuts.

"There almost certainly has to be a price to pay for completely disregarding the will of the people of Illinois," he said. "Clearly, this last election was a mandate to control spending, not raise taxes. I'd expect members of the Democratic Party to pay dearly at the polls in two years."