More taxes for IL (Chicago, Springfield: refinance, good credit, unemployment)

[Bucktownbabe]

Originally Posted by suptho

... were we reading the same sentence? It was very well constructed, and very true.

Well-constructed for a C- student at an underperforming middle school, perhaps. It wouldn't pass at a mediocre high school, and definitely not at any accredited university. The first was a sentence fragment at best. The second appeared to be multiple sentences in a row with no punctuation separating them. His point (if there was one) was incoherent, and he appears to have a fondness for made-up potty humor words.

[Bucktownbabe]

Originally Posted by frostopsy

Yah, that's our problem, not enough taxes. Just a reminder, IL was second to last for job creation. Of the people that are still working here, who wants to pay more in taxes?

Did you click the link? 94% of people will pay less taxes under that plan, not more. That's the whole point.

[MSchemist80]

Originally Posted by Bucktownbabe

Well-constructed for a C- student at an underperforming middle school, perhaps. It wouldn't pass at a mediocre high school, and definitely not at any accredited university. The first was a sentence fragment at best. The second appeared to be multiple sentences in a row with no punctuation separating them. His point (if there was one) was incoherent, and he appears to have a fondness for made-up potty humor words.

I'm sorry Mrs. Bucktownbabe. I didn't know I was being graded. I'll be sure to construct a 5 paragraph essay with a proper thesis statement and conclusion next time I make a post.

[frostopsy]

Originally Posted by Bucktownbabe

Did you click the link? 94% of people will pay less taxes under that plan, not more. That's the whole point.

Compared to the current rate of 5%, I would save a slight amount. I would save more with the old permanent rate of 3%.

What would work better is to lower the unemployment rate and attract more people and businesses to the state. That would expand the tax base.

Springfield doesn't have a money problem, they brought in more than ever last year. They have a spending problem. Even if they raise taxes through the roof, they aren't going to be able to tax themselves out of the hole they dug for the state.

[yoyoniner]

Whatever your political beliefs, it should be pretty clear that Illinois over the past decade or so has been a model for failure.

There should be no starker example than our neighbor to the north, Wisconsin, which actually had a larger budget deficit per capita than us a few years ago. Fast forward to today and Wisconsin is now running large budget surpluses in the hundreds of millions of dollars and spending more on education than ever, and they never raised even a single tax.

[chet everett]

The problem in Illinois is really very simple -- the legislative leadership, primarily Mike Madigan, but also counter part heading up the Senate, currently John Cullerton, have been in an unholy alliance with the heads of the unions that have the power to get rank & file union members to vote for whoever they are told, then the leaders make promises to fund pensions that are broken. The leadership of union still funnels donations to the legislative heads, and the money that should go to pensions is diverted to current spending on projects that serve to fatten up not just the ranks of government unions but also the unionized private workforce and the connected insiders that run the big firms. There are signs that rank & file are beginning to see that the if they vote for some one that actually understands what it takes to really make pensions secure through real financial planning the cycle of lies can be broken.

We don't need to change taxes, we need to get the cheaters out of the system.

[Maintainschaos]

Originally Posted by yoyoniner

There should be no starker example than our neighbor to the north, Wisconsin, which actually had a larger budget deficit per capita than us a few years ago. Fast forward to today and Wisconsin is now running large budget surpluses in the hundreds of millions of dollars and spending more on education than ever, and they never raised even a single tax.

I used to live in WI; we borrowed a large amount of money to do so...And WI still is near the bottom of the pile in terms of job growth. Neither the IL approach nor the WI approach seems to be paying off.

http://www.politifact.com/wisconsin/...approach-bala/

http://host.madison.com/ct/news/loca...9bb2963f4.html

[frostopsy]

Originally Posted by Maintainschaos

I used to live in WI; we borrowed a large amount of money to do so...And WI still is near the bottom of the pile in terms of job growth. Neither the IL approach nor the WI approach seems to be paying off.

Barrett says Walker used a "credit card" approach to balance state budget, pushing borrowing costs into the future | PolitiFact Wisconsin

Wisconsin 2nd in U.S. in job losses last month, new estimates show : Ct

That's the problem. While they may be near the bottom of the pile, we are the bottom of the pile. The folks down in Springfield, instead of wanting to change the tactics that got us in this mess, are full speed ahead on keeping us on the same path. Voters in Michigan, Indiana, Ohio and Wisconson have all effectively changed leadership. They seem to be better off than we are in terms of job growth and migration out of the state.

[emathias]

I see all these complaints about unemployment and loss of jobs in Illinois, but the facts are that Illinois isn't even in the top ten states for underemployment.

Check out these tables:



Another interesting graphic is this one, that shows the ratio of population receiving a regular paycheck for at least 30 hours of work per week. Notice how a lot of the low-cost states have a smaller portion of their population employed than Illinois. Illinois isn't that far off of Texas in that regard.

[jdiddy]

Originally Posted by emathias

I see all these complaints about unemployment and loss of jobs in Illinois, but the facts are that Illinois isn't even in the top ten states for underemployment.

Check out these tables:



Another interesting graphic is this one, that shows the ratio of population receiving a regular paycheck for at least 30 hours of work per week. Notice how a lot of the low-cost states have a smaller portion of their population employed than Illinois. Illinois isn't that far off of Texas in that regard.

The second graphic can largely be explained by retirees who have migrated to low cost states, but your general point still stands.