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Old 01-16-2017, 12:24 AM
 
367 posts, read 485,819 times
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To me the plan doesn't look perfect, but it looks like a big improvement. What is your opinion?

Illinois Senate vows swift action on ambitious budget plan | Chicago Sun-Times
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Old 01-16-2017, 06:55 AM
 
335 posts, read 332,722 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Fighting Fungus View Post
To me the plan doesn't look perfect, but it looks like a big improvement. What is your opinion?

Illinois Senate vows swift action on ambitious budget plan | Chicago Sun-Times
Property tax freeze is nice, but once freeze is over in 2 years... Will it jump even more to make up for what it missed? Income tax increase expected. Hopefully it works, IL NEEDS a lifeline!
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Old 01-16-2017, 07:06 AM
 
Location: broke leftist craphole Illizuela
10,326 posts, read 17,382,316 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Fighting Fungus View Post
To me the plan doesn't look perfect, but it looks like a big improvement. What is your opinion?

Illinois Senate vows swift action on ambitious budget plan | Chicago Sun-Times
It looks like an income tax increase with little tangible reform.

The two year freeze of property taxes which are already at levels destroying home ownership for the middle class and driving residents to flee the state does nothing. I hope it goes down in flames.
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Old 01-16-2017, 08:48 AM
 
335 posts, read 332,722 times
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Originally Posted by MSchemist80 View Post
It looks like an income tax increase with little tangible reform.

The two year freeze of property taxes which are already at levels destroying home ownership for the middle class and driving residents to flee the state does nothing. I hope it goes down in flames.
Agreed, freezing 2 1/2% property taxes doesn't exactly improve a family's financial picture. Another thing that cracks me up is the elusive minimum wage increase. If minimum-wage goes up but then state income taxes also are raised, isn't that just a wash?
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Old 01-16-2017, 12:12 PM
 
367 posts, read 485,819 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by MSchemist80 View Post
It looks like an income tax increase with little tangible reform.

The two year freeze of property taxes which are already at levels destroying home ownership for the middle class and driving residents to flee the state does nothing. I hope it goes down in flames.
What would you like to see happen? It's not a perfect plan, but it's better than what we have now. I agree that property taxes in this state need to be freezed for at least another 4 years. Taxes here are ridiculous.
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Old 01-16-2017, 12:48 PM
 
Location: St. Louis
685 posts, read 761,184 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Fighting Fungus View Post
What would you like to see happen? It's not a perfect plan, but it's better than what we have now. I agree that property taxes in this state need to be freezed for at least another 4 years. Taxes here are ridiculous.
Real pension reform. Stop kicking the can.

An immediate balanced budget.

A property tax cap. This should be on the ballot as an amendment.
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Old 01-16-2017, 01:36 PM
 
28,455 posts, read 85,157,040 times
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The plan actually sounds relatively achievable, which I suppose is both good and bad -- the good is that it shows that at least in the Illinois Senate there are people that understand compromises are the first step to political solutions, the bad is that if this fails it pretty much condemns Illinois to chaos until the 2018 elections.

Hard freeze on property tax is unrealistic and won't work -- too many schools would make massive cuts. That said the bigger issue remains -- significant number of communities already have crushing property taxes and the way to fix that will require changes to the whole funding mechanism for many units of government and parallel passage of constitutional changes to shift from current "guaranteed in perpetuity" type pensions -- that is a HUGE task and cannot be accomplished until / unless the various unions agree to major changes. Not sure if unions will oppose this compromise as it does shift some authority for Chicago Teachers Pension to State and that would EVENTUALLY pave the way for more uniform overhaul of pensions...

The danger with borrowing is that with Illinois already miserable credit rating and the rising rates of bonds anything that is "projected" to be balanced would soon be out of whack -- that is why the previous borrowing efforts and things like 'suspension' of paying into the pensions have created a MOUNTAIN of debt! That said it is not realistic to "balance everything all at once" -- there is going to have to be some kind of gradual move to pay off debt. It will need to come with some kind of "window of tax breaks" so that there is "sugar to help the medicine go down" -- personally I would hope that the lawmakers pull their heads out of the sand (or perhaps some other place...) and realize that unless there is a shift in the mindset of "insiders first and always" Illinois will continue to lose out to other states. Illinois desperately needs to retain existing businesses, make concerted efforts to re-acquire departed business and have sufficient attractiveness to future businesses.

There needs to be an joint effort of politicians and business leaders to come together and do some comparative math about what sorts of total taxes firms face in Illinois vs not just neighboring states but states that have been growing while Illinois is shrinking and that analysis has to include the total burden on not just the corporations but the various levels of employees and business owners. Until those costs are widely known Illinois politicians who've too long focused on taking care of themselves and their pals will continue to make the same sort of decisions that doom firms that are too focused on internal numbers instead of using data about what happens in the competitive settings -- the analogy of firms like Sears rearranging things as they continue to be less relevant to people shopping at not just online stores but also healthy bricks & mortar firms like Costco would be instructive. So too could one say that power-brokers that have ruled the Illinois legislature for decades are behaving like the once mighty leaders of firms like Motorola that literally created the cell phone business and they pitifully let it slip away due to their own arrogance.

Unlike Motorola, that at least did sell off the cellphone business to Google (who then sold it to Lenovo before their slashes left hardly anything -- New Lenovo layoffs at Moto, company has now lost over 95% of employees in four years ) the "innovate or die" mindset has not been embraced by Illinois politicians. Innovation is going to require changing the Illinois Constitution from something that locks-in failure to something that embraces a more fluid style of governing...

Selection Criteria | Harvard Kennedy School of Government Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation
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Old 01-16-2017, 07:38 PM
 
197 posts, read 233,523 times
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They already got their income tax increase a few years back and it did nothing. The income tax is still .75% higher than it originally was. Republicans shouldn't support any budget that has an income tax increase.
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Old 01-16-2017, 09:58 PM
 
12 posts, read 16,396 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Fighting Fungus View Post
To me the plan doesn't look perfect, but it looks like a big improvement. What is your opinion?

Illinois Senate vows swift action on ambitious budget plan | Chicago Sun-Times
Do nothing.
The Status Quo seems to be working so well for Illinois.
The states fiscal mess is comparable to a drug addiction. Except rehab won't cure this
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Old 01-17-2017, 06:26 AM
 
Location: broke leftist craphole Illizuela
10,326 posts, read 17,382,316 times
Reputation: 20327
Quote:
Originally Posted by Fighting Fungus View Post
What would you like to see happen? It's not a perfect plan, but it's better than what we have now. I agree that property taxes in this state need to be freezed for at least another 4 years. Taxes here are ridiculous.
I'd like to see an immediate emergency constitutional convention, restructuring govt and school funding for better efficiency (or just efficiency at all), abolishment of pensions for a 401k, the right to fire and ban striking govt workers (it isn't a negotiation if one side isn't legally allowed to say no; it is extortion), term limits, and other major reforms necessary to create a govt in Illinois that serves the people and not itself.

This is just another call from the politicians to the citizens to bend over.
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