I feel sorry for Ming

[giblets]

Which "worthless programs" are you referring to? Education spending?

[Asher]

I think he's referring to the US' outrageous military spending. Or foreign aid to Israel.

[DaShi]

Some brilliant responses by DD here. He's really living up to his reputation.

[rah]

ALL I can say is
****ing corrupt bastards. But the people get who they voted for. At least I can say I didn't vote for these crooks. (I voted for different crooks, since in Illinois that's your only choice)

[Arrian]

Prior to this, according to taxfoundation.org (2009 report), Illinois ranked 14th in a state-by-state comparison of overall tax burden. Adjusted for income levels, it ranked 30th ("state and local tax burden as a percentage of state income").

I imagine it will climb the rankings now. You won't catch us, though. We come out at #3 when adjusted for income level (#1 unadjusted).

Interesting that the IL income tax appears to be flat. CT has three brackets (3% > $0, 5% > $10K, 6.5% > $500K).

-Arrian

[Imran Siddiqui]

Don't see the big deal here. State budgets are hurting.

[rah]

But one, there was no serious discussion on cutting spending first. They didn't really cut spending except for some really small items.
Two. they wait for the last day of the lame duck session to do it. I find that dishonest. Why didn't they wait a day so the current legislature could take responsibility. It's because it wouldn't have flown. Most of new people coming in campaigned on looking at cutting spending before or a part of approving a tax hike. They were not given that chance. A lot of the votes needed to pass this screwup were by legislators who were responsible for the problem but were leaving office and weren't going to be reelected anyway. They're all scum.

Three, just because state budgets are hurting does not excuse poor budgetary management which has been the hallmark of the previous administrations. And isn't likely to change.

[DinoDoc]

Don't see the big deal here. State budgets are hurting.

In what world would you classify massive personal and corporate tax increases without even pretending to deal with reining in spending qualify as prudent budgetary management?

[Arrian]

There is also the argument that spending cuts right now are bad policy, but long-term the trend should be towards lower spending. That's hard, because nobody believes the politicians will actually stick to such a plan. If we actually contracted government during booms, I think people would be more accepting of deficits during busts. Does IL have a balanced budget requirement? CT does, though the legislature has gamed it pretty badly, IIRC.

CT is facing a budget mess in 2012. The can has been kicked down the road for a while and the bill is coming due. Given our tax burden ranking (3/50), I think it's fair to say that our problem is not that our taxes are too low. Part of the problem is surely a drop in revenue due to the recession (given that lots of our high earners were Wall St. types), but spending is a problem too. Last I looked, we're staring down a $5 billion deficit (total outlays ~ $20 billion).

-Arrian

[rah]

And just in case you weren't sick enough. Even with the lame duck session they still didn't have enough votes. It is rumored that to get the votes, some of the outgoing members were offered jobs in the administration, others agreed only after some pork for their districts were promised and others were promised that during the redrawing of districts that they would be drawn to guarantee their reelection. Now I understand mutual back scratching, but if you have to do these thing with a lame duck group, it just seems that much sleazier.

[N35t0r]

See? Your statement would look way less idiotic if you hadn't included the word 'massive' it it

[edit:] In response to DinoDoc

[DinoDoc]

Your opinion of me matters less to me than you might think it does.

[N35t0r]

My opinion is irrelevant. Presenting a 2 percentage points tax increase as 'massive' is ridiculous at best.

[giblets]

My opinion is irrelevant. Presenting a 2 percentage points tax increase as 'massive' is ridiculous at best.

I'm guessing if they had gone from no income tax to a 2 percent income tax, he would have called it an infinite tax increase.

[DinoDoc]

How would you frame a 67% increase in personal income taxes and a business tax increase of 46%?