Land of Delinquents: Paying the Bills in Illinois

This January, after two years of trying, Illinois governor Pat Quinn finally got his state?s legislature to pass a large, across-the-board tax hike that will raise over $7 billion per year, or more than 20 percent of the state?s general-fund budget. The personal income tax rose from a flat 3 percent of income to 5 percent, and the corporate income tax also increased sharply. The hike was by far the largest that any state has enacted in response to the Great Recession, relative to the size of the state?s economy: it will fatten Illinois? tax collections by 1.2 percent of state GDP annually.

Yet even this massive cash infusion won?t balance Illinois? budget. Having spent a decade learning that it can?t borrow its way out of a fiscal hole, Illinois...

Related Topics: budget

Source: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/2011/05/26/land_of_delinquents_paying_the_bills_in_illinois_256093.html

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