I had to go Google to get the full story. Personal tax rates increase from 3.75% to 4.95%.
Not as sensational as 32% headline.
Illinois has been spending beyond their means for many years, and making pension commitments they have not funded.
If government can't control their own spending, then taxes have to go up.
Anyone who doesn't want higher taxes needs to vote for politicians that are committed to controlling spending.
Agreed!
Yep, 100% correct
I Absolutely agree. This is very typical behavior for government in general, but especially where the leadership is more liberal. For the last 8 years the Federal government has been living on the credit card and borrowing about 40 cents of every dollar it spends. Illinois and California are perfect examples of this same behavior at the state level.
There is also the gov waste factor...which is why I disagree with liberal more governement stance. Fore example this article: http://www.askheritage.org/how-much-money-is-the-government-wasting/ ....now keep in mind that is just improper payments and vacant lots.
So lets carry this on. When I worked for the governement 10 years ago. I did absolutely nothing but watch movies all day. I made 6 grand a month salary and got 30 days a year vacation time. So I alone wasted 72,000 a year of US tax dollars for 9 years of my life. Now I'm just one in a sea of people doing the same thing, milking the checks waiting for to sign my leave form to take a nice vacation, so when we vote for more government, we vote for more people doing the same thing I did bc its a pretty cushy system.
Now let's take waste even further, end of fiscal year surplus funds and the use or lose policy. So we ordered everything under the sun. Depending on what pot of money the funds were, we ordered art and paintings for the office under the aesthetics and moral fund. For personal funds we all got oh about 400 dollar backpacks and lethermans and the most expensive flashlights (you know, all these things we needed for work). and this is just the beginning. Now, that's just an office of 7 people.
See how all of this is adding up? And thats just me and office of 7 people.
Isn't that true! I worked for government for 8 years and it was the most soul sucking 8 years of my life. I was surrounded by mean lazy people.
The money was wasted on the most useless things. I worked in IT and my boss asked me to price out a $20,000 server and of course a backup for it. This was for a production server that was barely used. It could have been hosted on spare capacity we had on other servers. But homeland security paid for it so if we didn't waste the money they would cut our budget the following year. This is one example of horrible waste.
I left that hellhole and now work for myself. I don't get a pension plan and any freebies like I did as a government worker, but I sleep much better at night knowing I am a productive part of the economy again.
Interesting, that makes sense.
The gov. waste is a very loose system and its heavily abused bc its not monitored and not one office wants to lose that funding so they just waste it on crap. Its a massive problem and every government employee knows this and continues to abuse it.
I agree with your conclusion, but I'm not sure why you're downplaying the headline. This is a substantial tax increase. It is simply putting a bandage on a gaping wound and getting the story out of the news cycle. That's all politicians care about - the news cycle - and its impact on their re-election prospects. It should be cause for alarm.
Used by Mark Twain quite frequently.
"Lies, damned lies, and statistics" is a phrase describing the persuasive power of numbers, particularly the use of statistics to bolster weak arguments. It is also sometimes colloquially used to doubt statistics used to prove an opponent's point.
32% provides an alarming headline.
Reporting as a tax increase from approx 4% to approx 5% is far less sensational, but equally accurate.
WTF did the people of Illinois would think was going to happen it they elected Democrats to almost every public position for 20+ years?
The finances of the state are a complete and total shambles.
Going to take a lot more than this tax increase from 4% to 5% on personal tax rate, to get to a balanced budget.
Before this game is over, I'd be surprised if personal tax rate in Illinois settles below 10%.
And then you can report a 200% tax increase if you want.
That is what it will take to balance the budget mess