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Like all of his Democratic competitors, Daiber supports a state constitutional amendment allowing the Legislature to replace the current flat state income tax with a progressive income tax that permits higher tax rates on higher levels of income. Under Daiber's proposal, the state would generate
The Teachers Retirement System teeters toward insolvency. It is currently 40 percent funded, and Illinois taxpayers will shell out $4.09 billion in 2018, with 80 percent of that going to pay down the unfunded liability and 20 percent to pay current benefits.
The TRS is the largest of the
So, what’s not to like about the sweeping federal tax package the Republicans are pushing through Congress? the bill fails on so many levels they can’t all be covered in one column. Ralph identifies two that stand out.
CHICAGO (CBS) — Illinois U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin is warning that the Republican tax plan will hurt families in Illinois, and even tax them on taxes they’ve paid.
What does SB1 do?
CHICAGO (CBS) — Fiscal policy groups in Illinois agree the state’s nearly two-year budget quagmire has damaged everything from schools to social service agencies to the state’s bond rating, but take very different views on how to fix the problem.
Ralph Martire, executive director of the
Illinois is far from the first state to find that its budget doesn’t quite balance - that it’s paying out more money in services than it’s taking in, or that pension or education payments are ballooning.
Two states in particular—Kansas and Minnesota—have taken definitive steps to address their budget shortfalls. One state cut taxes, the other raised them. Their approaches fall on opposite sides of the ideological spectrum, and the result of their efforts is also drastically different.
As the Illinois budget stalemate drags on, what can we learn from the examples of Kansas and Minnesota?
By RALPH MARTIRE
Given both the size and cause of the state's fiscal shortcomings, at this point in time the greatest good policymakers can deliver for the public is to raise taxes.
Here's why.
First, there's the sheer magnitude of the problem. At the end of FY2015 — the