SPRINGFIELD, IL…Governor Pat Quinn’s first annual budget address to a joint session of the General Assembly included a proposal for the largest income tax increase in Illinois history, as well as several other tax and fee increases intended to close a gaping $4.2 billion hole in the state budget. State Representative Ed Sullivan (R-Mundelein) is deeply troubled by Governor Pat Quinn’s plan to make income tax increases the cornerstone of his budget plan.
“The Governor’s budget is a continuation of past Democrat budgets filled with wasteful spending only crafted with fancier words and a massive tax increase,” said Sullivan. “Governor Quinn cannot simply wave a magic tax increase wand and make it all disappear. We need to partner with business leaders to take a hard look at the entire budget to eliminate wasteful spending so that we can live within our means instead of using a tax increase that essentially just gives a blank check to the same people who got us in this mess.”
Governor Quinn’s proposal amounts to $7 billion in income tax rate increases, loophole closings, and tobacco tax increases. Among the key components of the Governor’s budget plan: raising the $78 license-plate sticker fee to $98, increasing the cigarette tax up by an additional $1-a-pack over 2 years, raising the income tax by 50% (from 3% to 4.5%), increasing the corporate tax rate from 4.8% to 5.9%, and cutting approximately $850 million in state spending.
“This unconstitutional tax increase is just a socialist redistribution of wealth penalizing the productive members of society to further the run-a-way spending increases of the Democrats the last six years,” said Sullivan. “The governor is not being forthright in regard to who pays more in taxes. Even a married senior citizen couple earning $28,000 a year will be paying more in taxes.”
Sullivan is serving his fourth term as state representative for the 51st District, which includes all or parts of the communities of Mundelein, Libertyville, Hawthorn Woods, Lake Zurich, Long Grove, Kildeer, Deer Park, Wauconda, Barrington, Grayslake, Green Oaks, Waukegan, Round Lake Park, and Palatine.
