Illinois' untaxed pensions not fair

One the ads in Gov. Pat Quinn's re-election campaign shows a lady saying that there's "no way" she would vote for Bruce Rauner because he paid a lower effective federal income tax rate on his $53 million income than she paid on what we're to assume was her more modest income. In Mr. Rauner's case, that totaled taxes of $10.1 million, or 19 percent.

Since the lady presumably lives in Illinois, maybe a more apt comparison would be to the Illinois tax paid by Mr. Rauner. He paid $2.6 million, or 4.9 percent, undoubtedly both a higher amount and effective rate than those of the lady cluck-clucking in the ad. While he was paying out this substantial sum to Illinois, more than 700 retired public schoolteachers and administrators, each of whose annual pensions exceeded $100,000 (well over $70 million in the aggregate) paid an effective Illinois tax rate of 0 percent on that income because Illinois exempts all pension income from its income tax. It's entirely possible for two married retired teachers to have a household pension income of well over $200,000 - all free of state income tax.

"Is that fair?" is a recurring Democratic Party campaign question. To quote the lady in the anti-Rauner attack ad, "No way."

Bob Foys

Inverness