Senate candidates want tax cuts, not specific budget cuts

Candidates who want to be Illinois' next senator talk a lot about taxes they want to cut.

But they seem to have far less to say when it comes to specifying the government programs they are willing to sacrifice to make up for those tax cuts.

All six Republican candidates and all five Democratic candidates appearing on the Feb. 2 primary ballot support a variety of tax breaks. Some are very specific, while others offer broad concepts for tax cuts.

Yet, all 11 candidates offered relatively vague plans, if any, for budget cuts, which tend to be a riskier area politically because any one budget cut can anger a specific group of voters, such as Medicare cuts and seniors or military spending and voters who believe that spending should be sacrosanct.

On the Republican side, candidates say they universally oppose tax hikes and support extending tax breaks that came under President George W Bush.

"We should not raise taxes during the Great Recession," says U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk of Highland Park.

Kirk favors a further reduction in the capital gains tax rate to 10 percent from the current 15 percent and raising the capital loss deduction to $20,000 from $3,000.

To make up for the lost revenue, Kirk says he would reduce subsidies to sugar producers and fight Medicare fraud.

Three other GOP candidates specifically called for a repeal of the national estate tax, including Hinsdale real estate developer Patrick Hughes, Springfield activist Kathleen Thomas and former Harvey Alderman John Arrington.

The tax rate now sits at 0 percent for 2010, but will rise to 55 percent next year for estates of more than $1 million. The Democratic-controlled Congress is expected to modify the tax this year to something more like 45 percent for estates of more than $3.5 million. That tax rate brought in nearly $27 billion to the federal budget in 2008.

None of candidates advocating a complete repeal of the tax, however, offered a way to make up for the lost billions of dollars.

Arrington and Thomas did not answer that very question in a Daily Herald survey.

Hughes, meanwhile, said he wouldn't know what programs to cut and would leave that up to an unspecified examination of government spending.

"Before we start eliminating programs we need to examine what programs are necessary and how they are run," said Hughes, who has the backing of several social conservative organizations.

Chicago blogger Andy Martin said he hasn't yet formulated an opinion on the estate tax, but he did call for a 10 percent across-the-board cut in government spending.

Meanwhile, downstate retired judge Don Lowery of Golconda has said he supports extending the Bush tax cuts and making across-the-board cuts to spending.

As opposed to the Republicans, Democrats were nearly universal in their call to reinstate higher income tax rates on citizens making more than about $250,000 a year - rates that were cut under Bush.

The Democrats do, however, want to keep lower rates for those earning less than about $250,000 a year and even add more tax cuts on top of that.

"They were unnecessary and irresponsible," Illinois Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias says of the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest.

Giannoulias also proposes tax credits for hiring new employees and a one-year payroll income tax repeal for "middle income" workers.

The Chicago banker, in his first term as treasurer, says he would offset his tax cuts by eliminating $200 billion in unspecified "tax loopholes used by corporations that ship American jobs overseas."

Chicago businessman Jacob Meister goes one step further in returning to pre-Bush tax rates for the wealthy. He would institute even higher rates on the top 1 percent of income-earners in the country.

But he does support a lower capital gains tax, as does Giannoulias and Chicago Urban League President Cheryle Jackson.

Former Chicago Inspector General David Hoffman said he is against proposals to raise the current capital gains tax rate, "especially in a recession, for fear of discouraging the innovation and investment that help drive the growth of our economy."

Burr Ridge radiologist Robert Marshall says he opposes income tax increases and would seek cuts for the middle class.

When it comes to cutting the budget, the Democrats are as vague as many of the Republicans.

Jackson didn't answer the question on the Daily Herald's survey, while Meister said his tax cuts would be covered by raising taxes on the nation's richest.

Hoffman didn't propose any new specific tax cuts and therefore didn't identify areas in the federal budget to cut.

Marshall is proposing cuts in military spending and aid to foreign countries.

Early voting begins today.