Democrats must cut or face state's wrath
Before he even was sworn in, Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn reneged on a campaign pledge made last summer when he vehemently vowed to veto a 5 percent income tax rate.
Democratic lame-duck legislators Mark Walker of Arlington Heights and Paul Froehlich of Schaumburg shamefully voted for the massive tax increase on their way out the door when no one could hold them accountable. This is the evidence of the worst that can come from years of one-party rule.
Last July 29, Daily Herald Political Writer Kerry Lester reported: “Gov. Pat Quinn Thursday denied a published report claiming he planned to raise the state's income tax by 2 percentage points.
“At a news conference, Quinn denied a Bloomberg News report that quoted budget Director David Vaught as saying the governor planned to raise the income tax from 3 percent to 5 percent. The governor said he does support an increase to 4 percent to support education.
“‘That is all that I propose and all that I support,' an audibly irritated Quinn said. ‘I'm going to veto anything that's not my plan.'”
Sadly, we know Quinn won't veto the very 5 percent rate he just helped impose.
A new legislature sworn in Wednesday includes more Republicans, but Democrats remain in control of the legislative and executive branches. And they likely will control the political mapping process that will guarantee their power for another 10 years.
We all knew the Democrat-controlled legislature, with some help from governors even including Republican George Ryan at one point, was creating the financial insolvency we've been hearing about for the past two years every time it skipped pension payments or borrowed to make them or pay other operational costs in the past decade.
Now a 66 percent increase in the personal income tax and a nearly 46 percent increase in the corporate tax has added outrageous insult to injury when we're all struggling to emerge from the Great Recession. The damage is done.
We were realistic enough to know that years of financial mismanagement was going to require more revenue, but this is too much.
The Democratic majority must do better than committing to spending increases of no more than 2 percentage points every year.
Now Democrats must act quickly to repair the structural mess of a state budget. They must do what they should have done before approving a tax increase of any magnitude: cut costs more. Yes, there have been some pay cuts and other sacrifices for some state workers via furlough days. The rest of us who still are working have foregone raises and endured pay cuts repeatedly. Every legislator and constitutional officer should take a significant pay cut. How does 66 percent sound? Probably pretty good to most taxpayers now.
While he's in the habit, Quinn also should go back on his pledge to the major public employees' union that he would not lay off any of them until mid-2012. More savings must be found. He should ask all public workers and legislators to pay more for health insurance and contribute more to their pensions. The Democrats should cut future contributions to the pensions of current state employees.
If that means a court battle, so be it. Every single state job should be examined, re-evaluated and trimmed where possible. Case in point: Do we really need to pay someone like Oak Brook Village President John Craig a five-figure salary to visit auto dealers and inventory temporary plates for the secretary of state? Shouldn't that have been handled via computer long ago?
If the Democrats don't do all of this and more, and if we don't demand it and more from the refreshed legislators — Democrat and Republican alike — well, then, shame, shame, shame on all of us.