Review state tax structure

By The Daily Herald Editorial Board

Gov. Pat Quinn served up a platter full of idealism in his speech last week. While deftly avoiding any specifics in his budget proposal, he gave us a 27-minute reprieve from our laughingstock status by showing us what’s going well here. (Did you know our state invented the silo?) We could be proud to be from Illinois.

That is, if we ignored our $15 billion deficit.

Still, the governor did propose changes he believes could pull Illinois’ financial future out of its dark hole. One of them was revisiting the tax code. While calling it “regressive” and “not fair,” Quinn said he would appoint an Illinois Revenue Reform Commission and “charge the members with recommending a plan to write a 21st century tax code for Illinois that focuses on fairness and promotes economic growth.”

This is a smart proposal — provided we see action on it. Blue-ribbon panels are a low-risk way to advance the notion that something is being done. Got a problem? Convene the experts. Give them a mission, a budget, a deadline and they get to work.

Two years ago Quinn created the Illinois Reform Commission to clean up state government. Its members held public hearings and town-hall meetings and listened to experts to come up with ethics reform recommendations.

The panel completed its assignment, but to what end? A glass-half-full look points to a slight tightening of campaign finance rules and a modest strengthening of the Freedom of Information Act. Could it have been more successful? Yes, much more, if Democratic lawmakers hadn’t put their own interests first.

That’s not to say such commissions cannot be or haven’t been used effectively. In fact, Quinn said he has created an Illinois Innovation Council to keep the state on the cutting edge of the global economy. An earlier Quinn panel investigated admissions procedures at the University of Illinois that led to the resignation of several trustees.

So a group of experts looking at our tax code could bring about positive changes. Before last month’s increase, the income tax, for instance, had not changed for 20 years, but the economy, our governance and the way we way do business have changed. Illinois is one of only a handful of states, including Michigan and Indiana, with a flat-rate income tax, in which all earners, rich or poor, are taxed at the same percentage. Determining whether that method is fair and best serves taxpayers and the government and should be a priority.

To be sure, any restructuring would take time and wouldn’t solve the budget problems at hand. In addition, the question remains whether the legislature would have the appetite for it following the largest income tax hike in state history. One thing is certain, though. The people of Illinois do not have the stomach for politicians who talk the reform talk but don’t walk it.