Illinois speaker proposes tax on millionaires

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP-Excite

By JOHN O'CONNOR

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) - Two days after Illinois Republicans chose a multimillionaire as their candidate for governor, the powerful Chicago Democrat who controls the Illinois House proposed a tax on millionaires Thursday to fund the state's financially strapped education system.

House Speaker Michael Madigan introduced a constitutional amendment to tack a 3 percent surcharge onto incomes over $1 million, which he said would raise $1 billion a year for elementary and secondary education.

Madigan announced the idea in a state Capitol news conference just as one of the nation's most competitive governor races is heating up between Republican Bruce Rauner, a wealthy private-equity investor, and Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn, who espouse starkly contrasting visions of how to fix the lagging economy of the Democratic stronghold.

The proposal by the speaker, who doubles as state Democratic Party chairman and has controlled the House for nearly all of the last 30 years, intensifies an ongoing debate over tax policy in Illinois less than a week before Quinn delivers a budget address. The governor is expected to use the speech to lay out how he plans to deal with a temporary income-tax increase that's set to expire halfway through the year, leaving a budget hole as big as $3 billion.

FULL story at link.


Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20140320/DACLNJL81.html

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

1. Income over a million? I hope that's adjustable for inflation ...

... or it'll be a burden on middle-class incomes in a few decades.

No such tax would have a chance in MI, with our republican-controlled house, senate, and governor's office. Maybe a 3-percent tax on food stamps would succeed here.

Good luck in Illinois.

[Fortinbras Armstrong]

2. I expect conservatives to start screaming "class warfare", if they haven't already

Here's a quote from a book many conservatives praise, even though they haven't actually read it, Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations

The necessaries of life occasion the great expense of the poor. They find it difficult to get food, and the greater part of their little revenue is spent in getting it. The luxuries and vanities of life occasion the principal expense of the rich, and a magnificent house embellishes and sets off to the best advantage all the other luxuries and vanities which they possess. A tax upon house-rents, therefore, would in general fall heaviest upon the rich; and in this sort of inequality there would not, perhaps, be anything very unreasonable. It is not very unreasonable that the rich should contribute to the public expense, not only in proportion to their revenue, but something more than in that proportion. The expense of government to the individuals of a great nation is like the expense of management to the joint tenants of a great estate, who are all obliged to contribute in proportion to their respective interests in the estate. In the observation or neglect of this maxim consists what is called the equality or inequality of taxation.

[Cal33]

3. I hope Speaker Madigan's proposal will win in Illinois, and in doing so, might also

help to revive Obama's proposal of a higher tax for those making more than half
a million, and which had simply died a few years back. This would solve the
much of our country's financial problems.

The main cause of this country's financial woes comes from the super-rich paying
less taxes than the middle-class Americans. Not only that, some of these super-rich
are not only not paying taxes, they are also being subsidized by our government.

And who is paying for all this? You and I. Why doesn't the Federal Government
say this loud, long and clear for the whole nation to hear? They barely even make a
slight mumble. Let the Republican masses learn a little of the truth, and some of
them might stop "voting Republican." It's their leaders who are inventing the
deliberate lies. The Republican masses simply swallow everything they are told.

This is a mad, mad, mad world!!!

[One_Life_To_Give]

4. Depends how Tax Code defines "income" in Il.

Wages, salaries and tips over $1million taxed at 3%. I predict it would raise $0.00