* Remember my Sun-Times column about the governor using black ministers to help sell his tax hikes and budget expansions? Well, it has begun [from a press advisory]…
Governor Rod R. Blagojevich on Tuesday, March 20, will receive the support of dozens of African American ministers who will meet with him at the First Church of Deliverance to endorse his FY2008 budget proposal, Invest in Illinois Families.
The ministers will also urge their congregations to join them in calling on members of the Illinois General Assembly to approve the Governor’s proposed budget, which will expand access to healthcare to all Illinoisans, make a historic investment in public education and ask big businesses to pay their fair share in state taxes.
* I’d like to have been a fly on the wall at this sit-down. But at least they’re talking. From Stella’s column…
Mayor Daley and Gov. Rod “Tax ‘Em High” Blagojevich dined together at the onesixty blue on West Randolph last Thursday evening.
* Subscribers saw more details about the governor’s response to this story, but Crain’s had a good roundup about what the business-backed Tax Foundation had to say yesterday…
Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s proposed $7-billion tax on business would dwarf the biggest tax increases enacted in other states over the past decade, a new study says.
The new taxes, including a $6-billion gross-receipts tax and a $1-billion payroll tax, would consume almost 1.3% of the state’s economic output, nearly three times more than a tax increase enacted by Indiana in 2003, according to the Tax Foundation, a conservative-leaning nonprofit think tank in Washington, D.C.
Gov. Blagojevich’s tax proposal would increase state revenue by nearly 27%, almost twice the 14% increase in revenue Nevada saw from a hike that state enacted in 2004. Four of the top 10 state tax hikes in the past decade increased revenues by only single-digit percentages.
“If the governor successfully enacts his gross-receipts tax plan, it is clear that taxpayers in the Land of Lincoln will be on the hook for the largest state tax increase of the decade,†the study concludes.
* More details of that study can be found at this link.
* Crain’s also had this…
The Blagojevich administration on Monday advanced a new reason why its proposed $6.3-billion tax on businesses’ gross receipts would be good for Illinois: “Not one nickel†would be spent on bureaucracy.
Speaking to the City Club of Chicago, Illinois Chief Operating Officer John Filan promised that all proceeds of the controversial levy proposal would be passed on to local schools, used to extend health insurance to the uninsured, funneled into infrastructure bonds and the like.
“Not one nickel of the new revenue is going within state government,†Mr. Filan said, adding, when questioned later, that while some additional administrators might need to be hired, the state would reduce its headcount elsewhere to compensate.
* And here’s a roundup of other budget stories and columns…
* Finance expert says new tax will face changes
* State chamber official blasts governor’s new tax
* Kadner: House committee to vote on school tax swap plan
* Momentum for Gov. Blagojevich’s FY2008 budget proposal continues to build [press release]
* Don’t bet on lottery to bail out state’s pension debt
*** UPDATE *** From a follow-up press release…
Close to 200 African Americans ministers support the Governor’s plan. Besides the dozens congregated at First Church of Deliverance, ministers in Peoria, Decatur, East St. Louis and other regions across the state will issue statements endorsing the Governor’s proposals. The ministers and their congregations will send postcards to members of the Illinois General Assembly urging them to support the Governor’s plan.