* My Sun-Times column today is entitled “Gov needs compromise or new plan”…
What’s more evil: The absence of universal health insurance in Illinois or a modest state income tax increase?
I asked Gov. Blagojevich that question the other day.
Blagojevich has been pushing a universal health insurance bill all year. He’s claimed it’s the greatest moral issue of our times and even said it’s “God’s will” that all people should have access to health care. So far, however, he hasn’t had a lot of luck, or demonstrated much skill in making his dream a reality.
His initial plan was grand and sweeping, funded partly by a 3 percent payroll tax on employers. The rest of the multibillion-dollar plan was paid for with the doomed - and gigantic - gross receipts tax on business. Both ideas died.
Through it all, Blagojevich has steadfastly vowed to veto any increase in either the state income tax or the sales tax. He’s even said that if the General Assembly overrides those vetoes he would call special legislative sessions until they changed their minds.
The governor’s obstinacy has greatly complicated his quest. Legislative pressure has built for decades to finally “solve” education funding. The most widely accepted solution was an income tax hike coupled with significant property tax relief. This was supposed to be “the year” to get it done. Nothing has happened, mainly because of the governor’s threats.
Mass transit is experiencing a serious funding crisis, and legislators and advocates have come up with a plan for a minuscule 0.25 percent sales tax increase in the RTA service area. Blagojevich has said he will veto that.
Horse trading is the usual way out of sticky legislative situations. I agree to most of your ideas, you agree to most of mine and then let’s all go home. That hasn’t happened yet this year because of the governor’s intransigence.
Please read the whole thing before commenting. Thanks.
* Meanwhile, the impatience grows at the Peoria Journal-Star’s editorial board…
If the state’s needs are that dire, then its leaders should be making the case to average Illinoisans - all of them, not just some - to open their wallets. When they can’t bring themselves to do that, it only communicates that the situation isn’t that serious, after all. That’s unfortunate, because in fact many of Illinois’ challenges are very daunting, with long-range implications that will not be pretty.
Make no mistake, we’re not advocating a tax increase, not this late or this knee-jerk in a humiliating legislative session in which so few have done anything to elevate the public’s trust in them. There’s precious little talk of living within the state’s means, which ought to be on the table, as well. Some Republicans mouth that recognition, though it’s fair to question their motivation: Do they really believe it, or are they just content to reap the political gain of watching ruling Democrats spontaneously combust?
Allow us to let you in on one other dirty little secret, in answer to this question: Why the now-or-never tax hike urgency? It’s simple: 2008 is an election year, and heaven forbid that anyone should make any hard or controversial decisions before voters go to the polls. Well, there’s an election every other year, which means that half the time, the Legislature doesn’t allow itself to do anything of significance. Maybe its members should be paid half as much, then. Bet that’s one proposal we won’t see in bill form.
Again, cowardice and dishonesty are getting government exactly where they always do: Nowhere.
* Property tax relief has dropped off the Statehouse radar, and the Daily Southtown wants it put back…
So once again, we remind lawmakers and the governor that the region’s high property taxes are their fault. That is, local property taxes go primarily to schools, and school taxes continue to increase every year because the state refuses to pay its fair share for education. The state constitution mandates that the state should be the primary funding source for public schools. But the Legislature, with the tacit support of a succession of governors, has declined to be the primary funding source. Schools only have one alternative when the state ducks its duty, and that is to raise property taxes.
* And then there’s this topic, which I’d like to forget…
Gov. Blagojevich’s office Thursday wrongly suggested it had enlisted Cardinal George to persuade recalcitrant lawmakers to support the governor’s languishing health-care plan.
* More end of session stuff, compiled by a slightly tired and surprisingly non-hungover Paul…
* Tribune Editorial: A decent transit deal
* $613, 824, and we’re counting
* Williams-Harris: 12-month budget buzz
* Editorial: Capital needs, transit still priorities