Repeal the Tax Hike?

by Mark Cavers Last week, the Illinois Policy Institute partnered with the Manhattan Institute to release a poll measuring the public’s mood on a wide range of issues including: Pensions, the state’s budget, the economy, taxes, unions, and collective bargaining. According to our poll, 63% of people still oppose the tax hikes that were passed in January. Even more...

by Mark Cavers

Last week, the Illinois Policy Institute partnered with the Manhattan Institute to release a poll measuring the public’s mood on a wide range of issues including: Pensions, the state’s budget, the economy, taxes, unions, and collective bargaining.

According to our poll, 63% of people still oppose the tax hikes that were passed in January. Even more telling, 40% of respondents said they strongly oppose the tax hikes while only 15% strongly support them.

The public is not buying the argument that the tax hikes were needed to fix the state. And for good reason, the Illinois Policy Institute has shown how the state can balance the budget without the tax hikeand just yesterday the Chicago Tribune reported on Illinois’s continuing fiscal mess.

The Institute also asked respondents how Illinois got into this mess. The majority of people blamed over spending by the state or bad decisions by elected officials. Only three percent of respondents said it was because the state did not tax enough. Even more surprising, only four percent of democrats said it was because the state did not tax enough.

The overwhelming majority of Illinoisans, Republicans and Democrats alike, don’t think higher taxes are the answer to the state’s fiscal woes. Yet, when elected officials looked to address our problems, they immediately and exclusively focused on passing the biggest tax hike that was politically possible.

In January, the Governor signed into law the largest tax hike in state history, taking an extra $1,500 from the average Illinois family but doing nothing about the state’s unsustainable spending. In fact, this year’s budget actually increased spending by more than $1 billion over last year’s budget.

The only way Illinois is going to fix its fiscal mess is by lowering spending, bringing government employee benefits into balance and repealing the job-killing tax hike. The public realizes this and stands ready to support the changes that will save our state. Today, it is our elected officials who are dragging their feet.

If you are part of the 63% of people who oppose the tax hike send your elected officials a message by signing our tax hike repeal petition then print out a repeal pledge and ask your State Senator and Representative to sign it.