Is Bill Gates Sr. smarter than a 5th Grader?

Apparently Bill Gates, Sr. is not smarter than a 5th grader because he seems to think the correct answer is 74.  Mr. Gates is advocating for a progressive income tax increase in Washington state.  He has put $500,000 of his own money into the initiative campaign to impose this tax on the people of Washington. That data...

Apparently Bill Gates, Sr. is not smarter than a 5th grader because he seems to think the correct answer is 74.  Mr. Gates is advocating for a progressive income tax increase in Washington state.  He has put $500,000 of his own money into the initiative campaign to impose this tax on the people of Washington.

That data point comes from Art Laffer’s piece in today’s Wall Street Journal (subscription may be required) and it points out the folly of raising taxes to solve Illinois’ budget crisis.  “Over the past decade, the nine states with the highest tax rates have experienced tax revenue growth of 74%—fully 22% less than the states with no income tax,” states Laffer.

Translation for Mr. Gates and Illinois policy makers: If you want more revenue for state spending, the best way to get it is by increasing revenues in a beneficial way—to see how, go here.  But we should not raise taxes—it doesn’t work to solve the core problem.

Besides, Illinois has a spending problem, not a revenue problem. From 2000-2009 spending after inflation was up 26%.

How has this record spending level in Illinois helped you, your neighbors and your family? According to Laffer’s piece, Illinois’s personal income per capita was 133% of the national average before the income tax started.  Today we are down to 106%.  We have long pointed out that we are still a relatively high income state but that the trend is down.  We once ranked as high a 6th but are down to 12th today.  It is time to turn that trend around.

Robust economies create more jobs with increasing wages.  These are the keys to creating happy households for all our citizens, from the poorest among us to the wealthiest.  Robust economies create social and economic mobility so that today’s poor are tomorrow’s middle class and affluent.  Economic mobility and opportunity attract the best entrepreneurs, smartest investors and motivated workers who all want to work together to create value by serving others.  Simple, clear.

Our Illinois Turnaround Plan is focused on a couple simple, clear goals with the intention of focusing policy makers on the right priorities.  First, we must transform Illinois from 48th in job creation to #1 in the nation.  # 1 in jobs.  Simple.  Second, we must see that household incomes are rising.  Rising incomes.  Clear.

Raising taxes shrinks the economic pie for everyone.  Illinois’s economy represented 6.52% of the country’s total output before we imposed the income tax in 1969; today we are down to 4.47%.  We are shrinking.  It is time to turn Illinois around and grow our prosperity, not shrink it. It’s time for everyone to get on board the Illinois turnaround.