States that dont have an income tax manage to stay out of the red, and many are even operating with budget surpluses. Texas, for example, currently foresees and $8.8 billion surplus over its current two-year budget cycle.
The average unemployment rate for states without an income tax is 6.6 percent. Illinois has the nations second-highest unemployment rate ringing in at 9.5 percent, or nearly three full percentage points higher than states that dont tax income.
April 25 marks Illinois Tax Freedom Day. This day commemorates the point in 2013 when Illinoisans have worked enough to cover the rising cost of federal, state and local government.
This memo provides a review of the funding guarantee provisions found in the pension reform bills that currently are or have been under consideration by the Illinois General Assembly.
A growing percentage of taxpayers owe nothing in income taxes after accounting for credits and deductions.
After tax credits and deductions are taken into account, the effective tax rate for top earners is more than twice the national average further proof that the tax burden is most definitely progressive.
Illinois current state excise taxes per gallon of beer ($0.23), wine ($1.39) and spirits ($8.55) are higher than most neighboring states.
Moodys is set to require states and local governments to use more transparent and realistic accounting rules when they report their true pension obligations. And that means Illinois debt and underfunding numbers will skyrocket.
Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn announced a proposal on Wednesday to spend $12.62 billion over the next six years on transportation projects.
Texas Gov. Rick Perry wrote a letter to businesses in Illinois, offering them a way to escape the states dire fiscal mess and punishing business climate move to Texas.
After several hours of debate, the city council voted 6-3 to raise the sales tax from 8 percent to 8.5 percent to repay an $86.6 million, 15-year bond issue to finance the three-year infrastructure program.
The good news: today state Rep. David McSweeney, R-Barrington Hills, introduced a measure that opposes efforts to pass the next multibillion dollar tax hike in Illinois a progressive income tax.
The 67 percent tax hike on individuals and the 46 percent tax hike on corporations were supposed to pay down the states unpaid bills, but instead 80 cents out of every tax hike dollar went to fund state worker pensions in 2012.
PRESS RELEASE from the ILLINOIS POLICY INSTITUTE MEDIA CONTACT: Diana Rickert diana@IllinoisPolicy.org or (312) 607-4977 Illinois Policy Institute applauds House Resolution opposing graduated income tax Implementing a “graduated” or “progressive” tax structure in Illinois would mean tax hikes for middle class Illinoisans SPRINGFIELD (April 15, 2013) Across the state, tax hike advocates are laying...