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Chronicle of new Lib Governor taking Illinois further down the tubes


Geee

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Illinois Democrats have made Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s budget proposal into legislation.

The bills’ sponsor, House Majority Leader Greg Harris, has filed the budget for fiscal year 2020, an infrastructure bill that largely calls for the spending proposed in previous years, and supplemental spending for the current year that ends this summer. He said in a statement that the proposed spending “reflects Democrats’ commitment to protecting our most critical services, like health care, education, and services for our veterans, seniors and our most vulnerable.”

Included in the spending is itemized infrastructure projects called "member initiatives" dating back to Gov. Pat Quinn’s administration.

As a member of the House Appropriations Committee, state Rep. Brad Halbrook, R-Shelbyville, said he’s not seeing anything new in the budget bills.

“I just see new income coming from things that aren’t legal,” he said, referring to Pritzker's plan to tax sports gambling and recreational marijuana. “There’s no reforms and the pension spending is a concern.”

Halbrook said he hopes that Democrats would be willing to work with Republicans in enacting some reforms.

The bills include tens of millions of dollars in spending for the current fiscal year as well.

One of the larger bills goes to the Illinois State Board of Education and its pension funds for $17 billion in total spending, more than a quarter of that going to teacher pensions.:snip:

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Pritzker proposes closing private school scholarships program

Gov. J.B. Pritzker is formally asking lawmakers to shut down Illinois’ private school scholarship program and pour more money into public schools.

In his budget proposal Wednesday, Pritzker proposes taking the $100 million cap on donations to the Invest in Kids private school scholarship program and cutting it down to $50 million, $11 million less than what was donated in the program’s first year. He proposed to phase it out over the next three years.

As part of the overhaul of Illinois’ education funding formula in 2017, lawmakers added the five-year Invest in Kids pilot program, which grants a 75 percent income tax credit to those who donate scholarship funds for private schools. Officials with the program said most of the donations were for less than $1,000 and from individual donors.:snip:

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Pritzker pushes repeal of tax deduction cap critics say subsidizes high-tax states

llinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker wants federal lawmakers to lift a cap on a tax deduction that he said helps lower-income people.

One tax expert said the deduction actually benefits wealthy people.

Pritzker joined with governors from other high-debt, high-tax states like New Jersey and New York to call for removing the $10,000 cap on the State and Local Tax deduction, or SALT. Lawmakers capped the SALT deduction as part of President Donald Trump's tax overhaul.:snip:

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Fight over progressive income tax starts in Illinois

Even though the issue would be decided at the ballot in November of 2020, Illinoisans are already getting a glimpse of what’s in store in the fight to change the state’s income tax structure from a flat percentage to one that taxes higher earners more.

Two nonprofits have formed with the missions of fighting for and against changing Illinois’ constitution to allow a higher percentage of income to be taxed from higher-earning residents.

Ideas Illinois is an initiative of the Coalition for Jobs, Growth and Prosperity. That's a privately-funded nonprofit run by former Illinois Manufacturers Association President Greg Baise and businessman James Gidwitz, brother of President Donald Trump's former Illinois campaign finance head, Ron Gidwitz. In the past, the organization successfully fought back then Gov. Rod Blagojevich's push for a Gross Receipts Tax, the union-led "card check" campaign and Cook County President Toni Preckwinkle's tax on sugary drinks.":snip:

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57 minutes ago, Geee said:

Fight over progressive income tax starts in Illinois

Even though the issue would be decided at the ballot in November of 2020, Illinoisans are already getting a glimpse of what’s in store in the fight to change the state’s income tax structure from a flat percentage to one that taxes higher earners more.

Two nonprofits have formed with the missions of fighting for and against changing Illinois’ constitution to allow a higher percentage of income to be taxed from higher-earning residents.

Ideas Illinois is an initiative of the Coalition for Jobs, Growth and Prosperity. That's a privately-funded nonprofit run by former Illinois Manufacturers Association President Greg Baise and businessman James Gidwitz, brother of President Donald Trump's former Illinois campaign finance head, Ron Gidwitz. In the past, the organization successfully fought back then Gov. Rod Blagojevich's push for a Gross Receipts Tax, the union-led "card check" campaign and Cook County President Toni Preckwinkle's tax on sugary drinks.":snip:

 

RACIST!

You know that's what they'll say

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Group pushes for bill to pay caretakers $20 an hour

Although Illinois is on a path to a statewide $15 an hour minimum wage, some state lawmakers want to raise pay for publicly-funded home care providers for the disabled to more than $20 an hour.

Direct service providers are largely paid via Medicaid funds via a waiver attained by the state. Illinois will pay the providers the majority of their wages through an organization and half of those payments would be reimbursed by federal funds.

If Evanston Democratic Rep. Robyn Gabel’s bill becomes law, the 30,000 providers who care for the disabled would be paid at least $5.25 more than the minimum wage. Sen. Heather Steans, D-Chicago, has similar legislation in the Senate. After 2021, they would receive $6.75 more than the minimum wage. That could be up to $45,000 a year for a full-time worker.:snip:

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Illinois facing jobs' crisis with latest policy initiatives

With no warning, an Illinois community learned this week it is losing almost 1,400 jobs.

Is the decision by Fiat Chrysler to lay off 1,371 workers at its plant in Belvidere in north-central Illinois the result of hurtful policy positions by freshman Gov. J.B. Pritzker and Democratic supermajorities in the General Assembly?

The company isn't saying that, but the automaker simultaneously announced it is investing $4.5 billion at its Michigan-based plants and creating 4,500 new jobs there.:snip:

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Effort to allow more college students to unionize gains steam in Illinois capitol

Illinois lawmakers are one step closer to expanding the number of working college students who are able to organize and strike for better benefits.

A new bill is identical to one vetoed by former Gov. Bruce Rauner last year. In his veto message, he said the effort to give collective bargaining rights to research assistants and pre-professional graduate students would “change the relationship between graduate students and professors ... from cooperative and mentoring to transactional.”

Democratic Rep. Will Guzzardi says his bill simply allows other student workers the same rights as those who already can unionize.:snip:

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Pritzker's progressive income structure increases top rate to 7.95 percent; critics call it jobs killer

Gov. J.B. Pritzker proposed progressive income tax structure would increase the top rate to 7.95 percent, a 60 percent increase, while slighting cutting the rate for the majority of Illinoisans.

Critics called the plan a jobs killer because of its impact on small businesses.

The plan calls for slightly lower rates for most taxpayers and significantly higher rates for businesses and those making more than $250,000 a year. Pritzker said his proposal would bring the state about $3.4 billion in additional revenue a year.:snip:

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Fiscal fantasy and fraud in Illinois

The Great State of Illinois is going to have to come up with $300 million it doesn’t have, in order to bail out a state program that made unrealistic promises based on fantasies. But the budget that its governor has come up with to provide those funds is based on even more unrealistic fantasies. Both moves would raise the prospect of prosecution for fraud, had they been advanced by a private corporation responsible to shareholders. But we’re talking about the state of Illinois, where imprisoned former governors are not at all uncommon, but fantasy predictions are never the reason.

Joe Cahill of Crain’s Chicago Business explains the bailout:

It took a while, but Illinois legislators, who ought to know something about financial holes, seem prepared to apply that well-known principle the state’s underfunded prepaid college tuition program. College Illinois has $300 million less than it needs to pay future tuition at Illinois universities for students whose parents bought prepaid contracts in the mistaken belief they were guaranteed by the state.

In fact, the state has no legally enforceable obligation to cover the gap between College Illinois’ promises and its cash. Yet marketing materials from the Illinois Student Assistance Commission, which administers College Illinois, created the false impression that Illinois stands behind the contracts.

As my colleague Steve Daniels reported recently, bills pending before the Illinois House and Senate would oblige the state to honor College Illinois contracts. Both bills provide that “the full faith and credit of the State of Illinois is pledged for the punctual payment of such obligations.”:snip:

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