Whenever anyone starts talking about tax increases, I think of the U.S. Senate hearing when former Senator Russell Long educated his colleagues about America’s tolerance for the bite the government takes from our collective financial hide. When considering a proposal to boost federal taxes, the Louisiana Democrat and descendant of Gov. Huey Long summoned his finest southern drawl and wry smile to tell the assembled Senators: “Don’t tax him and don’t tax me, tax that fellow behind the tree.”
Well, lawmakers and others worried about Illinois finances are looking behind a lot of trees these days as they face the prospect of a $13 billion budget deficit for fiscal year 2011. There’s lots of talk about increasing the state’s individual and corporate income taxes to help close the budget gap, a legacy of the refusal to face reality by Democrats and Republicans alike. Actually, anyone seeking to cast some blame could pin the tail on the biggest donkey of them all in Illinois, Mike Madigan, who rules Springfield like a certain mayor named Daley runs Chicago.
But income is not the only thing taxed in Illinois, as is evident to anyone who buys a winter coat or lives in a house. So this week, one of the Chicago News Cooperative editors asked for someone to bring some perspective to the all of the calls for higher taxes. Having covered my fair share of tax bills, I raised my hand and volunteered, not always a good idea. The result is in the Chicago pages of Friday’s New York Times. Don’t worry, I didn’t go into that much tedious detail.
I wasn’t alone in putting my head on the chopping block. CNC’s excellent City Hall reporter Dan Mihalopoulous decided to take look at a labor union that represents 170,000 Illinois employees, including about 7,500 who work for the state and tens of thousands of home health and child care workers who are paid with state funds. About a decade ago, the Service Employees International Union gave $11,000 to help politicians get elected. Now it is considered one of the most generous political donors in the state, dumping $1.7 million into Gov. Pat Quinn’s recent primary campaign. The budget angle? If Quinn is going to fix Illinois finances, he’ll surely have to layoff a few state workers and the SEIU would no doubt like him to look outside its ranks.
CNC Sports columnist Dan McGrath grew up on the South Side and traveled the nation and world working for different newspapers, including stops in Philadelphia, California and here in Chicago at the Tribune. He’s seen tons of baseball games and witnessed his own fair share of tight budgets and tax increases that hit him right in the pocket. But he’s never quite seen anything like the gall of a certain team in Chicago that is taxing its fans with yet another ticket price increase while maintaining the worst winning deficit in baseball. Although Dan’s from the South Side, I’ll bet you can figure out where he was the other day when he filed his column about fans outside a certain ballpark on the North Side of town. Chew on that one.
Always one with an eye for the absurd, CNC columnist James Warrenexplores none other than former Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who is scheduled to appear at Northwestern University next week. The title of his gathering: “Ethics in Politics: An Evening with Former Governor Rod Blagojevich.” Need I say more? Warren does.
The Chicago News Cooperative produces two pages of Chicago news twice a week on Friday and Sunday for the Midwest edition of the New York Times. Thanks so much for your ideas and your support. Thanks to you, our readership is up from when we started.
We report, we don’t just repeat.