Quinn: High Tax, High Debt, No Leadership

– $1B Tax Hike, $4.7B in Borrowing, Budget Not Balanced –

– Democrat House Speaker Pours Cold Water on Plan –

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In a dazzling display of failed leadership, Illinois Governor Pat Quinn has proposed raising state income taxes by a third during a time of economic downturn and unemployment, even while proposing to borrow nearly $5 billion to close a budget gap that has exploded under his watch.  Quinn made the demand to lawmakers about a year after his last tax increase gambit, which sought to raise income taxes by an even larger amount.  Meanwhile, the Illinois budget remains unbalanced.

“‘This is urgent,’ Mr. Quinn, a Democrat, told lawmakers in Springfield, as he laid out an austere budget proposal for next year that includes spending cuts, leaving some bills unpaid and borrowing more money,” reported the New York Times.

Democrat House Speaker Pours Cold Water

“Let’s be straightforward about this. The people of Illinois, they don’t want tax increases. They’re hurting. The American economy is in bad shape. People are out of work. They don’t want to hear about tax increases,” [House Speaker Michael] Madigan said.

“It seems to me that what he’s simply doing here is ignoring the problem, kicking the can down the road, trying to make it past the election,” [Republican nominee Bill] Brady said. “I frankly wonder if he’s planning on being here in January because he’s leaving a pretty big problem.”

Quinn’s onerous tax increase idea comes as Illinois’ unemployment rate has risen to 11.3-percent, the highest level in 27 years.  The rate is well above the national average of 9.7-percent.

“This is poor foresight and leadership at the most basic level,” said Tim Murtaugh, spokesman for the Republican Governors Association.  “Pat Quinn’s first response to every problem is to raise taxes.  All he’s going to accomplish is to kill more jobs in Illinois – including his own.”