My opponents support raising personal and corporate income taxes. Think about it. Raise income taxes in the midst of the most severe recession since the Great Depression? With the number of jobs falling and unemployment rising? It’s immoral to ask the underemployed and furloughed citizens of Illinois to pick up the tab for irresponsible governance. Raise corporate tax 50% when Illinois is currently 47th in the nation for job growth? It is illogical and counterproductive, rather than bringing in new businesses it will drive them away. Let’s face it we can not tax our way out of the financial hole the career politicians have dug for us, job growth is the most sensible solution to pull us out of this crisis and it would put us on a path to long term growth while increasing our tax base. These problems won’t be solved overnight-indeed they have been decades in the making-but postponing the tough decisions will only send our state into further economic turmoil. Gov. Quinn borrowed $3.5 billion in July 2009 to cover this year’s pension liability. He backed away from a plan to require teachers to pay 2% more into their pension account when they booed him, real courage. He backed away from a plan to scale back the free rides for seniors that the legislature stupidly and recklessly enacted. He studies the growing pension problem, but does nothing because his special interest supporters don’t want him to change anything. Comptroller Hynes wants to continue paying lavish pensions to political insiders and favors no changes in the existing pension system, more of the status quo-no courage. Gov. Quinn and Comptroller Hines plans to raise taxes without cutting spending is simply reckless and imperils our state’s future while piling debt on our children and grandchildren.
Raising income taxes in this environment is simply a way of ducking tough choices.
So what is the Solution? Jobs. Everything else is a band-aid. Nothing else will reduce our debt while putting us on a firm platform for economic development and job growth.
ILLINOIS WORKS WHEN ILLINOIS IS WORKING
I have a plan to reduce our skyrocketing unemployment and broaden our tax base by fundamentally altering our business climate to foster new job creation.
- Offering a short-term tax holiday on corporate income tax to relocating corporations that bring new jobs to Illinois, particularly in the green and growth sectors. It costs us nothing, reduces unemployment, and increases our revenue through payroll tax.
- Offering short-term tax credits to existing Illinois corporations for creating new jobs.
- Keeping Illinois jobs in Illinois by retooling our workforce to keep pace with growth industry jobs.
- Developing a more hospitable business climate for new and existing corporations. Sitting down with the insurance industry to lower costly workman’s comp premiums. Working with unions to make our workforce more competitive and put their members back to work, while seeking concessions that will make our state more hospitable to business development. Working with corporations to repurpose the millions of square feet of shuttered plants and warehouses throughout the state, creating a net positive for our commercial real estate market.
Illinois is in a fiscal state of emergency. The sooner we commit to real reform, real change, the sooner we recover and thrive. It takes an outsider – who is not a career politician, who has no ties to special interest, who owes no favors and answers to nobody but the voters – to challenge the status quo and tackle the issues.
In this race, I’m the only one willing to do it.
