If one of the Democratic gubernatorial contenders were to unseat Bruce Rauner, Illinoisans had better be ready to have even the lint picked from their pockets, a think tank executive told the Sangamon Sun recently.
“Trying to guess how much they want is not an easy thing,” Ted Dabrowski, vice president of the Illinois Policy Institute, said. “Their most recent budget plan has around $6 billion in new hikes, and then there is another $3 billion they’d like to see added for education each year. We could easily say at least another $10 billion, and that’s a big problem when your taxes are already the highest in the nation.”
Dabrowski’s concerns stem from the fact that none of the leading Democratic candidates for governor in 2018 has talked about cutting the state budget instead of raising taxes.
“They like to effectively treat taxpayers like ATMs and assume they have unlimited resources,” he said of Democrats in general. “Many residents have already been squeezed out of their homes, so it’s hard to see how they can keep asking citizens for more.”
Dabrowski pointed to budget proposals introduced by Illinois Policy Institute officials and Republican Sens. Kyle McCarter (R-Lebanon) and Dan McConchie (R-Hawthorn Woods) as better options to ending the state’s two-year budget woes.
McCarter and McConchie’s so-called “Taxpayer Bargain” touts spending reform as a means of closing a budget gap that Crain’s Chicago Business recently pegged as now as high as $9.6 billion. The GOP blueprint also calls for a spending cap that steers clear of tax increases.
The institute's "2018 Budget Solutions" likewise argues against new taxes while pushing a fundamental shift in pension costs and a lowering of the amount set aside for higher education.
Dabrowski said both plans are vastly different from the bipartisan “grand bargain” proposal promoted by Senate Pres. John Cullerton (D-Chicago) and Minority Leader Christine Radogno (R-Lemont), which asks for up to $7 billion in additional tax hikes and fees.
“Illinois politicians love to use a crisis to pass bad deals,” he said. “This time round, reform-minded legislators need to fight back. This is the first time unions and (Democratic House Speaker) Michael Madigan are not getting their way. There’s real debate, and Illinoisans need to understand perpetuating the same ideas won’t work.”
Recent polls show most Illinois residents are resistant to the idea of any new taxes, with four of every five insisting they would rather see a plan for spending reforms.
More than half of all respondents added that spending cuts should be viewed as the only option to closing the growing budget gap.
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