Article week of February 19th, 2007
Last week, all three scheduled session days of the House of Representatives were cancelled due to the snowstorm that hit central Illinois. That did not stop the steady flow of legislation being filed in both the House and Senate. As of this writing, there are 1,329 House Bills filed and 1,751 Senate Bills proposed. Next week, hundreds of these bills will be heard in committees. The trick is to know which bills are going to be advanced. Don’t forget, you can become an informed and active participant in this process by simply going to www.ilga.gov and tracking issues that are important to you.
One of the proposals that will be heard this week involves gaming expansion. As I have mentioned several times, there is no limit to the number of good ideas about how we in Springfield should spend your tax dollars. For example, the Governor would like to see a statewide health insurance mandate which would include some extension of government sponsored health care. This proposal could cost as much as $5 billion. There are education spending proposals that would cost anywhere between $2-3 billion and the State is in desperate need of a capital program to rebuild schools and transportation infrastructure. That capital program is also needed to make sure that people work. The list goes on. Add to that the fact that Illinois is currently several months behind in paying our Medicaid providers (to the tune of about $1.5 billion) and anyone can see that if all of these great ideas are to become “affordable”, then Illinois would need additional revenue.
Although I have always believed that if we slowed spending down to a point that would equal natural growth, and we prioritize spending to only match natural revenue growth, the state would prosper. However, the fact is that during the past several years, we have created new programs in Illinois to the point that something must be done this year simply to pay for programs that were created over the past few years and paid for initially with money from previously dedicated funds, by selling some assets and shorting payments to the state pension fund. The propensity to spend has not slowed. In fact, with the recent elections and the mandates that will be claimed by the majority party that they were elected to create additional new programs, it is possible that we will see even more dollars fly out of Springfield.
The money to fund health care programs, education, needed capital programs and many other proposals has to come from somewhere. One possibility is gaming expansion. Next week, the Gaming Committee is expected to hear HB480. This specific legislation authorizes four new casino/riverboat licenses. The locations of the new casinos would be as follows: City of Chicago, the “south suburbs”, Waukegan (may operate on Lake Michigan) and a casino within 10 miles of O’Hare airport. The measure also allows up to 3,800 electronic gaming positions to Illinois racetracks. There are many other changes to existing gaming law contained within this proposal as well. The key is that the plan estimates several billion dollars of revenue both from initial licensing and annual revenue.
This is the first of several proposals we will see this spring in an attempt to provide revenue for additional spending. There will be proposals to increase individual and corporate income tax as well. The state income tax in Illinois is currently 3 percent. Some proposals floating around would raise it to five percent. There is a proposal to double the state’s corporate income tax rate from 4 to 8 percent as well. Along with the increase in income tax, there are proposals to increase the sales tax and widen the base of sales tax to include services and taxes on Internet sales. Another type of revenue source being discussed is a gross receipts tax which would tax goods and services at every level of production and sale. Those supporting the gross receipts tax estimate that it could bring in as much as $8-9 billion in revenue for the state.
Folks, this is YOUR money. The state really does not have money. It comes from the people. There will be many tough decisions to be made this spring regarding spending and revenue. I am in Springfield to represent the feelings and interests of the people of the 109th district. Please make your thoughts known regarding these important budget issues. On March 7th, the Governor will outline his spending plan and priorities for the State of Illinois. I will listen intently to his ideas and consider them fairly. However, my responsibility lies in representing YOU.
On another subject, I would like to hear your thoughts regarding Speaker Madigan’s proposal to move the Illinois Primary up to February next spring. The purpose, in his own words, is to give Barack Obama an early boost in the Presidential Primary. Senate President Emil Jones has already publicly supported the idea and the Governor has stated that he will sign the bill as soon as possible. What do you think of that? Isn’t it funny that we cannot get this type of quick, cooperative and decisive legislative commitment and action on solving the important issue of electric rate increases?
Finally, have you read about the proposals by Secretary of State Jessie White to add requirements to driver’s education programs and further restrict driving privileges of young drivers? Some of the proposal includes doubling the amount of behind the well time for driver education students, increasing the length of time that a new driver would possess a learner’s permit, further restrict the passenger limit for young drivers and roll back the curfew for new drivers to 10:00 PM.
Let me know what you think about any of these issues or any issue of importance to you. E-mail me (reddyunit1@aol.com); write to me at Box 125, Hutsonville, IL 62433 or call us at 618-563-4128. You can also keep up with important issues at my web site: www.peopleforeddy.com