SPRINGFIELD – Members of the Illinois Senate from both sides of the aisle showed their hands Monday when they allowed a peek at a "grand compromise" state lawmakers may be voting on in the new legislative session.
Senate President John Cullerton (D-Chicago) and Senator Minority Leader Chris Radogno (R-Lemont) told reporters Monday they had agreed to postpone a vote on a series of bills until the 100th General Assembly commenced Wednesday.
The measures being discussed in the bi-partisan plan include:
- raising the state minimum wage to $11.00
- setting up a Chicago Casino Development Authority
- freezing property tax hikes for two years
- imposes $.01 per ounce on sugary beverages
- raising state income tax rates by 30+ percent
- sending $215M to Chicago Teachers pension fund for 2016, $225M for 2017
- amending workers comp law with several changes, including placing profit controls on insurance companies
McSweeney holds firm against tax hike
Not all lawmakers agree with the "grand bargain," including State Rep. David McSweeney (R-Barrington) who remains solidly opposed to any income tax hike.
"I'm totally opposed to raising taxes," McSweeney told Illinois Review Monday. "Raising the income tax rate by 32 percent would kill jobs and hurt families. We need to cut spending, not raise taxes."
McSweeney pointed to a measure he sponsored that opposed raising the state's income tax.
"My HR 1494, which opposes raising the income tax, passed the House 87 to 12. I'll continue to work against all tax increases," McSweeney said.
A two-year property tax freeze wouldn't do the job either, the second term House member said.
"We need a permanent freeze on property tax levies, not a two year freeze. The income tax increase would be a disaster. The overall plan is based on a massive tax increase," McSweeney said.
I hope that all Republicans, who vote to increase any tax rates and/or increase the minimum wage, will get a conservative primary opponent, in his or her next election.
There should be no tax hike without at least a 10% cut in spending from 2016. Everyone gets 90% of what they want.
We should not tolerate this disaster. The tax increases alone disqualify this. I would not be surprised if enough squishy republicans peal off to support the “bargain”. Pathetic.
This basically sets Rauner up for a landslide loss. He should veto the bill, then run against the Republicrat tax increases. But like all dumb RINOs, they never get that doing what Dumocrats want doom Republicans. NOT having a budget doesn’t doom Republicans, massive tax increases like George Bush signed into law dooms Republicans. Hopefully, Trump’s application of current U.S. immigration law will doom Illinois to losing two, possibly THREE U.S. House seats.
The two year property tax freeze won’t help folks who are trying to sell their homes since there is no certainty that rates won’t skyrocket again. There will be a protest against Madigan today in Springfield. If you can’t attend, email your reps and ask that they not re-elect the 31-year speaker who has done so much damage to this state.
Anyone who supports this is a traitor to the voters… virtually every city,town, locality has raised taxes several times to finance schools, roads and infra-structure needs, because the state govt defaulted, many times, on their promises of financial support. Who in their right mind would give these overspending commiecrats another dime to spend. When they stop giving our tax dollars to illegal aliens and for often times over-generous state pensions and when Madigan is forced out, then maybe, just maybe we can talk about a tax increase with the Socialist state of Illinois