Kids vs. commuters in a quest for more taxes

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Kids vs. commuters in a quest for more taxes
Posted Friday, February 09, 2007

Hang on to your checkbook

Education and transportation groups appear set on testing Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s re-election pledge not to raise state taxes. The two interests combined to unveil more than $10 billion in added spending they want funded with higher taxes.

On the school side, supporters renewed efforts to raise income taxes and start charging sales taxes on things like car repair and haircuts in order to raise nearly $9 billion a year. Take out roughly $4 billion for property tax cuts and other tax rebates and the state’s total tax take is an added $5 billion for education spending and paying down soaring pension debt.

On the transportation side, advocates want $5 billion a year for new and improved roads, trains and bus service. Officials don’t care where the money comes from but warn shutdowns and fare hikes loom if nothing is done.

It’s quickly shaping up as a commuters-versus-schoolchildren funding battle at the Capitol with the governor’s multibillion-dollar universal health-care program yet to be added to the mix.

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Some Democrats push old idea of ‘tax swap’ for school funding
By John Patterson
Daily Herald State Government Editor
Posted Friday, February 09, 2007

SPRINGFIELD — Feeding off recent Democratic gains, supporters of raising state taxes to come up with added billions for school spending returned to the Capitol on Thursday for yet another try.

“We’ve had enough time to talk about it,” said state Rep. David Miller, a Calumet City Democrat. “The time is now.”

At issue is the so-called tax swap plan that would raise nearly $9 billion from higher income and expanded sales taxes, offer upward of $4 billion in tax relief and have roughly $5æbillion left over for spending on schools and the state’s ballooning pension debt.

It’s estimated nearly half the school funding would go downstate, where sagging property values mean even high tax rates produce a pittance compared to the price of suburban real estate. However, suburban districts would benefit from a provision that raises the state’s reimbursement for special education programs from the current level of $8,000 per teacher to $19,000.

Versions of this plan have been floated since the mid-1990s, when Democrat Dawn Clark Netsch made it the cornerstone of her bid to unseat Republican Gov. Jim Edgar. Edgar was easily re-elected but then pitched a similar plan in 1997 near the end of his term only to have suburban Republicans balk at the tax increases and block it.

Since then the concept has spawned a veritable cottage industry of education groups, union officials, tax gadflies and state lawmakers who tour the state trying to drum up support, thus far with limited success.

State Sen. James Meeks, a Chicago Democrat pushing the plan, said this year will be different and pointed to recent Democratic gains as evidence. “I think the political will is there,” Meeks said.

However, many suburban Democrats have been reluctant to support the plan and many Republicans are outwardly hostile to the idea.

Plus, Gov. Rod Blagojevich has twice been elected on vows to not raise the state’s sales or income taxes and, as of Thursday, he’s not backing down.

“We think individuals are carrying an unfair burden. We don’t think wealthy companies are paying their way,” said spokeswoman Rebecca Rausch.

“So, the proposal announced today doesn’t fix that imbalance and could, in fact, increase the burden on individuals and working families, and we don’t think that’s the right direction.”




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