Governor Proposes $53 Billion Budget

By vouchey in News on Feb 18, 2005 1:15AM

Wednesday Governor Rod Blagojevich started the annual state political circus by announcing his proposed budget for Illinois, $43.56 in operations funds and $9.43 in capital spending.

For Chicagoans, the big story is that the Governor wants to tax software to pay for a CTA bailout. For everyone else, it's an increase in cigarette taxes to $1.73 to pay for new roads and schools, trimming of every possible program and state pensions to reduce a looming budget deficit, and a kooky pooling of "special funds" to pay for $140 million in education funding.

Throughout the 1990's software and everything technological managed to escape taxation -- no longer. Although it has yet to be seen if technology companies have the muscle to stop it, the Gov wants to raise $65 million of taxes on certain types of software.

From cigs, the new taxes would help build always popular roads, and help come up with $140 million on school construction funds for rapidly growing school districts in the suburbs. The "special funds" idea, would call for the state to put together over 600 special purpose state bank accounts designated for things like tire disposal, and then use the leftover money for schools, rather than just collect interest. Its dubious that there could be enough money in these accounts, but the number crunchers will have to duke that one out later.

Besides saving the CTA and making sure the politically changing suburbs get more schools, probably the most important bit of political ju-jit-su is the Governor's ability to dance around a sales or income tax increase. A tax increase would be political death for Blagojevich -- especially in the South, where folks aren't exactly predisposed to a Chicago-boy anyway -- and Rod seems to know it. If someone's gonna raise taxes, it ain't gonna be him.

Photo via Gov. Blagojevich's Office