Lawmaker Wants to Reconsider Tax Reform

By Kevin Robinson in News on Apr 14, 2008 5:48PM

Legislation allowing voters to decide if the state should double the income tax on people earning more than $250,000 a year failed 52 - 60 in the House last Thursday. 71 votes were needed. But the next day State Rep. Gary Hannig (D Litchfield) had a change of heart. “I would say that the concept was a good one, to try to raise some money by going to a more progressive tax system and asking people who have been blessed by success, to ask them to contribute more to the state of Illinois,” Hannig told the Springfield Journal Register. “It probably needed to be tweaked,” he said. “If we could improve the bill a little bit, I think I could vote for it.”

Hannig later filed a "motion to reconsider", giving State Rep. Mike Smith, (D Canton), the means to bring the bill back up in the next week. Smith wasn't sure if he would, however. “I don't know if we changed it, that that would bring about any more support from what we heard," he told the Journal Register. House Republican leader Tom Cross (R Oswego) accused Democrats of playing election-year games. "What are we doing? 'So, here's $3 billion, Gov. Blagojevich's administration. Go do whatever you want with it?' … Wait a minute," Cross told the Tribune. And State Rep. Bill Black (R Danville) called the bill class warfare. "It's counterproductive. It's destructive," Black told the Tribune. "It just further divides us from the job we have to do." Even if the bill passes the House, it would need a three-fifths vote to get past the Senate and onto the ballot in November.

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