Gov. Quinn Makes Adjustments to Tax Plan

By Marcus Gilmer in News on May 28, 2009 6:15PM

With a major deadline to vote on his controversial new budget approaching, Gov. Quinn has made some adjustments he hopes will help the plan get an easier passage. According to the Sun-Times:

[Quinn] now wants to boost the $2,000 exemption to $3,000; originally, he proposed boosting it to $6,000.

Quinn wants to double the property tax credit from 5 percent to 10 percent, capped at $500. He also is advocating doubling the earned income tax credit for low-earning taxpayers.

The governor is continuing to stick by his proposal to boost the individual income tax from 3 percent to 4.5 percent and the corporate income tax from 4.8 percent to 7.2 percent.

Still, Quinn is dependent on Republican support to get the tax hikes passed as Senate President John Cullerton said there isn't enough support within the Democrats' caucus to pass the bill. In response, Senate Minority Leader Christine Radogno (R-Lemont) said, "There is not support. There's also a strong feeling for six years the Democrats controlled everything. For six years, we said, 'Don't do this. Don't spend more money than we have coming in the door. Don't under-fund the pensions. Don't keep borrowing.' And nobody listened. Now suddenly ... we're invited to the table to help solve the problem they created."

The Republicans have reason to refuse help. If the Dems can't get a tax plan passed by the end of the month (this Sunday), any legislation would require a three-fifths approval vote rather than just a simple majority, giving the Republicans more bargaining power.