Quinn Pushes State Income Tax Hike; Springfield Pushes Gambling Expansion

By Chuck Sudo in News on Nov 8, 2010 3:00PM

Facing a state budget deficit that could reach as high as $15 billion and with no easy answers to settle it, Gov. Quinn and the State Legislature head into the fall-veto session with different agendas on how to plug the gap.

Senate Democrats are expected to push legislation to expand gambling. The bill, orchestrated by Vernon Hills Sen. Terry Link, proposes new casinos in Chicago, north suburban Park City, downstate Danville and an undetermined south suburban location; would allow for slot machines at six racetracks across the state and expand the number of gambling machines at existing casinos. The proposal is expected to raise $1 billion annually.

Quinn, who said he hadn't read the proposal, still said it sounded "top-heavy" and instead expressed his wish for Springfield to take seriously raising the individual income tax rate to 4 percent. "That should precede everything else." Quinn estimates that his income tax hike would raise $3 billion annually and go towards property tax relief and education.

Quinn would need 60 votes in the Senate for his income tax hike to pass. The last time an income tax increase was proposed, only 47 senators voted in favor of the hike; all Republican senators opposed it. But the reality of the state's budget situation is that taxes probably need to go up and more cuts need to be made from the budget in order to get it under control. Quinn, fresh from his election win, feels that his victory is a mandate for pushing the income tax increase.

"We have to deal with hard realities. This is the truth. The truth won on Tuesday, and I intend to keep telling the truth to the Legislature," Quinn said.