Quinn Tax Hike, Senior Ride Rollback Inherits the Windbag

By Chuck Sudo in News on Jan 14, 2011 3:00PM

We know people all over Illinois are pissed off at the severity of the state income tax hike. Still others fly off into a Pavlovian rage whenever they hear the word "tax." And we've yet to see any idea as to what spending cuts Springfield will make to further balance the budget, although getting rid of the free public transit rides for seniors so that only the neediest among them have it was a good start. So what did the architect of the free rides for seniors program think of that and the income tax hike? Rod Blagojevich wasn't happy.

Former Governor Sound Bite was in rare form yesterday. “I hate the fact I was right about this,” he told the Sun-Times.

“The way they did it is very cynical by having the lame-duck Legislature, where some members actually got beat, raise taxes 66 percent and take public transportation away from your grandmother. This illustrates exactly what I fought for six years. ... If they thought this was the right thing to do, why didn’t they do this before the election?” Blagojevich said.

In Blagojevich's defense, he does raise some salient points. The way the General Assembly forced this home, during a lame duck legislative session in which many representatives and senators would not be held accountable for their votes, is a very bitter pill to swallow. You know what else gives us the gas face? The rampant robbing from Peter to pay Paul that went on for years in Springfield that created the budget deficit in the first place. Borrowing that was only amplified during Blagojevich's watch as he pandered to every voting bloc imaginable.

Steve Brown, spokesman for House Speaker Michael Madigan, had some fun with Blagojevich's comments and was unusually candid for a politician.

“The man is a sociopathic fraud. Part of the reason the state is in the dilemma it is, is because of his bungling as governor and his unquenchable thirst to create spending programs so people would idolize him, which is all part of his condition,” Brown said.