State Republican Wants To Tax Out of State Lawmakers

By aaroncynic in News on Feb 25, 2011 2:05PM

Even though Illinois arguably has bigger issues to face than a handful of out of state legislators biding their time until they can reach a solution to their own state's budgetary woes, one GOP representative wants to make sure our visitors pay up. The Sun Times reports state Representative Michael Tryon (R-Crystal Lake) said he would introduce a bill to impose Illinois' 5% income tax on the Wisconsin and Indiana legislators who crossed the borders to avoid voting on anti-union legislation.

Tryon said the out of state legislators should be taxed the same way that visiting football teams pay Illinois tax for games played in the state. “We have legislators from Wisconsin who are working here for the purpose of denying a quorum. We know they’re working here because they say that on TV. When you work in Illinois, you ought to pay the tax,” Tryon told the Sun Times.

Representative Jack Franks (D-Marengo), who represents the district where the Wisconsin democrats are hiding out seemed to recognize Tryon's legislative idea as little more than political theater saying “I know we can have some fun with this...but we have to be very focused on what we're doing.” Besides, we thought even out of state democrats could be taxed enough already too.