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Hynes Critical of Quinn During State Budget Crisis
State Comptroller Dan Hynes has issued an open letter to Governor Pat Quinn, calling on him to rethink the way he's handling budget negotiations.

Hynes says the governor is offering lawmakers only two options: either raise taxes by $5 billion or drastically cut human and social services. Hynes says there's a third option, but it could require extra work.

Hynes says the governor should look at ways besides an income tax to raise revenues. In his letter, Hynes suggests expanding gambling, hiking the cigarette tax and expanding the sales tax base to cover luxury items such as tanning and dating services. That alone, he says, could raise about $1.8 billion.

Next, Hynes suggests going through the budget and eliminating non-essential programs, such as foreign trade offices, the state air fleet and the Illinois Information Service. Going through and eliminating these items would free up about $1.2 billion, Hynes says.

More importantly, Hynes says there's still time to do these things, but lawmakers would have to pass a temporary, non-harmful, 60-day budget to give themselves some breathing room. He says going through the budget and eliminating waste won't solve the budget problems, but it's absolutely necessary to "self-sacrifice before we ask taxpayers, and those who rely on state services to sacrifice."

(Illinois Radio Network)
06 23 09 by Newsroom
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