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Group: Quinn Win Shouldn't Mean Income Tax Increase
(IRN) -- An anti-tax activist says the governor has no mandate to raise the income tax.

Tim Tobin, head of National Taxpayers United of Illinois, notes that Gov. Pat Quinn didn't win a majority in last week's five-candidate election, getting 47 percent. The three income tax opponents -- the Republican, Libertarian and an independent -- received 51 percent of the votes.

The governor says the election results speak for themselves. "I did take a position in the election on the need to have revenue to pay our bills, and to especially invest in our education. And I won the election," he said. Quinn's proposal is a 1 percentage point increase in the income tax.

Tobin says House Speaker Mike Madigan (D-Chicago) has thwarted tax increases in the past, but he doesn't think he can rely on him now.

Tobin's solution consists of steep concessions from state workers and retirees: He says state workers should pay 10 percent more of their salaries toward their pensions, and retirees should pay half their medical insurance costs, resulting in savings to taxpayers would be $380 billion over 35 years, he says.

"The days of proposing income tax increases to subsidize pension millionaires like Jim Edgar and that bunch are over. They're over," Tobin said.

(Illinois Radio Network)
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