In addition to the tax increase and spending limits bill approved in the last hours of the 96th Illinois General Assembly, the legislature authorized a new round of pension borrowing with provisions that could lead to hundreds of millions in bond proceeds being transferred to the State’s General Funds and used for operations. Almost a year after the Governor proposed borrowing to make the State’s…
In the last hours of the 96th Illinois General Assembly, on January 11, 2011, the legislature took significant action on the State’s budget by passing a bill to increase personal income tax rates from 3% to 5% and corporate income tax rates from 4.8% to 7%. Governor Quinn signed the measure on January 13. The income tax increases, combined with legislation authorizing borrowing of approximately $…
This editorial says the State of Illinois should cut spending before searching for additional sources of revenue. It cites the Civic Federation’s “Fiscal Rehabilitation Plan for the State of Illinois.”
In this news segment about plans to increase the State of Illinois income tax in order to balance its budget, Civic Federation President Laurence Msall says that any tax increase must be part of a long-term fiscal plan.
This segment of the “Marketplace” program discusses the effect the State of Illinois budget gap has had on its fiscal outlook. Civic Federation President Laurence Msall says the State has not properly funded its pension system, which could be expected to run out of money in 10 to 15 years.
Over the course of 2010 the IIFS blog explored a number of State of Illinois budget topics ranging from Medicaid/HMO funding issues to the State public pension system. Posts on the IIFS blog not only supplement IIFS publications, but also provide additional context and commentary to events in the news and State budget events. Posts about the State Medicaid system featured prominently on the…
Congress appears to have sealed the fate of the federal Build America Bond (BAB) subsidy by not including renewal of the program in the package of unemployment benefits and tax incentives authorized last week. Now with less than two weeks left before the program is set to expire on December 31, 2010, many governments are rushing to market with last minute bond sales to take advantage of the hefty…
This news segment discusses a recent report that describes the condition of Illinois’ finances as dire. Civic Federation President Laurence Msall assents with that assessment and adds that the State’s has few options to fix its fiscal troubles including major program cuts or reductions in pension contributions.
Despite initial results showing that the State of Illinois’ recent tax amnesty program brought in more than $500 million in delinquent tax revenues, a report from the legislature’s financial oversight commission questions how much new General Funds revenue is actually included in the total funds received. The General Assembly approved the tax amnesty program to help boost revenues as part of the…
Civic Federation President Laurence Msall is interviewed in this news segment about proposed expansion in gaming in the State of Illinois. He warns that statewide video poker, despite being approved 18 months ago, has not yet resulted in any revenue for Illinois’ coffers.
