Gov. Quinn’s proposal to raise the income tax by a single percentage point (3 to 4 %) has raised hopes that the massive RIF (reduction in force) 
notices that are being mailed to education employees throughout Illinois can be rescinded in time for the next school year.
But it’s far from a done deal.
The Sun Times outlines what’s at stake for education:
If the tax-hike proposal fails, Quinn proposed cutting:
• General state aid to public school districts by $613.1 million, which would lower the amount the state spends on average per pupil from $6,119 to $5,669.
• Reimbursements to school systems for mandated programs such as special education and transportation by $401.9 million.
• Curriculum and instruction programs by $162.4 million, including $20.3 million less for bilingual education and $54.3 million less for early education.
• University funding by between 6 percent and 6.2 percent, amounting to $83.1 million in lost state dollars for nine universities.
So, what are the chances? If you ask the SouthTown’s Kristen McQueary, not so good:
Quinn’s idea is pretty clever. It unifies the state’s two powerful teachers unions behind his plan as he heads into a precarious re-election campaign, and it provides a timely revenue stream that thrifty taxpayers might be willing to swallow. We’ve all seen headlines about pending teacher layoffs.
But I wouldn’t count on the tax hike seeing the light of day. Lawmakers will pass a budget grounded on borrowing, even though we can’t afford the debt service we currently owe. Then they will head home blaming each other. How courageous.
“The state’s fiscal crisis is crowding out the state’s responsibilities to fund teacher pensions and its ability to provide resources to the classroom,” said Lawrence Msall, president of the nonpartisan Civic Federation, based in Chicago. “(Teachers) need to not allow the General Assembly to make this crisis worse by borrowing and pushing bills from one year to the next.”
Continued borrowing is, of course, a bad plan for a business such as Illinois that is almost $13 billion in debt; that’s why IEA President Ken Swanson on Wednesday, called for passage of the income tax for education proposal, but, at the same time, urged approval of HB 174; the bill the state senate passed last year but which has never been voted on in the House.
HB 174 takes a comprehensive approach to revenue and calls for, among other things, a bigger tax increase to fund education and other state programs and reduce the need for further borrowing.
Just as, for the last century, no one has lost money betting against the Chicago Cubs, it’s pretty easy today to say that this tax plan won’t/can’t pass. After all, people have been saying that for the last 20+ years and they haven’t been wrong yet.
But, the first thing that has to happen in order for the state to meet its obligations to its employees and the citizens who rely on state services is for a plan to be introduced. That’s been done.
The next thing that has to happen is that the members of the General Assembly have to be made to believe that they will be worse off on Election Day in November if they DON’T pass a tax increase than if they do.
The people who care about education and the continued delivery of necessary services to Illinoisans have to make them see the light.
It hasn’t happened before, but that just means the more than 133,000 IEA members haven’t made it happen yet.
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