{"id":436227,"date":"2010-03-16T14:24:28","date_gmt":"2010-03-16T18:24:28","guid":{"rendered":"tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341c60fd53ef0120a9434c70970b"},"modified":"2010-03-16T18:19:52","modified_gmt":"2010-03-16T22:19:52","slug":"quinns-latest-pitch-skip-spring-break-to-raise-taxes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/436227","title":{"rendered":"Quinn’s latest pitch: Skip spring break to raise taxes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Posted by Monique Garcia<\/em> at 1:24 p.m.; updated at 5:19 p.m. by Michelle Manchir<\/strong><\/p>\n

Gov. Pat Quinn today tried to turn up the pressure on his fellow Democrats to push through an income tax increase, suggesting lawmakers shouldn\u2019t take off for spring break without first voting on his plan even if no Republicans are on board.<\/p>\n

The remarks represent the latest heated rhetoric from the governor, who has tried and failed for a year to convince the General Assembly his party controls to raise taxes to help deal with a looming $13 billion budget deficit.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really feel the legislature shouldn\u2019t take a break, a holiday, until
\nthey vote on this tax increase,\u201d said Quinn during an appearance at Morton Community College in Cicero. \u201cI think when you\u2019re in a
\ncrisis, members of the legislature have to have an urgent sense of duty
\nand an urgent sense of acting.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

The governor, however, stopped short of saying he would call a special session to keep lawmakers at the Capitol the last week of March and first week of April.<\/p>\n

This afternoon, House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, said he’ll take Quinn’s spring break suggestion under advisement and suggested that those watching state government not be "concerned" about the calendar.
<\/br>
<\/br>"Well, we have that under review. Our thought was that maybe Gov. Quinn could use a nice break for a while. That was our thought."<\/p>\n

Quinn also called on Democrats to use their majorities in the House and the Senate to send him a tax increase even if Republicans won\u2019t sign on, saying lawmakers must do \u201cwhatever it takes\u201d to implement a tax increase by April 1 or see tens of thousands of pink slips land in teacher mailboxes.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf it\u2019s all one party, I think that\u2019s unfortunate, I think that it should be bi-partisan, but we must act for the people, for the common good,\u201d Quinn said.
<\/br>
<\/br>While Democrats control both the House and the Senate and theoretically have enough votes to pass Quinn\u2019s income tax proposal on their own, Madigan has insisted some Republicans must sign on as a way to share the blame for a tax increase during an election year.
<\/br><\/p>\n

Quinn wants to raise the personal income tax rate from 3 percent to 4 percent — a 33 percent increase — as a way to prevent threatened cuts to education. He also wants to raise the corporate tax rate from 4.8 percent to 5.8 percent. All told, the tax increase is projected to bring in about $2.8 billion a year.<\/p>\n

Madigan was asked today if he supported Quinn’s tax increase proposal.
<\/br>
\n
<\/br>
\n"We haven’t made a decision yet," Madign said. "That’ll come later."
<\/br><\/p>\n

<\/br>Quinn said he plans to meet with Madigan and Senate President John Cullerton later this week to have a \u201cfrank discussion about how important it is for the legislature to act\u201d sooner rather than later.
<\/br>
<\/br>\u201cThere\u2019s some rather timid souls who don\u2019t want to make a decision in Illinois, they want to push the can down the road,\u201d Quinn said. \u201cSome people say \u2018Well, we can make this decision after Nov. 2.\u2019 That\u2019s the date of the next election. I don\u2019t believe in that kind of politics. I believe you stand up in the middle of the arena, like we are right here, and say what you\u2019re for. And what I\u2019m for is education for people in Illinois.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Posted by Monique Garcia at 1:24 p.m.; updated at 5:19 p.m. by Michelle Manchir Gov. Pat Quinn today tried to turn up the pressure on his fellow Democrats to push through an income tax increase, suggesting lawmakers shouldn\u2019t take off for spring break without first voting on his plan even if no Republicans are on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3992,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-436227","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436227","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3992"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=436227"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436227\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=436227"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=436227"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=436227"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}