The RTR.org social network has just posted a new video addressing the recently passed 67% income tax increase in Illinois. View the video below, or on Youtube.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUt9OfMMkrA[/youtube]
OTTAWA–LaSalle County-area retired government employees receive lavish, gold-plated pensions, and, according to Jim Tobin, Chairman of the Illinois Taxpayer Education Foundation (ITEF), the real reason Springfield politicians passed the 67% state income tax increase is to pump more taxpayer dollars into the floundering pension plans of retired government employees, including those from LaSalle County.
“Those receiving the largest annual pensions are retired government-school educators,” said Tobin, “and the state income tax increase pumps even more tax dollars into these pension funds. LaSalle County’s retired public school teachers in the Teachers Retirement System (TRS) are really raking it in. The largest annual TRS pension went to James C. Bagley, formerly of Peru Elementary SD 124, whose annual pension is $122,491 — $10,208 a month. Charles E. Hager, formerly of Streator TWP HSD 40, not only received an annual pension of $86,219, but already has collected $1,810,595 in pension payments.”
Jim Tobin speaks to the Ottawa press at the historic Reddick Mansion on January 25, 2011. In 1858, the Reddick Mansion was where the Lincoln-Douglas debate took place.
A new report by the non-partisan Tax Foundation, headquartered in Washington, D.C., reveals that the Illinois corporate state income tax rate, recently raised from 7.3% to 9.5%, rose from being the 21st highest overall corporate tax rate in the country to 4th highest. Almost all nearby states have lower state corporate state income tax rates, putting Illinois in a very unfavorable position competitively.
The states with the higher corporate state income tax rates are Iowa, 12%, Pennsylvania, 9.99%, and Minnesota, 9.8%.
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