An article at MyStateline.com featured TUA’s release on Republican state senator Dave Syverson supporting the income tax increase.
ROCKFORD- The organization Taxpayers United of America is calling out Republican Senator Dave Syverson (R) for wanting to extend the temporary state income tax until June 30th, 2015.
“Legislators need to roll up their sleeves and do the actual work to solve the problem. Their idea of a solution is to keep coming to the taxpayers for more money,” said Rae Ann McNeilly, Executive Director of Taxpayers United of America.
Syverson voted against the temporary tax increase in 2011, when it was passed into law by the General Assembly. However, with a new governor coming in and the tax set to automatically roll back 2% in January, the issue is once again being debated by the Illinois General Assembly. “If the tax comes off in January, in the next 6 months we are going to end up with a multi-million dollar [budget] hole,” said Senator Syverson.
Without that money, Syverson warns that schools, daycares, and nursing home staff will not get paid. On top of that, the state will owe them interest.
However, Representative Joe Sosnowski (R) believes the state can save money from other funds to cover the projected income deficit. He says there’s half a billion dollars sitting in Medicaid alone that the state can save. “My feeling is, before we look to extending [the income tax,] we really need to look at our spending and what reforms we can do,” said Representative Sosnowski.
There is the possibility of an agreement among legislators during the veto or lame duck session to get the tax increase extended 6 more months. Nevertheless, if the tax expires in January, that doesn’t bar it from being implemented again at some point in 2015.
