“Take a close look at your next paycheck”

Mike Madigan’s 32% tax hike is now law. The Belleville News-Democrat editorial board explains this morning how Madigan’s lawmakers failed Illinois by refusing to pass any meaningful reforms.

From the BND:
Take a close look at your next paycheck.

…It took our lawmakers two years to come up with this tax and budget package, but they’re wasting no time getting into our wallets.

If you weren’t paying attention to how Illinois got into its mess, maybe the change in your paycheck will make you take notice. And we need to pay attention, because even though this tax will give the state another $5 billion annually, big problems remain.

For one thing, there’s still that $130 billion debt to state employees’ pension funds. For another, there’s that $15 billion bill backlog.

And House Speaker Michael Madigan pushed through this Democrat tax-and-spend plan without having to accept any of the pro-business reforms that Gov. Bruce Rauner hoped would stop job-creators and residents from fleeing to more business-friendly states. What will happen when there are no paychecks left to tax?

Madigan’s scheme has no change to Illinois’ costly workers’ compensation laws, no freezing of property taxes, nothing to rein in the out-of-control government spending.

Even with this new tax windfall, our state’s credit rating remains dangerously close to junk status. Moody’s Investors Service, citing the pension debt and bill backlog and other structural problems, said Friday that Illinois has “lingering credit challenges,” like collecting $5 billion to pay off $145 billion in debt.

In other words, Illinois’ politicians might be lingering around your paycheck and your wallet for a long time.

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