Friday, December 09, 2011

Illinois Tax Break Deal For CME Costs State $344 Million A Year

The State of Illinois is facing one of the worst budget problems in the country. It's billion of dollars in the hole, but losing the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, Sears and other major companies to states competing for those businesses was more than state officials there were willing to bear. A legislative deal expected to be inked next week by Illinois lawmakers will cost the state's treasury about $344 million in lost revenues according to one fiscal forecast. The tax legislation turned into a Christmas tree of sorts including:
  • a doubling of the state's estate tax exemption to $4 million ($62 million)
  • a doubling of the state's earned income tax credit ($110 million)
  • increasing the state's personal income tax exemption by $50 ($20 million)
  • CME corporate income tax break ($85 million)
  • Sears payroll tax break ($15 million)
  • Champion Lab payroll tax break ($3.5 million)
  • Live art entertainment tax credit ($2 million)
  • Other tax credits set to retire (more than $10 million)
  • Research and development tax credit (more than $10 million)
This is why our tax system in this country has become completely unconstitutional in my judgment. Individuals and corporations with the lobbyists and political muscle can win special tax breaks that provide them an unfair advantage over similarly-situated individuals and businesses. The Illinois lobbyists who worked on this tax break deal will enjoy a very merry Christmas, while average working stiffs wonder how they can justify spending anything on the holidays this year given their current depressed station in life. The same game plays out in Washington every day. Increasingly, our local governments are using the local public treasuries as personal bank accounts to bankroll the private development projects of their fat cat political contributors. Our founding fathers would weep if they were alive today to see what the federal, state and local tax system has turned into in this country. It's nothing but a f_ _ _ing auction. We're on the brink, folks. Time is running out.

5 comments:

Citizen Kane said...

They are just public-private partnerships; they partner to steal from the rest of us.

marksmall2001 said...

Federal legislation would be required, if not because of the Constitution then because of the practical aspects to the problem. The question though is, how do you word: "An act to prohibit state and municipal governments from whoring themselves out to attract businesses where the taxpayers always experience net loss"?

Gary R. Welsh said...

Federal and state constitutions guarantee the right to equal protection under the law. The problem is that the courts in the context of tax law have accorded so much discretion to legislatures that the protection has been stripped of any meaning when it comes to taxation.

Marycatherine Barton said...

I too agree with everything you wrote in the last paragraph of this report, AI.

Marycatherine Barton said...

And today David McGraw gives us even more terrifying truths, at the pubrecord.org, "The Wall Street Pentagon Papers: Biggest Scam in World History Exposed: Are the Federal Reserve Crimes Too Big to Comprehend?" Maybe the time HAS run out.

Two lines from him: "Talk about the ransacking and burning of Rome! Sayonora American middle class." and,

"Let me sum it up for you. The American Dream is O-V-E-R."

And his message: "If you are an elected official, (I know at least 17 of you subscribe to my newsleter) and you believe in the oath you took upon taking office, you must immediately demand a full audit of the Federal Reserve and have Ben Bernanke and the entire Federal Reserve Board detained. If you are not going to do that, you deserve to have the words "Irrelevant Puppet" tattooed across your forehead."

Mine, Carson, Coats, and Lugar, are just that, irrelevant puppets.