A funny thing happened on the way to Gov. Pat Quinn’s first budget: he did not get enough votes.
A funny thing happened on the way to Gov. Pat Quinn’s first budget: he did not get enough votes.
That is not surprising since Quinn ascended to the office of the state chief executive only by digging the blade out of former Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s back. Quinn boasted that he had not spoken to the former governor in more than a year, even though he twice shared the ticket with him and owes his political position to running with Blagojevich, not against him. Quinn has no real friends in Springfield and holds no real political sway around the Legislature. They recognize he is a caretaker governor, and doing favors for Pat Quinn doesn’t earn anyone in the Legislature any political points.
So Quinn, the un-elected governor, is making an extended road trip around the state to try to build enough voter pressure to get the legislators to move in his direction. He is showing up everywhere – in the pulpit of the Apostolic Church of God, at the graduation of the Crispus Attucks school – anywhere he can find an ear to hear his version of budget doomsday.
That is what Quinn is selling. He is busy warning anyone who will listen (and quite a few who will not), that there will be dire circumstances in Illinois if the state personal income tax isn’t increased 50 percent. He says the estimated $11 billion budget deficit will have to be closed, and a tax hike will get the state part of the way there.
Unfortunately, even the tax hike will not raise even half of the $11 billion. That means the rest of the money will have to come from cut.
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