tax hikes
State Of Illinois Bankrupt By 2015?
While it’s “business as usual” for Illinois politicians, two influential groups grow increasingly-wary of the state’s financial situation. Paul Merrion reported on the Crain’s Chicago Business website back on April 22:
Most wealthy Chicago-area investors are optimistic about the global and national economic outlook, but many fear a downturn in the Illinois economy this year, a new survey finds.
The state’s financial well-being has 76 percent of local investors “very concerned,” while only 46 percent feel that way about the prospects for the U.S. economy, according to a survey by Morgan Stanley Smith Barney LLC. A bit more than half (52 percent) said the state’s pension crisis was their top concern, and 58 percent foresee that the Illinois economy will get worse by year-end.
Speaking of the state’s public pension crisis, a pro-Illinois taxpayer group is warning it has the potential to bankrupt the State of Illinois. John Cody reported on the CBS Chicago website Tuesday:
A conservative watchdog group is warning of dark days ahead for the entire state unless Illinois mends it’s financial ways, and soon.
Taxpayers United President Jim Tobin, is essentially blaming Democrats with a two house super-majority for failing to act on pension reform reform.
“Illinois will be the first state to go bankrupt, unless pension reforms are implemented,” said Tobin.
And Tobin’s numbers suggest it’ll be sooner rather than later.
“Yeah, 2015 is about right,” said Tobin.
And yet, state lawmakers continue to fiddle (waste time on more trivial issues) while Illinois burns.
My prediction? Illinois residents should prepare themselves for a combination of more fees, taxes, and belt-tightening from and by the State. Most likely, sooner rather than later.
By Christopher E. Hill, Editor
Survival And Prosperity (www.survivalandprosperity.com)
Sources:
Merrion, Paul. “Rich Chicagoans fret about Illinois economy: survey.” Crain’s Chicago Business. 22 Apr. 2013. (http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20130422/NEWS02/130419726/rich-chicagoans-fret-about-illinois-economy-survey). 3 May 2013.
Cody, John. “Conservative Watch Dog: Pensions Could Bankrupt Illinois By 2015.” CBS Chicago. 30 Apr. 2013. (http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2013/04/30/conservative-watch-dog-pensions-could-bankrupt-illinois-by-2015/). 3 May 2013.
Illinois Governor Pat Quinn Goes After Corporate Tax ‘Loopholes’ To Pay Bills
“Thirteen area companies say they may cut more than 1,100 jobs in the near future, according to the state’s Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act report for February.”
-Chicago Tribune, March 5, 2013
Yesterday, Illinois Governor Pat Quinn proposed a $62.4 billion budget for the State of Illinois in 2014. Ray Long reported on the Chicago Tribune website Wednesday:
Quinn also proposed whittling down the state’s $10 billion backlog of unpaid bills by closing what he calls corporate tax loopholes, a move that business groups say amounts to tax hikes on them. Quinn suggested suspending three so-called loopholes that bring in $445 million a year: the federal production activities break, the non-combination rule and the foreign divided allowance.
(Editor’s note: Italics added for emphasis)
From a transcript of the governor’s budget address to the Illinois General Assembly:
Over the next 12 weeks, we should work together to enact legislation that suspends unnecessary corporate tax loopholes and dedicates the resulting revenue to a new Bill Payment Trust Fund.
For example, we should suspend the Foreign Dividend corporate loophole. We should also join other states that have decoupled from the Federal Production Activities loophole. And we should suspend the Non-Combination Rule that allows big corporations to shift their income to locations outside Illinois. Together, these three loopholes alone cost our treasury about $445 million per year.
Suspending corporate loopholes like these until the bills are paid will be good for our vendors and good for our economy.
You know what’s “good for our vendors and good for our economy?” Legislators in Springfield not spending taxpayers’ hard-earned money like drunken sailors. Illinois, like Uncle Sam, has a debilitating spending problem. If the state didn’t spend so much, it might be able to afford to pay its vendors.
Governor Quinn added in his budget address:
Why should we give costly, ineffective loopholes to some of the biggest and most profitable corporations on earth, when we have bills to pay?
Maybe because the jobs these corporations provide are desperately-needed by your constituents? The state’s “official” unemployment rate was 8.6 percent at the end of last year, significantly above the national rate. These days, the “Land of Lincoln” is fast-acquiring a reputation for being bad for business (raising corporate income taxes 46 percent at the beginning of 2011 can have that effect), with our neighbors only too happy to poach companies looking to move to this part of the Midwest or in the start-up phase. And with the businesses go the jobs.
Does it really make sense to pursue “a move that business groups say amounts to tax hikes on them” in light of all this?
After all, if these loopholes are really so evil and detrimental to the State’s bottom line, why would the Governor propose to suspend them only “until the bills are paid?”
Rather than becoming even more business-unfriendly, the State of Illinois, its vendors, and its constituents are better served by a reinvigorated program that attracts, grows, and retains business here. Financial incentives will almost certainly play a role in this initiative. And with the businesses now come the jobs. Along with the tax revenue to pay off our “tab” from all that drunken spending over the years.
Keep on antagonizing the private sector, and the state will continue on its present course of becoming one giant ghetto smack dab in the middle of the Midwest.
You can read Governor Quinn’s entire 2014 budget address here.
By Christopher E. Hill, Editor
Survival And Prosperity (www.survivalandprosperity.com)
Source:
Long, Ray. “Quinn blames lawmakers for inaction on pension reform.” Chicago Tribune. 6 Mar. 2013. (http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/politics/clout/chi-quinn-blames-lawmakers-for-inaction-on-pension-reform-20130306,0,971611.story). 6 Mar. 2013.
Illinois Criminals Count Blessings As Prisons And Other Correctional Facilities Close
Illinois residents- is it just me, or does it seem like there’s no shortage of stories out there of convicted criminals in the state who roam the streets and never see prison time, or if they do, aren’t behind bars for that long?
It a topic I’ve blogged about as recently as a week ago.
And I suspect the ongoing closure of prisons and other related facilities in Illinois as it battles a huge fiscal mess will only make matters worse. Monique Garcia and Rafael Guerrero reported on the Chicago Tribune website last night:
Gov. Pat Quinn on Monday stood by his decision to close two prisons and several halfway homes, even as overcrowding at remaining facilities has forced the Illinois Department of Corrections to convert gym space into housing for inmates.
Other facilities that have been closed or are in the process of being shut down include Tamms Correction Center (a “supermax” prison; closed), Illinois Youth Center at Murphysboro (a juvenile justice center; closed), Illinois Youth Center at Joliet (closing), Dwight Correctional Center (maximum security prison for women; closing), and three inmate transitional centers (closing).
Garcia and Guerrero added:
The Democratic governor said he hoped overcrowding would be eased by a revamped good-behavior credit program the administration plans to implement in the coming months.
Illinois residents might remember that didn’t turn out too well the last time around.
At a time when the State of Illinois looks like it could use more prisons and other correctional facilities, they’re being shuttered.
Surveying the economic landscape, I don’t expect much in the way of a resurgence for Illinois anytime soon (ongoing fee/tax hikes will help take care of that). As such, budgets for law enforcement agencies and the penal system will probably continue to be tightened, and criminals will grow bolder knowing the “thin blue line” is slimmer and doing time may be just a temporary visit to the slammer.
By Christopher E. Hill, Editor
Survival And Prosperity (www.survivalandprosperity.com)
Source:
Garcia, Monique and Guerrero, Rafael. “Quinn stands by decision to close 2 prisons, despite inmate crowding.” Chicago Tribune. 18 Feb. 2013. (http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-met-quinn-prison-closures-0219-20130219,0,2758226.story). 19 Feb. 2013.
Illinois Governor Pat Quinn Proposes Highest Minimum Wage In The U.S.
Fall 1986. I was hanging out with my older sister in her bedroom when I came across a binder for some basic economics/personal finance class that she was enrolled in at the local public high school. As I leafed through it, I thought, “This is some pretty cool stuff- I hope I get the chance to take a class like this when I’m in high school next year.” I didn’t. Not in my freshmen year or any other year. I ended up at an all-boys Roman Catholic college preparatory high school, where such material just wasn’t taught.
Latin, yes. Economics/personal finance, no.
Ita sit (so be it).
In fact, Illinois Governor Pat Quinn also attended the same school. Both of us might have been able to benefit greatly from such instruction early on.
Perhaps one more than the other, based on a new minimum wage hike the Chicago Democrat proposed yesterday in his “State of the State” address. From Paul Merrion on the Crain’s Chicago Business website yesterday:
Gov. Pat Quinn’s call for a $10 minimum wage has created yet another firestorm for the state’s business community.
While economists question whether higher minimum wages hurt jobs and make some states less competitive than others, Illinois business leaders view the governor’s proposal as one more blow to the state’s battered business climate.
Illinois already has the fourth-highest minimum wage at $8.25 an hour, and raising it more than 21 percent over four years would put it far above Indiana or other neighboring states eager to attract Illinois companies to relocate.
According to Merrion, a minimum wage of $10 would be the highest in the country.
Supporters of Quinn’s minimum wage hike are calling it “pro-worker.”
Whether or not “higher minimum wages hurt jobs” directly, a higher wage, in conjunction with the state’s huge fiscal mess and recent (January 2011) corporate income tax rate hike of 46 percent, might be the last straw for Illinois companies contemplating leaving the state and kill the formation of new businesses here. By itself, the effects of the hike may not be significant. But taking everything else into consideration, the growing belief that Illinois is “anti-business” will probably be magnified by its implementation, and jobs could be impacted as a result.
Pro-worker? What good’s a minimum wage hike if jobs leave the state and new ones aren’t created?
Economics 101, my man. Economics 101.
By Christopher E. Hill, Editor
Survival And Prosperity (www.survivalandprosperity.com)
Source:
Merrion, Paul. “Quinn’s call for $10 minimum wage riles business.” Crain’s Chicago Business. 6 Feb 2013. (http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20130206/NEWS02/130209864/quinns-call-for-10-minimum-wage-riles-business). 7 Feb. 2013.
Illinois’ Total Unfunded Liabilities: $275 Billion
The following bit about Illinois’ total unfunded liabilities from a January 28 Investor’s Business Daily editorial was so depressing to read that I originally planned to blog about it much earlier this morning- but needed to step away. From the IBD website:
A recent release by the Illinois Policy Institute shows this [$96.8 billion unfunded debt to five state pension systems] is only the tip of the iceberg and when you add in other liabilities such as $54 billion in unfunded liabilities for retiree health insurance and $15 billion in pension bonds that Gov. Pat Quinn and his immediate predecessor, former Gov. Rod Blagojevich, issued to avoid pension reform, Illinois’ total unfunded liabilities amount to $275 billion, or $58,000 in debt for each and every household in the state.
(Editor’s note: Italics added for emphasis)
So what’s it going to be, Illinois? Since a booming economy seems unlikely to return anytime soon, will the Democrat-dominated Illinois General Assembly finally enact significant spending cuts? Raise fees and taxes through the roof? Throw public sector retirees “under the bus?”
They’re going to have to do something real quick.
Or watch the whole thing unravel.
By Christopher E. Hill, Editor
Survival And Prosperity (www.survivalandprosperity.com)
Source:
“Obama’s Illinois Downgrade Makes It America’s Greece.” Investor’s Business Daily. 28 Jan. 2013. (http://news.investors.com/ibd-editorials/012813-642237-credit-downgrade-illinois-standard-poors-worst.htm). 31 Jan. 2013.
Labor Minister: France ‘Is A Totally Bankrupt State’
Speaking of France, how is the Socialist-led European state faring these days?
Not so great, it seems.
In fact, a pretty reliable source claims they’re bankrupt.
Graham Ruddick reported on The Telegraph (UK) website Monday:
Michel Sapin made the gaffe in a radio interview, which left French President Francois Hollande battling to undo the potential reputational damage.
“There is a state but it is a totally bankrupt state,” Mr Sapin said. “That is why we had to put a deficit reduction plan in place, and nothing should make us turn away from that objective.”
The comments came as President Hollande attempts to improve the image of the French economy after pledging to reduce the country’s deficit by cutting spending by €60bn (£51.5bn) over the next five years and increasing taxes by €20bn.
(Editor’s note: Italics added for emphasis)
As I mentioned earlier tonight, some claim President Obama desires French-style Socialism for the United States.
If France’s economy truly is in shambles, and the U.S. President really wants to emulate them, well- here’s a glimpse of what Americans could expect. From an Investor’s Business Daily editorial yesterday:
Fresh after May 2012′s election, President Francois Hollande wasted no time raising government spending, hiking tax rates to 75% on those above $1.3 million in income, hiring 60,000 bureaucrats, cutting the retirement age for public pensions to 60 and undoing fiscal reforms by his predecessor, Nicolas Sarkozy. During his campaign, Hollande declared himself “the enemy of finance.” France today proves it…
Public debt has soared from 68% of GDP in 2008 to 90% in 2012, joblessness has hit 11%, and GDP growth of its $2.8 trillion economy is projected in 2013 at zero.
Tax hikes have driven the richest taxpayers from the country, making the $43 billion budget hole unlikely to be plugged by Hollande’s $26 billion tax hike. Meanwhile, a squeeze on business creates rising numbers of unemployed, who in turn demand state services.
Time will tell how this will all work out for the Socialists in France. But if history rhymes once again, keep in mind something former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher said in a 1976 interview:
Socialist governments traditionally do make a financial mess. They always run out of other people’s money. It’s quite a characteristic of them. They then start to nationalise everything, and people just do not like more and more nationalisation, and they’re now trying to control everything by other means. They’re progressively reducing the choice available to ordinary people.
Any of this sound familiar?
By Christopher E. Hill, Editor
Survival And Prosperity (www.survivalandprosperity.com)
Sources:
Ruddick, Graham. “France ‘totally bankrupt’, says labour minister Michel Sapin.” The Telegraph. 28 Jan. 2013. (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financialcrisis/9832845/France-totally-bankrupt-says-labour-minister-Michel-Sapin.html). 30 Jan. 2013.
“Like The Bourbons, France’s Socialists Have Learned Nothing, Forgotten Nothing.” Investor’s Business Daily. 29 Jan. 2013. (http://news.investors.com/ibd-editorials/012913-642388-france-socialist-model-is-same-old-recipe-for-bankruptcy.htm). 30 Jan. 2013.
WSJ: Obama, Democrats Want To Raise Taxes Again
Back when I was still running Boom2Bust.com, “The Most Hated Blog On Wall Street,” I suggested Americans should prepare to be force-fed a diet of new/increased fees and taxes in the coming years.
“Get your wallets out,” I used to write.
These days, it’s more like “get your wallets out- and keep them out.”
From the Wall Street Journal website this past Monday:
Let’s focus today on the President’s demand to raise taxes—again. Millions of Americans, rich and middle class, are still recovering from the shock of the income and payroll tax hikes in their first 2013 paychecks, while ObamaCare’s new taxes have also just kicked in. These are the biggest tax increases in at least 20 years, yet Mr. Obama is already stumping for another revenue raid.
The President even invoked the American people to support his third huge tax hike, saying Monday that “They don’t think it’s smart to protect endless corporate loopholes and tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans rather than rebuild our roads and our schools…” You already know the rest…
The big fiscal news here is that Mr. Obama and the Democrats are all but conceding that the recent tax hike is little more than a token reduction in the deficit. The tax hike, while the biggest in 20 years, will raise only $620 billion at most over 10 years, and probably less. Yet Mr. Obama conceded in passing Monday that the debt ceiling will have to rise by something like $1.25 trillion to accommodate this year’s deficit alone.
Other Democrats are also bellying up again to the tax bar…
Rich Americans (again), tax “loopholes,” and “Big Oil” are in the Democrats’ crosshairs this time around.
You can read the informative piece on the Wall Street Journal website here.
By Christopher E. Hill, Editor
Survival And Prosperity (www.survivalandprosperity.com)
Nouriel Roubini: ‘Highly-Likely Chance We’re Going To Go Over The Cliff’
Last time I mentioned Dr. Nouriel Roubini, a former Treasury official in the Clinton administration who correctly-called the 2008 global financial crisis, he was warning about a slowing U.S. economy. Well, the professor of economics at New York University and chairman of Roubini Global Economics appeared on Bloomberg Television’s Surveillance earlier today and discussed the looming “fiscal cliff,” the combination of tax hikes and spending cuts the U.S. faces on January 1 under current federal law. “Dr. Doom,” as the media sometimes refers to him as, warned viewers:
I think there’s a highly-likely chance we’re going to go over the cliff. If we do so, the market reaction is going to force the two sides to reach an agreement. But even if we reach an agreement, like I said- you’re going to have 1 to 2 percent drag on growth in an economy that’s barely growing.
“Roubini Says Fed Inflation Targeting Out the Window”
Bloomberg TV Video
Moody’s Revises Illinois’ Credit Rating Outlook To Negative
Moody’s Investors Service, a major Wall Street credit rating agency, announced yesterday that it has revised its rating outlook for the State of Illinois from stable to negative. Illinois is already Moody’s lowest-rated state. From the agency’s website Thursday:
Rating Action: Moody’s revises State of Illinois’ rating outlook to negative from stable; general obligation rating affirmed at A2
Global Credit Research – 13 Dec 2012
Action applies to approximately $33 billion of outstanding general obligation and related debt
New York, December 13, 2012 — Moody’s Investors Service has revised the State of Illinois’ credit outlook to negative from stable, while affirming the state’s general obligation debt rating at A2. The state has about $28 billion of G.O. bonds outstanding. We have also affirmed related ratings assigned to state borrowings, including about $2.6 billion of debt issued by the Metropolitan Pier & Exposition Authority, rated A3, and the state’s Build Illinois sales tax revenue bonds, rated A2, of which $2.7 billion are currently outstanding. The negative outlook is linked to ratings on the G.O. as well as the related credits.
SUMMARY RATING RATIONALE
The negative outlook reflects our view that the state’s pension funding pressures are likely to persist and perhaps worsen in the near term. Moreover, fiscal 2014 marks the last year before Illinois’ 2011 income tax increases are partly unwound, putting the state on track to deal with simultaneous growth in pension funding needs and loss of revenue. If the legislature in coming weeks or months enacts significant pension reforms, they are almost certain to be challenged, given the state’s constitutional protection of retiree benefits. Political pressures, coupled with the threat of litigation, may mean that any reforms enacted have only a marginal effect on liabilities. Despite a diverse economy with above-average wealth, lackluster demographic and economic characteristics indicate that, even with continued US economic improvement, the state’s existing tax structure will not provide enough revenue to address the rising cost of pension benefits and other state expenses. In addition, the state’s payment backlog remains high.
(Editor’s note: Italics added for emphasis)
Back on January 13, 2011, Illinois Governor Pat Quinn signed legislation authorizing a 67 percent increase in the personal income tax of Illinois residents and a 46 percent increase in corporate income taxes on Illinois businesses. In 2015, these taxes are scheduled to be rolled back from 5 percent to 3.75 percent and 7 percent to 5.25 percent respectively. However, as I noted that same day:
The last time income tax rates in the “Land of Lincoln” went up in 1989, politicians also claimed it was as a temporary increase to combat a financial “rough patch.” But the rates never came down and by 1993 were designated permanent. Until now, that is.
I won’t be surprised if lighting strikes Illinois residents and businesses twice.
You can read the entire rating action report on the Moody’s website here.
Cook County Enacts $25 Per-Gun Tax On Firearm Purchases
After reading the following a short time ago about Cook County (Illinois) Board President Toni Preckwinkle’s gun tax on law-abiding residents to pay for the stupid actions of local criminals, I thought to myself, “I can’t get out of Cook County fast enough.” From Hal Dardick on the Chicago Tribune website at lunchtime:
The cost of buying cigarettes and guns in Cook County will rise next year after commissioners today voted 16-1 to approve County Board President Toni Preckwinkle’s $2.95 billion budget.
In addition to the $1-per-pack increase on a pack of smokes and a new $25 per-gun tax on firearm purchases, the board also enacted a 1.25 percent use tax on large out-of-county purchases, with an exemption on the first $3,500 spent. There’s also a $1,000-per-year tax on slot machines and a $200-per-year tax on video gambling terminals.
The cigarette tax increases March 1, while the use tax and gun tax are effective April 1.
(Editor’s note: Italics added for emphasis)
So, it’s now “official”- Cook County, Illinois, is now the only place in America that levies a special tax on purchasers of firearms.
Funny how Cook County officials and the “watchdog” Chicago news media never talked about how this new gun tax will impact major sporting goods retailers who do brisk business selling firearms and have a presence in the county, such as Cabela’s and Dick’s Sporting Goods.
I’m guessing their respective corporate offices are running the numbers right now to decide whether or not to shut down their retail stores in Cook County.
A subject that’s already being discussed.
“Opening Soon! The Trinkets And Other Crap For Sale Store”
Soon-to-be-seen signage at the former sites of 40 or so gun shops and the Hoffman Estates Cabela’s in Cook County? There’s plenty of these kinds of businesses already around.
In total, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle and the 17 Cook County Commissioners just hiked fees and taxes for area residents and business by a projected $41.7 million. Meanwhile, Cook County residents and businesses struggle to keep afloat in the ongoing financial crisis.
Forward!
Source:
Dardick, Hal. “New Cook County budget includes $1-a-pack cigarette tax hik.” Chicago Tribune. 9 Nov. 2012. (http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/politics/clout/chi-new-cook-county-budget-includes-1apack-cigarette-tax-hike-20121109,0,384861.story). 9 Nov. 2012.
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