When a Tax Hike Is Good News

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States that see taxpayers as marks to enable greater and greater spending on non taxpayers will see a wave of movement by responsible taxpayers towards states that have been financially responsible.
What happens when a small state starts to lose their revenue streams and is left with state, municipal employees, welfare recipients and illegals?
Keep your eye on Rhode Island over the next few years as this plays out.

Jim D of RI 3:00PM February 01, 2011

It's the SPENDING, stoopid...

G of FL 4:02PM January 29, 2011

The democrats are OK with rasining taxes to support their spending addictions. But why are we not reading about the spending cuts that the Democratic-controlled government in Illinois made? Oh, there weren't any? Hmmmm.
Let's watch what the Democrats do in New York and California, the other two states with big deficits and huge public employee pension liabilities.
Bankruptcy yes, federal bailouts NO.

Citizen of WI 1:42PM January 21, 2011

good article other than hte part about the federal govenment raising taxes. Waht would all the freeloaders do if they had to pay tax like they should? some of them think they are overtaxed now. 48% of america does not pay a dime in federal income tax, yet they want all the benefits....do they think amilitary can operate for free? I applaud illinois for making a tough decision...maybe some of these other states can learn a thing from it

Darrel Engan of ND 4:51PM January 19, 2011

Loved this article, great info.

Mallory of OH 2:14PM January 14, 2011

They raised taxes and raised spending by 10% for next year.
This will not help them since they raised the spending.

Jason of SD 11:18AM January 14, 2011

This money will not go to pay down debt. The governor will spend it on special projects because the law has a provision where he can declare a "fiscal emergency" and do whatever he wants.
We are constantly told we need money for infrastructure, yet we have a state gasoline tax and toll roads, where does that money go?
This tax increase came about to make sure democrats don't have to make the actual hard choice of making their union backers mad by cutting money to their pensions and other benefits.
This increase will not expire, just as the 1989 increase wasn't allowed to and we will have a great deficit when it is set to expire, guaranteed

Pat Quinn of IL 2:37AM January 14, 2011

Illinois will default eventually on all that debt as people find ways to not pay all these taxes. The failure to adequately address the spending side of the problem is a systematic problem that will not be fixed in time to save Illinois. Start packing.

Jack Jones of IL 11:37PM January 13, 2011

People and businesses will simply move out of state and the Illinois tax base will shrink. This is why raising tax rates too much, as is the case hear, never ends up increasing revenue. This is the same as a company rasing the price of its product so much that people stop buying it. Instead of getting more revenue, they go out of business. They should be cutting spending as is going on in NJ. Are you aware the the TEA in Tea Party is an acronym for Taxed Enough Already. You cannot fix a spending problem by raising taxes. People will find a way to avoid the taxes. They will either find loopholes or they will simply move. Mark my words, this will not work and Illinois will be in worse shape in a couple of years.

Stock-MD.com of FL 6:22PM January 13, 2011

Illinois raising income taxes by 66%. Come on state politicians, could you not come up with something more intelligent instead of hurting your state tax payers when most of us are struggling enough as it is. Seems like now most of my paycheck is going to the government for the mistakes the government made. Illinois is not the greatest state of our Union to live in. Time for me to move out of this crooked political state so don't count on me for giving you more of my hard earned money.

Richard E. of IL 5:24PM January 13, 2011