Promises and politics: Lawmakers consider whether to make the temporary income tax hike permanent

In 2011, Illinois lawmakers passed the largest income tax increase in the state’s history with the promise that the increase would sunset in 2015 and income tax rates would return to their previous rates.

In other words, the income tax increase was made to be temporary.

Today, on the cusp of the income tax increase coming to an end and putting hundreds of dollars back into the pockets of Illinois citizens, House Speaker Mike Madigan and Gov. Pat Quinn are rallying House Democrats to back their plan of making the temporary tax increase permanent. Madigan and Quinn’s plan breaks a promise to the people of Illinois that their taxes would be lowered, and the Democrat leaders are asking their colleagues to break their promise as well.

While Quinn and Madigan attempt to persuade House Democrats to go back on their word, House Republican Leader Jim Durkin has assured the citizens of Illinois that Republican representatives will not be supporting the Democrat leaders’ efforts. House Republicans, however, may not be alone in their opposition to broken promises. House Democrats are not an assured vote for the speaker and governor, who have had an uncharacteristically difficult time getting their members to toe the party line, and a blatant broken promise to Illinois citizens is not an easy sell.

Eleven House Democrats co-sponsored House Bill 1064, which called for the immediate end of the income tax increase, and many others have made public comments about their opposition, summed up well by State Rep. Scott Drury, D-Highland: “One way to begin restoring citizens’ trust in government is for the state to start keeping its promises and to be fiscally responsible. A major promise made to Illinois residents by both the governor and state legislators was that the recent tax increase would be temporary.”

One could look at previously sponsored legislation and comments such as Drury’s and come to the conclusion that Madigan and Quinn will have a hard time convincing their party’s House members to break their promise; but in Springfield it’s often more about politics than policy and promises. After all, it was Quinn himself who said in 2011: “This is a temporary income tax to deal with an immediate fiscal emergency our state faces, to pay the bills so we don’t have severe cutbacks in education, health care, public safety.”

Madigan and Quinn have spent weeks trying to convince Democrat members of the Illinois House to fall in line and support their measure, often offering budget perks or threatening budget cuts in individual districts. With Senate President John Cullerton all but guaranteeing that any measure to make the income tax increase permanent will pass the Democrat-heavy Senate, the weight of the vote falls on the shoulders of the second chamber.

In the end, when a vote on making the income tax increase permanent comes before the Illinois House of Representatives, each vote will stand for more than just increasing or decreasing taxes; each vote will also represent the honesty and integrity of each individual legislator. A promise was made to take the burden of government misspending off the backs of the citizens of Illinois, and soon we will find out who keeps their promises and who puts politics before policy.

- See more at: http://www.illinoispolicy.org/promises-and-politics-lawmakers-consider-whether-to-make-the-temporary-income-tax-hike-permanent/#sthash.f08uUyhM.dpuf