Quinn for Illinois

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                

For More Information, Contact Campaign Communications Director Elizabeth Austin, 708-912-2247, Elizabeth@QuinnForIllinois.com

October 19, 2009

INSTITUTE ON TAXATION AND ECONOMIC POLICY

SETS THE RECORD STRAIGHT ON QUINN PROPOSAL

CHICAGO – Setting the record straight after weeks of deceptive advertising by the Hynes campaign, the non-partisan, Washington-based Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy Monday released an analysis calling Governor Pat Quinn’s budget proposal “the most progressive, most economically sound, and most timely option available.”

In a news release, the Institute drew attention to the unfairness of Illinois’ income tax, which Governor Quinn has denounced for a decade as a “soak the middle class” tax code. 

As an immediate step to balancing the state budget and giving tax relief to lower-income taxpayers, Governor Quinn proposed a new tax plan in his March 18 budget speech that would have tripled the personal exemption.

The Institute noted that Hynes’ proposal fails to address the state’s immediate fiscal crisis and would take years to implement – if, in fact, it won necessary legislative support.

In addition to his proposal to solve the state’s immediate problems with an immediate solution, Governor Quinn is a longterm advocate for a progressive income tax. In 2003, he supported the “Taxpayer Action Amendment” to provide property tax relief to Illinois homeowners by imposing a 3 percent surtax on individuals earning more than $250,000 a year. In 2003, the Comptroller told the news media that he opposed the Taxpayer Action Amendment.

Again in 2008, Quinn called for a Constitutional Convention, citing the unfairness of the Illinois income tax code. “I don’t believe we should have flat rate income tax in Illinois,” Quinn said during a Springfield debate. “We ought to follow a principle as old as the Bible, that taxes are based on ability to pay.” In October 2008, the Comptroller was on record as opposing the Constitutional Convention.

“I applaud the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy for providing a non-partisan analysis of my record and my proposal to make Illinois taxes fairer to working families,” Quinn said. “I know that Illinois taxpayers, like me, appreciate the Institute’s solid work in setting the record straight once and for all.” 

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