This is no surprise as other Republican governors have tried this tactic of lowering or keeping taxes at their current levels rather than raising them and are facing large budget deficits. Two in particular are in a crisis mode via projected deficits swamping income.
And until the Illinois Legislature is not under firm control of the Democrats, the budget problems will only get worse before they get better.
Tax and spend Democrats leave lots in their wake. Illinois is just another example.
I’ve lived in Illinois long enough to have a very pessimistic view of any rational solution happening. Mr. Madigan, the Speaker of the state Assembly, is the real power, and he is not going to be swayed by realities, nor find a rational, centrist solution. Spending needs serious trimming and more precise targeting. Tax increases are inevitable, to honor commitments previously made, no matter how irrational, and must be faced straight on. We need rational decisions as to what to do in common through state action and what to do individually. Transport, whether rail or road infrastructure, has been inadequately funded for years. But I don’t see the current political class, regardless of party, to being up to the challenge. It’s far easier to generate meaningless slogans and posture in the run-up to the next election.
Illinois is in deep financial trouble. The Democrats seem to be unwilling to accept the need for cuts and the Republicans seem unwilling to try to raise revenue. However, I still have some hope that Rauner and the Democrats can negotiate a reasonable compromise that includes restoring the rail funding. The money for Amtrak, especially, is an insignificant part of the total budget deficit. I am encouraged that Rauner is not proposing zero funding for Amtrak.
This is just the logical bottom of the cliff Illinois has been going over for a long time.
People get the government they deserve.
What you fail to realize (or admit) Mr. Hinton, is that the Democrats in firm control in Springfield are the reason that Illinois is in the mess that it is, and it will remain so until the Democrats are finally booted out of
Springfield…
My firm conviction is and always has been that you get what you pay for. To improve the public’s conditions you have to reduce spending or raise taxes. There’s no other way. Reducing spending hurts somebody somewhere. Raising taxes on those who can afford them – in particular the wealthy but also the middle class – is a more humane answer. And someone on this forum has already said it well: Elections do matter, and their outcome will be felt by the majority of constituents in one way or another for ages to come.
So sad to see these old industrial states elect these clowns. Wisconsin, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio and now Illinois are now vying to become the new Mississippi. All paid for by the Koch brothers of Texas.
As the article rightly points out, you get less bang for your buck with reduced spending. So strictly from a budget perspective, you either have to eliminate funding all together, keep it the same, or increase it.
That this problem keeps happening, (passenger rail funding being threatened with cuts because of government budget defecits) underscores the need for a different approach: funding based on set metrics such as economic activity and funds availability, fares and other operational revenue collected, congestion easement on other modes, etc. To single out the taxpayer (regardless of how wealthy they may be) is not an acceptable metric: there is no accountability as to how beneficial the service is in general, much less to those being forced to pay for it. We live in a free country after all (at least we used to). And even if that weren’t a problem, don’t think those being forced to pay the taxes for such service aren’t more concerned with how much they’re paying than with the beneficiaries. They hold the purse strings and have at least some power to say, “no more.” And then what do you do with your money loosing train service?
Ideally, passenger fares and other operating revenue should cover all expenses, just as it does in any other business, but at the very least, the metrics I mentioned above would go a long way to alleviating the funding problem when government coffers are thin.
And how about this idea for revenue: voluntary corporate sponsorship? Corporations that benefit the most from the service, or benefit through advertising including bragging rights, could be solicited to contribute significant funds.
Statistically more or more younger people such as the ‘millennials’ are not as interested to drive due to increase costs or purchasing, operating and maintaining a private vehicle. There is an increase percentage of them are becoming more into city slickers and spending time for more entertainment in their own city rather than fleeing out-of-town on weekends. This is the reason why condos are spraying around so many large urban centers. Public transit is now more of a priority than ever rather than building more Interstates where most of them were planned in the wrong direction for populate centers. Let`s use the tax dollars for its reasonable use.
A myopic governor whose extreme wealth means he does not need, want nor even acknowledge public transit. The same is true for civil servants ranging from college professors to snowplow drivers to teachers. Rauner, who paid big money to get his daughter into Walter Payton Prep and then Dartmouth (Source: Crain’s Chicago Business) is the drum major for Illinois’ “Race to the Bottom.”
Ok. If this governor wants to make cuts. Then, he should cut funding for high ways as well. After all, fair is fair. I wonder how much this governor is beholden to the Koch brothers?
I smell the filthy rat of the caSINos industry pushing for that Illiana Toll road and Peotone Airport to be built. The Illiana toll road will be going through an Indian reservation and an area by the Illinois River where caSINos will want to build so they can duck all the taxes they falsely claim will bring in huge bundles of money. Toll roads are a non-starter and both Illinois and Indiana need to ax the Illiana project, which is sucking out most of the money for highway funds in both states; and the same needs to be done to the Peotone airport project.
Continued degrading of the middle class by the one per cent.