Tax increase plans jeopardize Illinois' future

Tom Cross reports:

As Illinois sits on the brink of recession, Illinois Democrats are defying all economic intuition by raising taxes on consumers and employers. In the past three months, Democrats have raised the sales tax in Cook County twice. This month, they have proposed an increase in the state's income tax, an increase in the state payroll tax and a multitude of other burdensome regulatory fee increases and taxes that will ultimately cost Illinois families and businesses billions of dollars.

These actions come in direct contrast to the action being taken on the federal level to avoid a recession. The bi-partisan economic stimulus package approved by Congress is designed to provide families with tax rebates to spur more consumer spending and greater confidence in the economy.The tragic irony in Illinois is that while the federal government seeks to give families more of their money back, Illinois Democrats merely viewed it as an opportunity to seize even more of our money through higher sales taxes.

There is a real human impact to the tax increases enacted by Illinois Democrats.

First and foremost, they run in direct opposition to the recession-fighting plan the federal government is enacting and risk making Illinois the first state to fall into an economic recession.

Secondly, they continue the downward-spiral of job loss in Illinois. Since 2003, when Illinois Democrats took control of Illinois government, Illinois has lost 63,000 manufacturing jobs. Illinois currently ranks 45th in the nation in job growth and we continue to see major employers in Illinois reduce their operations or move entirely out-of-state.

In Illinois big government is a way of life.