Hello Mayor Daley ... About Your Plan to Poach Business from Oregon and Other States: No Business Owners in Their Right Mind Would Move to Illinois

Mayor Daley had a plan to persuade businesses to come to Illinois. Unfortunately for Illinois, it was a horrendously executed plan. Mayor Daley forgot to lift a finger in the last election against Governor Quinn.

Now Daley is whining.

This is a piss poor time to be whining about higher taxes. Had Daley made any appropriate remarks regarding tax hikes by Quinn before the election, Illinois would have had a different governor.

About That Plan ...

Oregon Live reports So much for Chicago talk of poaching Oregon business

In the wake of the Measure 66 and 67 tax increases approved by Oregon voters a year ago, Chicago Mayor Richard Daley quickly said he'd be recruiting Oregon businesses to move to his own supposedly more business-friendly city.

Wonder what Daley is saying now that Illinois legislators have approved a stunning 66 percent increase in the state's income tax?

Here's some of the fine print, if you want to more deeply compare the two states: Under the new bill, the Illinois personal income-tax rate - 5 percent - will still be much lower than Oregon's. But Illinois has high sales taxes. In 2008, just as the recession was first hitting, the total state and local tax burden in Illinois $4,346 per capita compared to $3,719 in Oregon, according to the Tax Foundation. Because Oregon had a lower per capita income, however, Illinois residents paid 9.3 percent of their income in state and local taxes and Oregonians paid 9.4 percent.

Blatant Lies By Governor Quinn

The Daily Herald notes that On the campaign trail, Gov. Pat Quinn told voters he'd veto any income tax hike that would raise Illinois' rate over 4 percent.

I believe this is one of the fastest proven lies political history.

Sales Taxes

Illinois has a middle of the road sales tax, at least until you consider various local surtaxes.

Here is a nice table from Wikipedia.



Home Rule

With "Home Rule" Illinois has the top sales tax rate in the nation.

With that, inquiring minds might be wondering about "Home Rule". To help explain, please consider the following snip courtesy of the Illinois Department of Revenue.

Depending upon the location of the sale, the actual sales tax rate may be higher than the fundamental rate because of home rule, non-home rule, water commission, mass transit, park district, and county public safety sales taxes.

Lovely, isn't it. Note that sales taxes may rise because of home rule or non-home rule.

Businesses moving into Illinois just might beware of moving into cities or counties with high "Home Rules".

Which places might that be?

Well Mayor Daley's Cook County of course, but it could be anywhere.

Gasoline Taxes January 2011



Diesel Taxes January 2011



Gasoline and Diesel Charts courtesy of the American Petroleum Institute.

Truckers, Take The South Central Route

As a courtesy to my trucker friends, it appears avoiding fillups in California, Illinois, Indiana, New York, and Pennsylvania is of paramount concern.



My advice to Wisconsin would be to drop Diesel taxes to match Missouri's 41.7 in order to secure the Northern fillup route.

Any trucker going cross country and filling up in Illinois, Indiana, New York, or Pennsylvania is clearly nuts. Truckers probably know this, but state legislatures don't.

Property Taxes

Fiscal insanity goes beyond massive personal income and corporate tax hikes. Cities in Illinois have among the highest property taxes in the nation. I pay over $14,000 a year on a home I think I could sell for $600,000.

Bear in mind about four years ago I challenged the assessment (and won), which reduced my taxes to about $12,500. My taxes are now back up to over $14,000. Does anyone think property valuations have risen in the last four years?

Gubernatorial Bribery, Corruption - Elect, Indict, Repeat

Illinois Issues Online is asking Will democracy, Illinois style, ever change?

Illinois' reputation for corruption is well-documented. Nine men have served as governor in the past 50 years. Two — Democrat Otto Kerner and Republican George Ryan — were convicted of crimes they committed while in office. (Ryan is appealing his conviction.) Democrat Dan Walker also was imprisoned after he left office, but for crimes unconnected to his tenure as governor. And Republican William Stratton was indicted for tax evasion in connection to his use of campaign funds, but he was ultimately acquitted.

As Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich begins his second term, federal investigations of his administration's hiring and contract practices continue. His fundraiser and political adviser Antoin "Tony" Rezko has been indicted for an influence-peddling scheme. Though Blagojevich has not been charged with any wrongdoing himself, based on the persistent federal prosecutor's previous record, it's fair to say that could change. It is possible, in other words, that the majority of Illinois governors who served during the past half century could end up being indicted on corruption charges.

That so many Illinoisans at state government's apex have been accused of crime raises the question of whether there is a culture of corruption.

Culture of Corruption

That article is from 2007 and is clearly out of date. Blagojevich was convicted on one of 24 counts so add Blago to the convicted list. He stands retrial on 23 deadlocked charges after a Judge Refuses to Overturn Rod Blagojevich Conviction.

That story is as of October 27, 2010. How Blago escaped conviction on 23 other charges is quite a mystery to me.

The official score is 3 out of the last 10 Illinois governors were convicted of crimes while in office and a 4th convicted after he left. A 5th was charged and acquitted.

Can any other state match that?

About That Corporate Tax Hike

Illinois hiked its corporate tax rate to 7% from the current 4.8%. Several people sent emails stating that 7% did not sound so bad.

However, they failed to consider that Illinois collects from all businesses a 2.5 percent "personal property replacement tax".

As a result of the decision, small businesses will now be paying a tax rate of 7 percent, up from the current 4.8 percent. However, added together with the 2.5 percent personal property replacement tax Illinois mandates, business owners' tax burden will now reach 9.5 percent.

"This will hurt business in the state," Steven Slack, president of Home State Bank, told the Northwest Herald. “I know several manufacturing clients being courted by other states; they could leave and take all those jobs with them.”

No Business In Their Right Mind Would Move To Illinois

If you were a business owner would you want to move to Illinois in the face of huge corporate tax hikes, a whopping 67% personal income tax hike, massive property taxes, and a tax prone political liar as governor?

For every incoming business (they will all be trumped up), there will be dozens of corporate downsizings, and several complete exoduses (with little to no fanfare).

Illinois desperately needs jobs. However, a culture of corruption and high taxes is driving them away.

What You Can Do About It

If you are fed up with corruption, vote buying, and massive tax hikes then you need to take a stand.

Campaign To Recall Illinois Governor Pat Quinn Underway

My Campaign To Recall Illinois Governor Pat Quinn Is Underway

I have exciting news this morning. I am launching a campaign to recall Illinois governor Pat Quinn.

This is not a frivolous effort. It is a serious undertaking and one in which I intend to see to the end. It will take hard work and lots of volunteers but we will be successful.

I need volunteers to ...

• Gather signatures
• Talk to state legislative representatives to get them on board
• Provide legal help
• Design a website
  
• Help with advertising
  

We need to be successful because Governor Quinn has plans that will destroy Illinois.

Will You Stand Up To The Injustice?

There are many tasks to be performed and I will need volunteers from every county to gather signatures. I estimate we need about 520,000 signatures. My goal is to get 700,000.

If you can volunteer, time, web design, advertising, legal help, or any kind of general assistance, I would appreciate it. We need to put a stop to Quinn's proposals that will drive businesses and jobs out of the state and massively raise your taxes as part of the bargain.

Call To Action

I wrote the above call to action post on Sunday, January 9, 2011. Since then I have had over 200 volunteers (up from a hundred a couple days ago). I have 10 web designers, 3 lawyers (up from 1), and numerous business owners volunteer as well.

Work on a website is underway. I have secured the appropriate domain names. One business owner who employs about 100 people graciously volunteered services of his legal department.

This is going to be a long slug, no doubt about it. Yet other than leave the state, there is little else we can do. I do need business owners to contact their legislative representatives and pressure them to sign the petition to Recall Quinn.

There are 118 state representatives and 59 state senators. To get started, all we need are 20 reps (10 each party), and 10 senators (5 each party), before we start the signature gathering process.

Please contact your representatives and get them on board. In the meantime, please email Recall Governor Pat Quinn Today (RecallQuinnToday@gmail.com) and lend your support to the effort to save the state of Illinois from Quinn's fiscal recklessness.

Please state in the email what you can do to help. If you live in Illinois or have friends in Illinois, please email this article to them.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
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