The give-and-take in the Senate between Democrats wanting tax increases and Republicans wanting reforms ended on Tuesday with the liberals giving up on compromise and taking from Illinois taxpayers, Sen. Dale Righter (R-Mattoon) said.
“The framework of these discussions … from the beginning has been that this side of the aisle is willing to put votes on a tax increase in exchange for your side of the aisle being willing to support meaningful reform in workers' compensation and property tax relief,” Righter said. “That’s really been it. It’s a simple formula.”
But despite his words during the debate, Senate Bill 9 passed along party lines. If it becomes law, it would allegedly produce $5.4 billion in new tax revenue for the next fiscal year. The passage came after a lull in which Righter said the Democrats had apparently put aside the possibility of reforms.
“It’s been five days,” he said. “Five days. All of you are such in a big hurry to get this done. ‘We gotta get something over to the House right now.’ It’s been days since there has been a response to our last offer on property tax relief and workers' compensation. Five days. Last Thursday. We haven’t heard anything since then.”
SB9, introduced to the Senate by Sen. Toi Hutchinson(D-Olympia Fields), was supported by a majority of Democrats as part of the "grand bargain” package in which the Democrats agreed to offer bipartisan compromises, Righter said.
The bill would raise the individual income tax rate from 3.75 percent to 4.95 percent and the corporate rate from 5.25 percent to 7 percent, impose a 1 percent tax on cable TV and digital streaming, and create a separate 5 percent tax on satellite TV. It would allegedly balance the budget and create a $203 million surplus for the state.
However, many Republicans say they saw very little compromises or bipartisanship, including Righter, who said the entire process in rushing to pass SB9 was a “do-over.”
Sen. Kyle McCarter(R-Lebanon) called the bill punishing to taxpayers and said it would force them to leave the state. Sen. Sue Rezin (R-Morris) and Pamela Althoff (R-McHenry) expressed grave concerns, with Rezin arguing that the bill failed to include reforms that would create jobs and invigorate the economy.
Righter argued that he worries the feeling of “do-over” is not over.
“I suspect what will happen here on the floor today is what happened last week and that is you folks will get up and feel the need and express the need to say, 'Wow, we gotta get this done, and we’re gonna put our votes on the board,’ and then when you are done with that, [you’ll] come back, we will still be sitting at the table ready to talk about a bipartisan solution to these things,” Righter said.
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