Monday, January 10, 2011 4:37 AM

Campaign To Recall Illinois Governor Pat Quinn 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

I will pay for website hosting and domain names.

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

Massive Tax Hikes Will Drive Businesses Out Of Illinois

The Chicago Tribune reports Governor Quinn has reached a deal with top Democratic lawmakers including Senate President John Cullerton to .... http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2011 ... e-tax-hike

* Hike the state income tax by 75%, from 3% to 5.25%
* Hike the corporate income tax rate by 75% from 4.8% to 8.4%
* Hike the cigarette tax by $1 a pack
* Use the tax hikes to borrow more money to fund pension plans


The Tribune notes "As a measure of how desperate state government's finances are, Cullerton said the state would use the income-tax hike to borrow $12.2 billion. Of that, $8.5 billion would pay overdue bills and $3.7 billion would cover a government worker pension payment lawmakers skipped when putting together the current budget, he said."

Raising corporate and personal income taxes to borrow $12.2 billion is not "desperation", it is fiscal insanity. It will drive businesses out of Illinois and push many struggling taxpayers into bankruptcy.

Quinn is unlikely to get all of those measures passed, but it does not matter. Those are his intentions and they they show his blatant incompetence and disregard for both taxpayers and businesses. Moreover, he will try again.

Enough Is Enough

John Tillman at the Illinois Policy Institute says ... http://us1.campaign-archive.com/?u=7fe2 ... c037f099ab

Amazingly, the deal will also hike the corporate income tax rate. Combined with the personal property replacement tax and the federal corporate tax, Illinois would have one of the HIGHEST corporate income tax rates in the world. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure out this means bad news for job growth in Illinois.

With high property taxes, high sales taxes and now high income taxes, the flight to low-tax states will only pick up speed.
Enough is enough.

Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels On Quinn's Plan

The Illinois Policy Institute is not the only one who thinks Governor Quinn's proposal would be horrid for Illinois. So does Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels according to The Northwest Times of Indiana. http://www.herald-review.com/news/state ... 002e0.html

"We already had an edge on Illinois in terms of the cost of doing business, and this is going to make it significantly wider," Daniels said.

The Tax Foundation, a nonpartisan tax research group in Washington, noted if the proposed corporate tax hike becomes law, Illinois businesses will pay the highest combined national-local corporate tax rate in the industrialized world.

That is the wrong course for Illinois to take, Daniels said.

"It does show that you can make very different choices, and the contrast between the choice we've made and the one they have is stark," he said. "Obviously I think ours is wiser, but self-governance means people get what they vote for."

Indeed, people get what they vote for, but how did Quinn win?

Governor Quinn Bought The Election

Governor Quinn barely won the election against a very weak opponent in spite of an amazing 85% vote turnout for Quinn in Chicago. Sadly, Mayor Daley did nothing to stop this, although the mayor is complaining mightily now about the Governor's proposals.

“It’s worth remembering that Governor Quinn only found one program—out of thousands—to veto outright when he signed this year’s spending bill in July. Had he taken a closer look at structural spending reforms and not agreed to politically motivated “no layoff and closureâ€