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Friday, Jun 10, 2011
* A recent Wall Street Journal editorial contains a horribly fatal flaw…
llinois gained nationwide notoriety in January when Governor Pat Quinn signed into law a 67% hike in the personal income tax rate while lifting the corporate tax rate to 9.5%, the fourth highest in the nation. How is that working out?
The good news is that corporate tax receipts in Springfield are up by about $300 million amid the economic recovery—though the state comptroller’s office announced in April that the state still faces $8 billion in unpaid bills. The bad news is that, according to the state’s Department of Commerce, Illinois has already shelled out some $230 million in corporate subsidies to keep more than two dozen companies from fleeing the state. And more are on the way.
Illinois has most definitely not “already shelled out some $230 million in corporate subsidies” this year. Those subsidies will be handed out over time, as many as ten years in the case of Motorola Mobility. So subtracting a decade-long subsidy from five months of corporate tax receipts to make some sort of a point is just beyond ridiculous. |