Political Rewind: Taxpayers on the Hook for $30K a Day for Extra Session Days

Editor's Note: This article was created by aggregating news articles from Illinois Statehouse News that were written by various Illinois Statehouse News reporters.

Dems, GOP push plans to roll back biz tax hikes sooner

More tax relief could be on the way with those paying the corporate income tax benefiting. 

Less than 24 hours after the Illinois Legislature approved $350 million worth of tax breaks for businesses and low-income earners, some lawmakers want to roll back the corporate tax to 4.8 percent, faster than outlined in the temporary income tax increase legislation passed in January. 

House Republicans and Democrats say they want to decrease the tax to keep or lure businesses in Illinois, so they will create jobs in a state with more than 10 percent unemployment statewide. 

“The approach we have with respect to taxes on businesses is not working,” state Rep. Tom Cross, R-Oswego, said at a Wednesday news conference. 

But the personal income tax will remain at 5 percent, 67 percent higher than the original 3 percent before the January hike, until it expires in 2014 or legislators take action in the upcoming session to spread that tax relief to the individual taxpayers. 

State Rep. Jerry Costello II, D-Smithon, the main sponsor of the Democratic proposal, said repealing the corporate income tax increase sooner is extremely important.

IL could shoulder debt from faltering tuition program

Illinois may have to take responsibility for another huge debt.College Illinois! administrators and lawmakers are talking about ways in which the state can rescue the badly underfunded pre-paid college tuition program.

A report released Monday shows College Illinois! with a March 2011 deficit topping $559 million, an increase of $28 million since June 2010. College Illinois! officials began their review in April, but they did not deliver the long overdue report until this week.

State Rep. Jim Durkin, R-Western Springs, said Illinois may have an obligation to the families who believe their investments into College Illinois! would guarantee a college education for their children.

“I’m not going to use the word bailout,” Durkin said. “But I believe there is going to have to be a discussion as to what the state of Illinois’ responsibility is to this program.”

Parents and grandparents purchased future tuition at current prices, which College Illinois! was expected to invest so that amount would increase to correspond with anticipated tuition hikes the year the child actually attended a given state university.

College Illinois! was marketed in such a way, Durkin said, that many families believed the state would back the program if College Illinois! ever ran short. When the pre-paid tuition began experiencing financial problems, those families learned that there was no state guarantee.

Durkin leads a task force investigating the Illinois Student Assistance Commission, or ISAC, which operates College Illinois!.

Quinn talks about tax breaks

Shortly after the Illinois Legislature approved $350 million in annual tax breaks for businesses and low-income earners, Gov. Pat Quinn said during a news conference Tuesday that he will sign off on the plan. 

The deal was struck after CME Group and Sears Corp. threatened to leave the state for greener financial pastures. 

The deal gives CME Group and Sears $100 million in annual tax breaks. It also increases the Earned Income Tax Credit for low-income earners and ties the standard income tax exemption to inflation.

The moves will cost the state $75 million in tax revenue next year.

Taxpayers on hook for $30K a day for extra IL session days

Illinois taxpayers have been hit up twice to cover the cost of extra session days for state lawmakers, but the extra days are not cheap.

Illinois’ 177 lawmakers are paid $111 in per diem expenses and 39-cents per mile for any extra session day, when legislators are called back to the state Capitol after the fall veto session.

There have been three such days this year:

• Nov. 29 for the House and Senate;
• Dec. 12 for the House;
• Dec. 13 for the Senate.

Multiplying 177 lawmakers by $111 plus mileage puts the cost of each extra session day between $20,000 and $30,000. Illinois lawmakers also collect a base salary of nearly $68,000 a year.

Brad Hahn, a spokesman for the Illinois Comptroller’s office, said the state has so far paid only the state House for Nov. 29. The total was $26,587.85 for $12,543 in per diem expenses and $14,044.85 for mileage. 

Only 113 of 118 state representatives attended the Nov. 29 session.