Quinn: Approve Tax Increase Or Face 'Doomsday Budget'
CHICAGO (AP) -- After 100 days on the job, Gov. Pat Quinn knows the next three weeks could matter the most.
That's how long Quinn has before the legislative session ends May 31 to convince lawmakers to tackle his packed agenda: overhauling ethics laws, passing a capital construction bill and approving a budget balanced by a 50 percent bump in the state income tax rate.
"We have work to do. We can't just run in place and expect manna to arrive from heaven - it will not. We have to pay the bills," Quinn said Friday during a press conference at the downtown state office building where he works.
Calling himself the state's quarterback, Quinn said he was optimistic a coalition of lawmakers would eventually come together to pass a budget with enough money to pay the state's bills.
He's counting on a doomsday budget to scare lawmakers into realizing they need to support a tax increase.
The governor indicated Friday his administration was beginning to give lawmakers a glimpse at what a doomsday budget would look like.
"The doomsday budget is very, very dangerous for our state. It will harm our state. It will harm people, very vulnerable people, in our state. And I don't want to ever have a doomsday budget, I think that's the wrong way to go," Quinn said. He declined to give details.
Quinn called his budget proposal the blue print for dealing with at least an $11.6 billion deficit, but some lawmakers are not completely convinced, including powerful state Sen. President John Cullerton, a fellow Democrat.
"He has said in the past and still believes that some form of tax increase is still inevitable, but Quinn's plan in its current form has little support in the caucus," said Cullerton's spokeswoman Rikeesha Phelon.
Quinn said Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan "agrees with the basic outline" of his tax plan. The governor said Madigan encouraged him to talk to Democratic House members about his budget plan. Quinn offsets his tax increase with healthy tax breaks for the poor and working class.
A Madigan spokesman said the speaker has said "he would be for a tax increase that would pay the bills and balance the budget."
Democrats control the Legislature, but state Rep. David Miller said it's hard to say whether the tax increase Quinn wants will fly.
"There are a lot of members on our side of the aisle that are hesitant in supporting any type of tax increase," Miller said, indicating that could change when lawmakers are asked to make cuts to balance the budget.
Tax increases can be political suicide, but Quinn, who inherited his job when Rod Blagojevich was removed from office, isn't concerned his actions could cost him a full term in office in next year's election.
But Quinn knows he won't emerge unscathed as he navigates the political land mines to try to get accomplished what he wants done.
"I'm sure I'll have scars. I think anybody who is in the arena, as Teddy Roosevelt would say, is going to be scarred. But I think if those scars are for the public interest and the common good, that's a good thing," he said.
-ASSOCIATED PRESS
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| 05/ 8/09 09:08 PM