In Illinois, a huge tax hike has many residents and businesses still concerned about their future. Wednesday, legislators passed a 66-percent income tax hike, along with a corporate tax hike.
That has several of our larger manufacturers debating their stay in Illinois.
Saturday, we spoke with State Senator John Sullivan (D-Rushville).
In recent interviews, he's spoken for the need to pass a tax hike along with cuts. Yet, when it came to actually voting for this one, he voted no.
"I felt as I looked at it and examined it and studied the legislation, that first of all, yes there are some cuts in it, but not enough to justify the very large tax increase," said Sen. Sullivan.
Sen.Sullivan says he'd hoped for the passing of a gaming bill that would have brought in $1-billion in new revenue. That bill did not pass. But had it, Sullivan says we could have seen less of a tax hike.
Now, Republican lawmakers say they're going to have a tough time keeping the Democrats under a tight watch.
We spoke with Illinois Representative Jil Tracy, who also voted down the recent tax hike.
"When people are in a recession, when businesses are trying to keep their door open, the last thing you want to do is raise their taxes. And especially for the inept spending of the state. I don't see it getting any better. To think that we're going to quit spending and over spending, I have a hard time believing that," said Rep. Tracy.
Rep. Tracy says her new focus now is to make sure Illinois lawmakers widdle away at their debt.
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