Taxation in Bethlehem & Illinois

Considering the Christmas story starts with taxation, perhaps I should not criticize the Chicago Tribune for running Diane Rado’s Christmas Day story headlined,

Income tax hike in play for schools

with a subhead reading

Bipartisan caucus faces tough battle with Blagojevich

Still, must we think of taxes on Christmas?

I didn’t, as you can see from the date this is posted.

Of course, the Tribune didn’t think the tax hike threat was as important as U.S. Senator Barak Obama’s hiring a contributor’s kid as an intern, but such are the news judgments of Tribune editors.

The tax hikers have managed to convince even a savvy reporter like Rado to call them “tax reformers.”

And, doesn’t it figure that a Republican state representative (Robert Pritchard of Hinckley) is “a former school board member and chief organizer of the education causes?”

I see Hinckley is in DeKalb County. I suggest Rep. Pritchard might want to type his zip code into this tax calculator that Rado worked up in 2004. (If the link doesn't work, tell me in a comment what your zip code is and I'll post the results.)

Just in case Rep. Pritchard doesn’t want to go to link in the above paragraph, I have copied what the tax calculator says will happen to the tax bill of the average taxpayer in Hinckley, if Senate Bill 750 became law.

It shows a net income tax increase of 13% for Hinckley taxpayers. The dollar increase is estimated to be $728.

Rado reports that one of the caucus’ main goals is to reduce reliance on local taxes for schools.

I guess the education caucus members don’t understand that he who supplies the gold rules.

Kudos to Rado for pointing out—one of the rare times print reporters have done so—that increasing the state income tax rate from 3 to 5 percentage points is a 66 percent hike (actually, it rounds to 67%).

And our hero?

Governor Rod Blagojevich is about all we have.

No Republican is quoted as being against tax hikes. Good thing she or Ray Long, who assisted with the article, didn't call Jim Edgar. Thanks to Bill Barr for pointing out his continuing role as cheerleader for higher taxes.

Doesn’t that make you feel all warm and fuzzy?

Well, maybe fuzzy.

More at McHenry County Blog.