Illinois Defies the Bloodthirsty Austerity Vultures

Chicago may be about to commit municipal suicide by electing Rahm Emmanuel mayor, but the rest of the state is more than making up for it.

The Land of Lincoln is taking bold steps to prove both the capital punishment mouth-breathers and the plutocratic austerity vultures wrong.

David Dayen at Firedoglake:

Fifteen states agree with me, and do not give the option for the death penalty to their prosecutors. A sixteenth, Illinois, is about to join them.

Illinois was poised to become the first state since 2009 to abolish the death penalty after the state Senate approved the ban on Tuesday and sent it to Democratic Governor Pat Quinn for his signature.

The Senate vote came after House approval late last week. The Senate vote was 32-25.

Illinois has not executed anyone for more than a decade after former Republican Governor George Ryan imposed a moratorium on the death penalty in January 2000 following a series of revelations that people had been sent to Death Row who were later found to be innocent.

Illinois is also refusing to let hysterical cries for austerity destroy its economy and its residents.

From Zandar:

California has chosen to cut, cut, cut to balance its budget (and still faces a huge hole.) Illinois on the other hand is still able to raise revenues and they just did in a huge way.

Many states are struggling with anemic revenues and the prospect of an end to additional federal funds, but Illinois faces a budget deficit of as much as $15 billion, owes some $8 billion in unpaid bills to social service agencies, doctors, dentists and others, and is receiving mounting signs of worry from bond investors.

Under the legislation, the income tax rate would, at least temporarily, rise to 5 percent from its current rate of 3 percent. Lawmakers had talked about an even steeper increase, but set that aside as the hours went by and the debate grew increasingly emotional. The rate for corporate taxes would rise to 7 percent from its current rate of 4.8 percent. As part of the deal, the state’s spending growth would be limited from one year to the next over the next four years.

Gov. Patrick J. Quinn, a Democrat whose signature would be needed to make any rate increase final, has indicated in the past he believes a tax increase is necessary.

The tax hike irked Republicans in Springfield, the state capital, and business owners around the state. Again and again, Republicans argued that the state needed to make significant spending cuts to solve its deficit before it even began considering a tax increase.

On the Statehouse floor on Tuesday night, Roger L. Eddy, a Republican representative, said that lawmakers were essentially “making up for our mistakes” on the backs of taxpayers, while one state senator called it a “train wreck.” Representative David Reis, another Republican, warned of the “sucking sound” he imagined would now be heard of businesses leaving the Illinois.

The fallout of the vote remains to be seen: Will Illinois businesses really now flock to neighbors Wisconsin and Indiana as opponents have suggested? Will the increase impress investors and quickly improve the state’s sunken bond rating? And, perhaps most of all, will the change be enough to turn around the financial woes of a state where the deficit has grown to the size of half of the annual general fund?

We'll see. Republicans who forced California into draconian cuts say they had no choice. Illinois Democrats who forced a major raise in the state's income tax said they had no choice either. We're about to see a laboratory of democracy experiment in action.

Which state will recover first, if either?

I'm betting on the state that is making reality-based decisions that reflect decades of economic success from progressive taxation.

What's your secret, Illinois? What are you feeding your state legislators? And how fast can we get emergency shipments of it to Frankfort?