Gov. Quinn touts job creation in his state of the state address, but Republican leaders wonder why the governor hardly mentioned the depths of Illinois' fiscal crisis. Carol Marin brings us the latest from Springfield on Chicago Tonight at 7:00 pm.
You can listen to the audio of Quinn's full address and reaction in the Audio Attachments below, and read the full transcript in the PDF below.
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Despite God knows how much
Despite God knows how much money the state spends, they aren't able to put the state of the state speech on YouTube? Maybe that's good...maybe Quinn and the Madigans don't want taxpayers to see how clueless they are about the fiscal crisis.
Tax pension EARNINGS
I would like to know why the IRS at the federal level, and the IDR at the state level, don't assess imputed income taxes on the earnings implicit in some of these pension deals.
That would be a tax on EARNINGS, not on the pension...constitutional.
Just as you must pay a tax on forgiveness of debt, such as if a bank writes down a loan balance, why aren't people who 'contribute' 7% of 2 weeks pay in return for a stream of payments, a pension, that would cost over a $1 million to buy today, not taxed on that $1 million in EARNINGS?
Similarly, health costs paid for by employers through HSA are limited to $3,000 or so per year; what is the value of the promised health insurance coverage made by the state for its employee's covered by retirement medical plans? More than $3,000 per year? Then why aren't they taxed on those EARNINGS?
The speech offered only spending, not cuts, not solutions, and not any resolutions to the state's $100 billion liability for retirement costs.
Before we spend one more dollar on any new or expanded program, I think we need to deal with the $100 billion monster in the room first.
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