Tax proposal come along hard way

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) — A drive to raise Illinois taxes Movado Bold dramatically seemed to be stuck in "park" Sunday as Democratic leaders came and went without comment and legislators waited for hours.

Gov. Pat Quinn met Sunday afternoon with the Illinois Senate president and House speaker to strategize on their efforts to raise income taxes and sales taxes. All three left through back exits after the meeting rather than answer questions.

Quinn, cornered by reporters as he tried to leave the Coach Scarf  Capitol through a basement exit, would say only that he's "working hard" to pass a plan that will rescue state government from its paralyzing financial crisis.

A House session scheduled for mid-afternoon was delayed for hours.

"Are the political will and votes there to do it or not? At this stage, I don't know the answer," said Rep. Joseph Lyons, a Chicago Democrat and a member of House Speaker Michael Madigan's leadership team.

Lyons called the tax issue a "potential career-ending vote" for House members.

Democrats are considering a power balance plan to boost the 3 percent income tax rate to 5.25 percent for four years, a 75 percent increase. They're also looking at a dollar-a-pack increase in cigarette taxes, more than double the current rate.

Together, the increases would produce about $7.5 billion a year, backers say. The money would be used in several ways: to close the gap between annual government costs and revenues, to provide money for education and property tax relief, and to finance borrowing about $8 billion to pay off the state's backlog of overdue bills.

After four years, the income tax rate would drop, although not all the way back to current levels. With officials still negotiating, it was unclear how much the rate would drop.

Supporters of the tax increase argue it must be Coach Outlet part of the solution to a budget deficit that could hit $15 billion this year. The deficit is so large that the government is borrowing money to make its annual contribution to retirement systems and is months behind in paying bills.

Democratic leaders want to pass something before the current General Assembly formally ends Wednesday at noon. After that, they lose some of their Democratic majority as well as "lame duck" legislators who might be persuaded to support a tax increase as they leave office.

"Time is running short," said Rep. Lou Lang of Skokie, another member of House leadership.

Lang said a vote on this tax plan would be the second-most important vote of his career, behind only the vote to impeach Gov. Rod Blagojevich. Lang said he wants a tax increase that would hurt taxpayers and businesses as little as possible while still putting the state back on sound financial footing.

"If we're going to do this, we ought to do it right," Lang said.