Springfield, IL

The budget crisis facing Washington, DC is playing out across most every state in America.  Illinois is no exception.

Last week, Governor Quinn proposed a 33% increase in the state income tax rate, from 3% to 4%.  Democratic House Speaker, Michael Madigan, immediately said the tax increase was a non-starter.

The spending mess in Springfield is a quagmire.  Draconian cuts will only make up part of the deficit spending.  So why is Madigan opposed to tax increases?

A non-partisan friend in the state Capitol (Yes, I do have non-partisan friends) tells me that Madigan will refuse any tax increase until after the fall election.  Consensus among Democrat leaders is that this fall will be a "national bloodbath" for Democrats.  And that's without adding the pain of a tax increase to Illinois voters.

Madigan's goal has never wavered.  It's not about the state finances. It's not about promoting a liberal or conservative agenda.  It's about him remaining as the House Speaker.  Toward that end, he simply refuses to do anything, politically, that will risk his speakership. 

So the state will have to wait until after the election to tackle the politically touchy issue of a tax increase.

In the meantime, a growing number of Illinois residents are relocating to Florida for the income and estate tax benefits.  Each tax increase in the state, only serves to speed up the exodus.  

And apparently, leaving a state to avoid taxes is not just for well healed Republicans.  Take a guess who had their legal residence changed to Florida to avoid estate taxes?
  
Answer: The mother of all Kennedys - Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy.   That's right.  The Kennedy children successfully argued that the matriarch of their family was a resident of Florida to avoid Massachusetts' burdensome estate taxes, when she passed away.  
    
    "If it's good enough for the Kennedy's, then it must be good enough for the rest of us!"
 

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