By Illinois Radio Network
SPRINGFIELD – Lawmakers from opposite sides of the aisle have introduced measures they said will help avoid a repeat of what they characterize as the biggest tax hike ever in Illinois history, which is something that happened during the lame-duck session of 2011.
A lame-duck session has outgoing lawmakers voting on measures with simple majorities necessary to pass a bill, something that can happen following a scheduled veto session and before the next session of lawmakers takes the oath in January.
State Rep. David McSweeney’s, R-Barrington Hills, House resolution calls on lawmakers to oppose considering any income tax increase during a lame-duck session.
“Raising the income tax will kill jobs, it will hurt small businesses, it will again drive more people and families out of this state,” McSweeney said. “We should never adopt an income tax increase. We should be cutting spending in this state.”
Outgoing state Rep. Jack Franks, D-Marengo, said there’s other tax hike talk in the air, including “new taxes on services, plus taxes on sugary drinks and a whole host of new taxes.”
Franks, a lame-duck legislator who didn’t run for another term, proposed a constitutional amendment that would require that any tax-increase effort during a lame-duck session get a three-fifths majority, not a simple majority.
Franks said lame ducks aren’t accountable when bad things happen.
“For every other time outside of May 31, you need to have a supermajority of votes to get anything done. It’s only during this little window when people can be promised lots of goodies, and lots of bad things can happen,” Franks said.
Franks said that after the 2011 temporary tax increase, some lame-duck lawmakers that supported the increase were then given jobs within then-Gov. Pat Quinn’s administration.
Both hope their bills will be heard in committee, then on the floor, to get lawmakers on record this week.
