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SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — “It matters, particularly for small businesses, to invest in education,” said Ralph Martire, who heads the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability. “Small businesses hire primarily from the local labor market. They need their local schools to produce quality workers with literacy and numeracy skills.”
Martire says Illinois cannot pay more for education if the state rolls back the 2011 “temporary” tax.
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The Center for Tax and Budget Accountability said its study showed property taxes are a bigger burden for businesses than income taxes. Martire said the group’s study shows that corporate income taxes comprise just 8 percent of the business tax burden in Illinois. The burden is just less than 5 percent for the many small businesses that pay income taxes under personal rather than corporate rates, he said.
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On April 7, 2014, the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability (CTBA) released a new report, Good for Business: How Illinois Can Best Support Small Business, which highlights the best practices and policy initiatives decision makers could take to support small businesses in Illinois.
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Quinn says Illinois can’t afford to let tax hike expire
Gov. Pat Quinn presented his annual budget address March 26 at the Capitol. In the 25-minute speech, Quinn emphasized his plan to stabilize revenues and prevent deep spending cuts in Illinois for the 2014-2015 fiscal year and future years. The crux of that plan is keeping the individual income tax at its present rate of 5 percent.
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The $250 million annual property tax increase that Mayor Rahm Emanuel wants to shore up two of Chicago's dangerously underfunded pension funds could almost double if he reaches similar deals to restructure other equally troubled retirement plans, according to a Crain's estimate.
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In his state budget address Wednesday, Gov. Pat Quinn said keeping the tax hike is a hard choice – and some question if it is the right choice.
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As I often remind you, Illinois is in a world of financial hurt. Liberals say we have a revenue problem, conservatives say we have a spending problem. Both sides make convincing cases for their beliefs.
I tend to be one who says our state needs to trim spending instead of ask for more
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Proponents say moving to a graduated rate from a single tax rate for all would help the middle class and small businesses and fix the state's budget problems.
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Local chapters of the League of Women Voters Illinois in both Jo Daviess and Stephenson counties are sponsoring a speaking tour for Ralph Martire, executive director of the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability (CTBA) Chicago.
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CPS CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett sounded the fiscal crisis alarm on Wednesday and made clear that the district would like the same pension changes applied to CPS teachers that the state imposed on other public employees.
Next year, CPS will owe the Chicago Teachers Pension Fund $696 million,