All aboard for Show Us Amendment
Gov. Rod Blagojevich's revised plan for a massive new gross receipts tax on businesses leaves us wondering what other surprises are in store before a final vote takes place.
The governor left Chicago this week for a rare four-day visit to downstate Illinois (he calls it his Investing in Families Bus Tour) to tout his tax package and explain how he plans to spend the billions it will generate.
Initially, Blagojevich wanted to tax an extra $6 billion from businesses. Now he's raised the ante to $7 billion so he can offer real estate tax breaks. Higher taxes on businesses are OK, Blagojevich believes, because they don't pay their fair share anyway. Businesses, of course, dispute that.
All that money, said to be the largest tax hike in Illinois history, will go toward Blagojevich's new health care initiative, Illinois Covered, to help 1.4 million uninsured adults. He also wants more cash to improve schools.
Tax-hike opponents haven't been silent. They include the lieutenant governor, treasurer, comptroller, a growing number of lawmakers plus a cavalcade of state business groups who say average Illinoisans will be the ones paying the bill through higher prices and lost jobs.
Blagojevich's Tour de Illinois will be a mere memory when his tax hike comes to a vote, most likely as the legislative session wraps up next month. By then, it may have endured more twists and turns and bumps in the road than Blagojevich's bus.
Whatever version reaches lawmakers, we don't think it should leave Illinois citizens at a dead end.
This is a perfect example why the Show Us Amendment, put forth by the Illinois Democracy Project, is needed. This constitutional amendment, which supporters want to place on the ballot next year, would require the House and Senate to allow a 21-day period of public review for all non-emergency legislation before it is put to a vote.
It would force bills such as Blagojevich's gross receipts tax to be set aside, in their final form, for three full weeks of public scrutiny. Citizens would have a fighting chance to study bills and share their views with lawmakers before a vote. Heck, it might even allow lawmakers to actually READ every bill before a vote. (See www.showus.org for details.)
As it is, version 1.1 of Blagojevich's gross receipts tax may morph into something entirely different at the last second, then roar through the Legislature like a runaway bus, leaving dismayed citizens wondering what just happened.
Illinois residents have been stuck in the back of the legislative bus for too long. The Show Us Amendment is the public's ticket to empowerment. All it needs is your support.
