"Illinois was more heavily taxed than the five contiguous states that border it (Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri, Iowa, Wisconsin) even before January 2011, when Quinn got a lame-duck Legislature (its successor has fewer Democrats) to raise corporate taxes 30 percent (from 7.3 percent to 9.5 percent), giving Illinois one of the highest state corporate taxes, and the fourth highest combination of national and local corporate taxation in the industrialized world. Since 2009, Quinn has spent more than $500 million in corporate welfare to bribe companies not to flee the tax environment he has created.
Quinn raised personal income taxes 67 percent (from 3 percent to 5 percent), adding about $1,040 to the tax burden of a family of four earning $60,000. Illinois' unemployment rate increased faster than any other state's in 2011. Its pension system is the nation's most underfunded, and the state has floated bond issues to finance pension contributions -- borrowing money that someday must be repaid, to replace what should have been pension money that it spent on immediate gratifications"
Illinois (and maybe California) is to America what Greece is to the EU? Pretty much the same political road to pretty much the same outcome.
Some interesting commentary on bond markets. What is going to happen when the first state---Illinois, maybe California---formally defaults on its obligation? We have seen municipalities declare bankruptcy already http://www.foxnews.com/po...tcy-in-us-history/ but nobody seems to be paying much attention to the implications---I suspect the pipeline is long, large, and full--mostly those with public sector unions..
