Below is an excerpt from Sunday’s Chicago Tribune Editorial, “How they failed you.”

Gov. Pat Quinn antiseptically refers to his fellow Democrats’ vote that night on the “revenue bill.” Much as he refers to the new borrowing he proposes as “restructuring.” One year later, though, stand back with us and look at all their carnage:

• Earlier this month, Moody’s Investors Service cited “weak management practices” when it awarded Illinois the nation’s lowest credit rating. Standard & Poor’s added insult to injury: “If Illinois does not make meaningful changes to further align revenue and spending and address its accumulated deficit (accounts payable and general fund liabilities) for fiscal years 2012 and 2013, we could lower the rating this year. … A downgrade could also be triggered if pension funding levels continue to deteriorate or debt levels increase significantly …”

• As David Vaught unwittingly attests, lawmakers continue to spend too much of other people’s money. Quinn’s office now expects this fiscal year’s supposedly balanced budget to finish $507 million in the red. That’s right, even with $7 billion a year in new revenue from their tax hikes, this crowd still can’t balance a budget.

Click here to read the whole thing.

By: Ashley Rhodebeck – Kane County Chronicle – January 20, 2012

GENEVA – Speaking to a roomful of representatives from several municipalities, including the Tri-Cities, state legislators Thursday morning acknowledged that pushing the state’s budget pains on local governments has got to stop…

Senger encouraged local governments to let state legislators know the burdens such [state] pensions – and their rising costs – create locally.

“That piece is not being recognized in Springfield,” she said.

Click here to read the full story.

By: David Thomas, Gatehouse News Service

Legislative leaders have made their appointments to Gov. Pat Quinn’s pension reform panel.

Named were: Sens. Michael Noland, D-Elgin, and Bill Brady, R-Bloomington, and Reps. Elaine Nekritz, D-Des Plaines, and Darlene Senger, R-Naperville. The panel will be led by Jerry Stermer, one of Quinn’s top aides…

Click here to read the whole story.

Darlene Senger E-Newsletter – January 10th, 2011

I hope that you all had a safe and healthy holiday season during these warmer than normal winter months. With that I wanted to take a brief moment to update you on a few news items that may have slipped by during the busy season as well as give you a glimpse into the upcoming legislative session.

Illinois and Jobs
During December, my House Republican colleagues and I began a strong push to roll back the Democrat imposed corporate income tax. We stood against the tax in the first place due to the undeniable impact it would have on our state’s job climate, and we have unfortunately been proved right.

Not long after the tax went into effect, huge regional employers such as Sears and the CME Group began making noise about taking their jobs elsewhere. Medium sized companies began clamoring about the negative impact, and small companies with often no voice in Springfield began feeling the pain immediately.

Soon, legislation came to the table necessary to keep several large companies, their jobs, and their tax dollars in Illinois. SB397 contained an assortment of tax credits, incentives and job supporting initiatives in addition to the massive tax breaks provided to the two largest Chicagoland employers with their foot out the door, Sears and the CME Group. Continue reading »

With jobs in mind, House Republicans call for accelerated repeal of corporate taxes

Naperville, IL… Rep. Darlene Senger (R-Naperville) and her House Republican colleagues are once again renewing their call to quickly roll back the Democrat imposed corporate income tax increase as more and more businesses threated to take their jobs across state lines.

“Two days ago, we were forced to throw big incentives at two major area employers to retain jobs in Illinois,” Senger said. “This will only keep happening if we don’t take quick action to repeal the increase in business taxes here in Illinois.”

As explained by House Republican Leader Tom Cross, House Bill 3918 takes a two-pronged approach to reducing Illinois’ business taxes:

1. Accelerates the expiration of the temporary corporate income tax increase. For income earned during calendar 2013 the rate declines from 7% to 6% and for income earned during calendar 2014 the rate would further decline to 4.8%.

2. Effective Immediately the Corporate Income Tax would be reduced by 0.25% anytime the Illinois unemployment rate increases by .3% in a four month span. For example, if the unemployment rate in January was 10% and in April it was 10.3% than this provision would take effect. At no point would the corporate income tax be less than 4.8% (the tax before Public Act 96-1496). Continue reading »