Fresh from his announcement of Illinois’ plan to fleece residents with an income tax hike necessary because state lawmakers are bereft of the slightest understanding of the term “fiscal restraint,” Governor Pat Quinn laughed in the faces of taxpayers by following up the tax increase with his signing of the “Illinois Religious Freedom Protection and Civil Union Act.” The bill adds Illinois to the handful of states permitting couples in civil unions to benefit from their relationships in the same fashion as married folks.
The January 31, 2011 press release accompanying the signing of the bill is insulting to anyone unfortunate enough to conduct their life or business in Illinois. Despite the PR blather and the act’s self-justifying title, forcing taxpayers and employers to fund benefits for partners engaged in civil unions is a giveaway that has little to do with religious freedom or equality. Given Illinois’ precarious financial situation, one wonders whether the push to sign the bill was intended to either retain residents, or to lure new taxpayers to the state. The bill covers opposite-sex as well as same-sex unions, but it has been criticized as a gateway gay marriage measure. For purposes of expense, Illinois would have been better off had it only applied to same-sex relationships. According to the press release, “thousands” of state residents are affected, though precisely how is not explained. If the reference includes the expansion of benefits, particularly public employee benefits, “thousands” is a daunting figure, given that Illinois is the poster child for the movement to permit state bankruptcies.
The law will require many employers offering spouse health insurance benefits to provide those benefits to civil union partners. Public employee benefits are a large part of what drove Illinois down the road to ruin, and officials have not been clear as to the potential cost, in part because no one knows how many civil unions there are. It is wholly irrelevant whether this bill is right, just, moral, or necessary. The state’s residents and businesses cannot afford one more dime of expense. State officials admit that the income tax increase will not solve Illinois’ problems. Lawmakers should be considering what expenses they will cut next, instead of coming up with ways for the state and its residents to spend more of what they do not have.
Don’t fix the problem of state debt, just provide more benifits to those that vote for the politicians that enact these benefit bills. The answer to this is to have a tax revolt by not paying your taxes on tax day or anyother time. Bankruptcy is also an answer to this problem in that you can’t get something from nothing.
Most legislators have never run a business or held a job in the private sector. They have made a career of holding office starting at the local level and working their way up in the state. It seems they are only interested in giving benefits to more and more groups regardless of the cost to the taxpayer or expense to the state. Providing benefits to voters assures them of a vote so they can remain in office for years. When will our elected officials start looking at the enormous debt we have in Illinois and ways to pay it down. The idea of raising taxes on businesses will only force many to cut back or move out of state. Increasing the taxes on citizens will give them less money to purchase goods and services. Unless the lawmakers get serious about cutting, Illinois will never get out of the hole our elected officials have dug.