Topinka’s Budget Plan Leaves Rich Whitney as Only Candidate Who Opposes Legalized Gambling... the Only Candidate Who Stands for Fiscal Responsibility
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: August 24th, 2006
Contact: Jennifer Rose, Whitney for Governor, 618-528-VOTE, campaignmanager@whitneyforgov.org
Topinka’s Budget Plan Leaves Rich Whitney as Only Candidate Who Opposes Legalized Gambling – and the Only Candidate Who Stands for Fiscal Responsibility
Gambling Is A Hidden Tax on the Poor and Desperate, says Green Party Candidate Rich Whitney. Replacing Regressive Property Taxes With Regressive Gambling Revenue Is Not a Good Bet to Solve State’s Budget Woes.
by Rich Whitney, Illinois Green Party Candidate for Governor
With the release of Judy Baar Topinka’s Budget Plan today, it now looks like I am the only candidate in the Governor’s race who opposes gambling. I have always opposed legalized gambling as a matter of principle. I thought Judy Baar Topinka did as well. But now she herself is gambling that her dramatic shift in position will help her get elected.
It shouldn’t. Not only is her budget plan a bad idea because it relies on gambling to fund our schools. Her budget projections also rely on an awful lot of guesswork, unsubstantiated projections and generalities (e.g., eliminating $400 million in unidentified "pork") on the revenue side, while making some grandiose promises on the spending side (e.g., "Record Education Funding and School Construction.") In this regard, she very closely resembles her Democratic opponent.
Last January, I criticized Governor Rod Blagojevich for his ill-conceived proposal to finance school construction by bringing Keno to Illinois – breaking his promise not to expand gambling in the State. Now Judy Baar Topinka is following suit. Just like Blagojevich, she is claiming, "No tax increases" – and just like Blagojevich, she is instead looking to meet the budget deficit by getting into the back pockets of working taxpayers in other ways.
The fact is, gambling is a hidden tax on the poor. It preys on the poor by taking advantage of the desperate and the ignorant, who often fail to recognize that "the house always wins." Those who can least afford it – people with household incomes under $10,000 – bet nearly three times as much on lotteries as those with incomes over $50,000, according to a recent report from the National Gambling Impact Study Commission. The rates are undoubtedly similar for casino gambling.
When Judy Baar Topinka assesses the benefits of state-sanctioned gambling, is she also taking into account the economic and social costs of higher suicide and divorce rates, more bankruptcies and homelessness, more broken homes, more abuse and neglect cases? Do any of the advocates of gambling ever consider that if working people hung on to more of their disposable income and expended it on real goods and services instead of giving it away to casino owners, there would be a positive, healthier economic impact?
Our State government needs to be placed on a sound fiscal footing, by enacting badly needed tax reforms to raise new revenue, while at the same time making our tax system more fair to lower- and middle-income taxpayers. And I am the only candidate in this race who is being up-front in pledging to do just that. No more gimmicks. No more hidden costs and fees. No more placing the burden of unpaid pensions on future taxpayers.
I am campaigning explicitly for House Bill 750. The product of a genuine people’s advocacy group, the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability, the bill would couple a general increase in the State income tax and a broadening of the sales tax with tax credits for lower- and middle-income taxpayers, to make our tax system more progressive. Under this plan, the bottom 60 percent of wage earners would actually pay the same or lower taxes. Overall, the plan would raise enough funds to eliminate the structural deficit, adequately fund our schools, begin solving the pension mess, getting our social service agencies back on track and allowing us to fund projects that represent genuine progress – like my proposed job-creating "New Deal" to promote sustainable energy production and sustainable transportation in Illinois.
Judy Baar Topinka’s budget plan proposes a property tax freeze for four years – but at the cost of increasing even more regressive gambling revenues. Under House Bill 750, property tax owners would experience real relief, with a dedicated fund providing mandatory property tax abatements of 20-25 percent per school district.
House Bill 750 has been supported by a number of citizens’ groups, like Voices for Illinois Children, the Better Funding for Better Schools Coalition and A+ Illinois, a broad-based coalition supported by such diverse groups as the Illinois Farm Bureau, the Chicago Urban League, Lutheran Child and Family Services of Illinois and a number of labor unions.
This plan is not only fiscally responsible, it is what the majority of Illinoisans want. A recent survey of Illinois voters found that 66 percent would favor a comprehensive plan to cut the portion of property taxes that fund education, broaden the sales tax and increase the income tax in order to provide more money to the poorest school districts.
Yet Rod Blagojevich and Judy Baar Topinka have both rejected this plan. Being "corporate sponsored" candidates, they are too fearful of offending their big-moneyed benefactors to do what the majority of people want. In contrast, as a candidate of the Green Party – a party that refuses corporate campaign money – I am running to serve the public interest. That’s why I alone am standing up for fiscal responsibility in the race for governor.
Contact: Jennifer Rose, Whitney for Governor, 618-528-VOTE, campaignmanager@whitneyforgov.org
Contact: Jennifer Rose, Whitney for Governor, 618-528-VOTE, campaignmanager@whitneyforgov.org
Topinka’s Budget Plan Leaves Rich Whitney as Only Candidate Who Opposes Legalized Gambling – and the Only Candidate Who Stands for Fiscal Responsibility
Gambling Is A Hidden Tax on the Poor and Desperate, says Green Party Candidate Rich Whitney. Replacing Regressive Property Taxes With Regressive Gambling Revenue Is Not a Good Bet to Solve State’s Budget Woes.
by Rich Whitney, Illinois Green Party Candidate for Governor
With the release of Judy Baar Topinka’s Budget Plan today, it now looks like I am the only candidate in the Governor’s race who opposes gambling. I have always opposed legalized gambling as a matter of principle. I thought Judy Baar Topinka did as well. But now she herself is gambling that her dramatic shift in position will help her get elected.
It shouldn’t. Not only is her budget plan a bad idea because it relies on gambling to fund our schools. Her budget projections also rely on an awful lot of guesswork, unsubstantiated projections and generalities (e.g., eliminating $400 million in unidentified "pork") on the revenue side, while making some grandiose promises on the spending side (e.g., "Record Education Funding and School Construction.") In this regard, she very closely resembles her Democratic opponent.
Last January, I criticized Governor Rod Blagojevich for his ill-conceived proposal to finance school construction by bringing Keno to Illinois – breaking his promise not to expand gambling in the State. Now Judy Baar Topinka is following suit. Just like Blagojevich, she is claiming, "No tax increases" – and just like Blagojevich, she is instead looking to meet the budget deficit by getting into the back pockets of working taxpayers in other ways.
The fact is, gambling is a hidden tax on the poor. It preys on the poor by taking advantage of the desperate and the ignorant, who often fail to recognize that "the house always wins." Those who can least afford it – people with household incomes under $10,000 – bet nearly three times as much on lotteries as those with incomes over $50,000, according to a recent report from the National Gambling Impact Study Commission. The rates are undoubtedly similar for casino gambling.
When Judy Baar Topinka assesses the benefits of state-sanctioned gambling, is she also taking into account the economic and social costs of higher suicide and divorce rates, more bankruptcies and homelessness, more broken homes, more abuse and neglect cases? Do any of the advocates of gambling ever consider that if working people hung on to more of their disposable income and expended it on real goods and services instead of giving it away to casino owners, there would be a positive, healthier economic impact?
Our State government needs to be placed on a sound fiscal footing, by enacting badly needed tax reforms to raise new revenue, while at the same time making our tax system more fair to lower- and middle-income taxpayers. And I am the only candidate in this race who is being up-front in pledging to do just that. No more gimmicks. No more hidden costs and fees. No more placing the burden of unpaid pensions on future taxpayers.
I am campaigning explicitly for House Bill 750. The product of a genuine people’s advocacy group, the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability, the bill would couple a general increase in the State income tax and a broadening of the sales tax with tax credits for lower- and middle-income taxpayers, to make our tax system more progressive. Under this plan, the bottom 60 percent of wage earners would actually pay the same or lower taxes. Overall, the plan would raise enough funds to eliminate the structural deficit, adequately fund our schools, begin solving the pension mess, getting our social service agencies back on track and allowing us to fund projects that represent genuine progress – like my proposed job-creating "New Deal" to promote sustainable energy production and sustainable transportation in Illinois.
Judy Baar Topinka’s budget plan proposes a property tax freeze for four years – but at the cost of increasing even more regressive gambling revenues. Under House Bill 750, property tax owners would experience real relief, with a dedicated fund providing mandatory property tax abatements of 20-25 percent per school district.
House Bill 750 has been supported by a number of citizens’ groups, like Voices for Illinois Children, the Better Funding for Better Schools Coalition and A+ Illinois, a broad-based coalition supported by such diverse groups as the Illinois Farm Bureau, the Chicago Urban League, Lutheran Child and Family Services of Illinois and a number of labor unions.
This plan is not only fiscally responsible, it is what the majority of Illinoisans want. A recent survey of Illinois voters found that 66 percent would favor a comprehensive plan to cut the portion of property taxes that fund education, broaden the sales tax and increase the income tax in order to provide more money to the poorest school districts.
Yet Rod Blagojevich and Judy Baar Topinka have both rejected this plan. Being "corporate sponsored" candidates, they are too fearful of offending their big-moneyed benefactors to do what the majority of people want. In contrast, as a candidate of the Green Party – a party that refuses corporate campaign money – I am running to serve the public interest. That’s why I alone am standing up for fiscal responsibility in the race for governor.
Contact: Jennifer Rose, Whitney for Governor, 618-528-VOTE, campaignmanager@whitneyforgov.org
posted by Duane Short | 8/24/2006 01:53:00 AM
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