Illinois Tax Hikes, Two Years Later: A Failure

As always, tax hikes had absolutely the opposite effect that was intended.

Illinois Governor Pat Quinn, upon signing income tax hikes into law on January 12, 2011: "We had to take decisive action. … Our fiscal house was burning."

Almost two years later, the Land of Lincoln is still aflame. The state began its 2013 fiscal year this past July with an estimated $8 billion of unpaid bills and a total of some 160,000 bills awaiting payment.

What about additional tax receipts garnered by the state’s dramatic income-tax hikes? Unseen and unfelt, according to the Republican state comptroller, who has acknowledged that the gains were undercut by financing pension contributions, Medicaid expansion, and the expiration of President Obama’s 2009 stimulus.