Gov. Mitch Daniels is shown talking to Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn at a
press conference yesterday on the proposed Illiana Expressway, a new toll road that will connect I-65 and I-55 and be funded with private funds. The two could not be more opposite. Although Gov. Daniels has definitely earned a better record to date as a fiscally responsible governor in comparison to his Illinois counterpart's short tenure, I give kudos to Gov. Quinn for doing the right thing and amendatorily vetoing a tax increase contained in a bill recently sent to him by the Illinois General Assembly. Legislation aimed at reforming McCormick Place convention center in Chicago contained a new tax on airport taxi cab rides to fund an additional $10 million in funds to promote Chicago conventions. To the disappointment of Mayor Richard Daley and "civic leaders", Quinn called the tax punitive on out-of-state travelers and nixed it. Gov. Daniels, by comparison, signed legislation allowing Indianapolis' Capital Improvement Board to raise taxes paid mostly by out-of-state travelers and to borrow $27 million from the state so the CIB can give away more of our money to the billionaire sports team owners and spend more money promoting conventions that primarily benefit the City's downtown hospitality businesses.
2 comments:
Makes me want to learn more about Illinois's governor. My first two years of college was at Rosary College (now Dolminican University) in River Forest, Ill.
Marycatherine, Quinn is actually despised by most Democrats. He's always been a bit of a gadfly politician. Many people have never forgiven him for getting a constitutional amendment on the ballot that reduced the number of house members in the General Assembly by one-third and eliminated three-member districts that ensured at least one member of the minority party got elected in every district. It was a rather unique system that worked quite well. Quinn's move was in retaliation for a backdoor payraise the legislature approved during a lameduck session. What Illinois wound up with very quickly was a full-time legislature with no minority party representation in areas of the state dominated by either party. Chicago rarely elects a Republican. Some of the suburban and downstate districts rarely elect a Democrat. It has made the House far more partisan than it used to be.
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