Tribune Editorial-Goodbye, jobs

At least 1/11/11 will be easy to remember. On that day, with the state of Illinois mired at 48th place nationwide in job creation, Democratic leaders dragged through the lame-duck House a tax plan sure to make many employers do their hiring somewhere else.

We'll leave to the Tax Foundation and other data outfits the task of calibrating precisely how much more uncompetitive Illinois becomes if the Senate passes and Gov. Pat Quinn signs this fiasco into law. Quinn and the rank-and-file Democrats who launched the enormous tax grab will own what happens next. So will House Speaker Michael Madigan and Senate President John Cullerton. Governors such as Mitch Daniels of Indiana and Scott Walker of Wisconsin, their treasuries already enriched by refugee employers who've fled Illinois, should send the Springfield Democrats orchids and champagne.

Those Illinois Democrats have, for two do-little years, dodged a choice: Reduce spending, raise taxes, or enact some mix of the two. Cutting overhead would offend their friends in the public employee unions and other pet constituencies. Ask retired state workers to pay something for their health care? Cap employee pensions? Perish the thought.

So — get this — not only are they raising taxes to avoid budget cuts, they're including a provision to let their spending continue to rise — year after year.

We hoped for smarter legislating Tuesday night as we watched debate unfold in the House. One after another, representatives rose to expose that central flaw — among many strong contenders — in the Democratic tax plan. The bill, falsely advertised as fiscal discipline, is "designed to increase spending," thundered Rep. Jack Franks of Woodstock, one of a few outlier Democrats to vote against the bill. "This legislation will merely continue to feed the beast."

Find us an employer, or a potential employer, who doesn't awaken Wednesday thinking, "They spent and borrowed Illinois into penury, they refused to cut spending as I have, and now my workers and I are supposed to pay for all that?"

Some will, of course. Not every company can leave. But many big employers can see where they're welcome and where they're tax fodder for arrogant pols.

Remember that Illinois needs 600,000 more people working to restore employment to the level it was a decade ago. Then burn 1/11/11 into your brain — along with the phrase "Goodbye, jobs."

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/editorials/ct-edit-legislature-0112-bd-20110111,0,4534433.story