This is why I sometimes do not like posting in P&N. I will create a post saying what happened and people will just automatically assume my political persuasions based on what I wrote. My post was simply a recapitulation of the facts in the matter explaining why voters did not approve the fair tax amendment.
It's clear to most people that the state needs a combination of new revenue and cuts in order to become fiscally solvent. This starts with getting Michael Madigan, the longest serving state politician in the U.S. to step down. His leadership has been abysmal and one-party rule has resulted in significant corruption at all levels of government (remember Rod Blagojevich anyone?), state and local. The state also needs to consolidate its local governments in order to realize economies of scale. Illinois has more than 35% more units of government per capita than any other state (
1), resulting in significant duplication of services and taxes. Nobody should be paying taxes to a lighting district, yet we had them all the way until 2016 (
2). In the last decade the legislature has been extremely resistant to any change or attempt to consolidate local governments, despite the fact that all of these layers of government are draining peoples' pockets.
The only thing the state has done is ask for more taxpayer money to address budgetary shortfalls. There has been no consideration of structural reform or strategic budget cuts. These need to happen just as badly, if no moreso, than new revenue.