Governor Rod R. Blagojevich text of the Governors Budget Address

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OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR ______
ROD R. BLAGOJEVICH - GOVERNOR
Governor Rod R. Blagojevich
Text of the Governor’s Budget Address
March 7, 2007
This budget address is prescribed by our constitution; the proposals I will offer today are
prescribed by our collective conscience and by what I believe, is a moral imperative.
Today, we will begin the biggest, most fundamental change, in our 4 year effort, to put middle
class and working families at the center of who we fight for.
It is a change that is long overdue and a change that is desperately needed.
For decades, it’s been the middle class and the working families of Illinois that have shouldered
more and more of the tax burden. And while they've paid more, the wealthiest corporations in
our state have paid less and less. The impact of this imbalance weakens our economy, burdens
our families and holds our state back.
And the saddest irony of all, the very people burdened by an unfair tax system, middle class
families and working families were hurt by the under funding of education, healthcare and
pension funds.
Let me give you two facts to frame the moral imperative of what we face.
Fact one. The average taxpayer in Illinois pays $1500 in state income taxes, not to mention ever
rising property taxes.
Fact two. 12,521 of the biggest corporations with sales of over $263 billion in Illinois, paid on
average $151 in corporate income taxes.
The moral imperative is this: while the middle class pays more and huge corporations just walk,
a child pays the price with increasingly crowded classrooms, the family in need of healthcare
pays a price in healthcare they can’t afford, the worker depending on a pension pays a price with
a retirement that is no longer secure.
Illinois has one of the most regressive tax systems in the nation.
It’s unfair and it doesn’t work.