Gov. Quinn working to persuade lawmakers to back his plan for an income tax increase in Ill.

Quinn is trying to sell tax increase to lawmakers

CICERO, Ill. — Lawmakers with spring vacation plans might have to rethink them if Gov. Pat Quinn gets his way.

Quinn suggested Tuesday that legislators skip their upcoming spring break and stay in Springfield to vote on his income tax increase even though key lawmakers have shown little interest in it during an election year.

He also said Democrats, who control the Legislature, should vote to pass the tax increase on their own if that’s what it takes.

“Whatever it takes. If it’s all one party, I think that’s unfortunate, because I think it should be bipartisan, but we must act for the people, for the common good. This is not something that we should postpone,” Quinn said during a visit to a community college in the Chicago suburb of Cicero.

The Democratic governor has proposed cutting $1.3 billion from education without an income tax increase because the state faces a $13 billion budget deficit.

Quinn has proposed raising the personal and corporate income tax rates by one percentage point each. That would drive the personal rate to 4 percent and the corporate rate to 5.8 percent. For example, someone with a taxable income of $30,000 would see their Illinois taxes increase to $1,200 from $900 under Quinn’s plan.

Illinois Senate President John Cullerton has said Speaker Michael Madigan’s Illinois House must take the lead on passing a tax increase after the Senate passed one last year.

“However, we don’t plan on sitting around wasting tax dollars during a special session if the House doesn’t take the lead as we did and the Governor doesn’t have bipartisan support,” Cullerton’s spokeswoman Rikeesha Phelon said in a statement.

Lawmakers are scheduled to be on break the last week on March and the first week of April.

Madigan has not been encouraging, saying Illinoisans don’t want a tax increase.

Quinn headed to Springfield on Tuesday and said he would be meeting with lawmakers to try to bring them around to his side.