PLAYING GAMES WITH OTHER PEOPLE'S MONEY.

Illinois state government received all sorts of fiat money from the Democrat state bailout masquerading as a 2021 coronavirus relief appropriation.  It isn't really money, and it isn't potbellied dictator J. B. Pritzker's to give, but attempt to give it away he did.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker will unveil his fiscal year 2023 Illinois budget Feb. 2, including $1 billion in tax cuts for Illinoisans ahead of Nov. 8 elections to boost the state economy, a top aide said.

But not long after the votes are counted, Pritzker’s tax cuts go away.

The administration said the 1% cut to Illinois’ sales tax on food, delaying of automatic gas tax increases and property tax rebates worth up to $300 will be doled out to counter the rising cost of necessities because of inflation. The tax breaks expire in July 2023.

After a year of better-than-expected state revenues bolstered by billions in federal pandemic stimulus, Pritzker claims the tax cuts are resulting from his responsible government spending during COVID-19.

But as the governor waylays permanent tax cuts in favor of temporary policies designed to expire before surplus pandemic funds run dry, state residents are right to question how long Illinois’ improved fiscal standing will last after federal assistance is used up.

The other question is whether Pritzker’s temporary tax cuts would be followed by four more years of unbalanced budgets, growing state debt and nation-leading taxes for Illinoisans. Pritzker’s term has aggravated all those state fiscal woes.

Pritzker’s temporary cuts include blocking an annual automatic increase in the state gas tax, which he doubled in 2019 to 38 cents from 19 cents per gallon. It has been automatically boosted a fraction of a penny each year since then – currently it’s at 39.2 cents – a mechanism state lawmakers inserted to avoid voting on unpopular gas tax hikes.

Yes, dear reader, you read that correctly. State officials will take some of the money the national government printed and hand it out to Illinoisans to ... counter inflation.  It's not going to turn out well.

Besides the $1 billion in temporary tax cuts, re-election mode Pritzker is touting a budget expected to be balanced for the first time since 2001. Illinois has not fixed any of the money problems that made it the nation’s fiscal joke, but Pritzker’s rosy outlook is from billion in federal stimulus coupled with consumers generating taxes thanks to spending their pandemic relief funds.

Feel-good campaign rhetoric shouldn’t hide the fact that one year of calm cannot make up for decades of deficits or stop a rapid return to the government irresponsibility that gave Illinois the nation’s leading state and local tax burden.

The tax holiday will take away one source of the revenue Springfield politicians have been counting on to make the fiscal house look in order, at least for election season.  The Springfield Supreme Soviet have ratified a budget, complete with the tax gimmicks.

Illinois lawmakers early Saturday morning passed a $46.5 billion budget that would bring temporary tax relief and direct inflation payments to residents.

The House voted to approve the budget just before 6 a.m. Saturday, less than two days after Gov. J.B. Pritzker and other leaders of the Illinois House and Senate announced an agreement on the state spending plan that aims to fight nagging, near-record inflation by giving $1.8 billion back to taxpayers.

"We end this legislative session with enormous and historic victories for the people of Illinois: Gas, grocery, and property tax relief, more support for local government than ever before, a massive improvement in staffing for our nursing home residents, short and long term debt reduction, and a balanced budget for the fourth year in a row," Pritzker said Saturday.

According to lawmakers, the state’s 1% sales tax on groceries will be suspended for the entirety of the new fiscal year, which officials say will save taxpayers up to $400 million through July 1, 2023.

The state’s fuel tax, which was slated to increase in July due to inflation, will instead be frozen at $.39 a gallon through Jan. 1, 2023, with a taxpayer savings of $70 million.

Property tax rebates of up to $300 per household will also be included in the budget, along with an expansion of the earned income tax credit in the state, according to Pritzker.

Finally, families will receive direct checks from the state pending approval of the budget. Each individual will be eligible for a check of up to $50, with households also receiving $100 per child.

Where do we get these reporters who with a straight face say politicians can fight inflation by throwing money at it?  Moreover, why should I take seriously the so-called party of environmental protection when the first chance they get, they treat motor fuel taxes as a tool for fiscal stimulus?

The legislature, however, wants to make sure shoppers and motorists know who is responsible for the slightly less egregious draining of their cash.

Illinois lawmakers want to be sure you know about the “tax relief” you’re getting this election year. So, in the waning hours of session they inserted into their budget bill a requirement that private-sector retailers use signs and notations on receipts to tell consumers of how blessed they are.

Arguably, that's a legal notice requirement, similar to the labels on gas pumps that spell out what the taxes are and that the bureau of weights and measures has inspected the pump; and people who itemize all their sales taxes have a record that they didn't pay any sales tax on those potato chips.  Alternatively, though, it's the same notion as the "Open Road Tolling, Rod R. Blagojevich, Governor" that served as campaign ads until they became a laughingstock.  But the notice requirements raise the possibility of doing some mischief.

The thinking behind the sign requirement, lawmakers claim, is that sales tax cuts don’t necessarily get passed along to consumers. The signs supposedly would pressure gas stations away from keeping prices high and pocketing the sales tax reduction. That’s pretty hard to see since there will be no tax reduction, only a temporary suspension of an automatic increase.

Grocery stores also must note on receipts that the state suspended the 1% grocery tax for a year. The message on the receipts must say “From July 1, 2022 through July 1, 2023, the State of Illinois sales tax on groceries is 0%.” If printing messages on receipts isn’t feasible, then the retailer must post a sign. What good that does escapes me. You don’t get the receipt until you’ve shopped, and grocery is a brutally low-margin business, which would make it hard for stores to pocket the savings.

I wonder if the suspension of sales taxes on groceries means flatlanders who buy cheese in Wisconsin don't have to pay use tax on it.

At the same time, there are people prepared to argue that the notice requirements do not qualify as legal notices.

Josh Sharp of the Illinois Fuel and Retail Association said before Saturday's approval of the budget bills that the forced sticker notice is unconstitutional.

“This industry won’t be forced into offering free election year advertising for the Governor," Sharp said. "Ordering businesses to take part in speech that is compelled by the government under the threat of fines and criminal penalties is unwise and unconstitutional.”

Sharp said retailers would sue over the requirement.

The measures fail to impress the editorial board at Chicago's Tribune.

Pritzker’s stewardship on debt reduction has been impressively responsible. He deserves more credit than the Republicans are offering.

But when it comes to tax relief, permanent breaks for the hardworking citizens of Illinois are in short supply. Temporary is the byword. They want to maintain the right to hold on to your money and to the state’s “extraordinary” streams of revenue in the future.

They also understand that you can't overcome inflation by throwing printed money at it.

But all of the temporary reductions remain no substitute for genuine, long-lived tax relief: a permanent reduction in the state’s hefty sales tax, for example, thus increasing Illinois businesses’ ability to be competitive. Or some property tax relief that allows homeowners to share in the state’s good fortune.

In fact, these direct, one-time checks feel like a benevolent election-year handout, as if the state were doing Illinoisans a favor, not simply returning to them some of their own money in the face of record revenue, mostly coming, let’s remember, from strapped Illinoisans. And relief checks hardly have been a positive when it comes to the rising rate of inflation.

In addition, none of the temporary measures do anything to change the motivations people have to bail out of the tax hell that Illinois has become.  Watch, if the potbellied dictator is re-elected, for another bite at the income tax amendment.