Illinois Unions Want Tax Hikes To Fund Government Employee Pensions

Of course they do

BURR RIDGE —  Illinois' largest public employee unions don't want to raise just one tax to pay for the state's sky-rocketing pension debt, they want to increase as many as they can.

Monday's nearly three hour closed-door pension summit hosted by the We are One Illinois Coalition, a group that includes the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, the Illinois Federation of Teachers, the Illinois Education Association and the state's AFL-CIO, focused almost exclusively on raising taxes as a way to pay for Illinois' $130-billion pension debt and nearly $8-billion annual pension payment.

"There was talk of a progressive income tax, talk of broadening of the sales tax, one person talked about taxing retirement income," said House Republican Leader Tom Cross.