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185 20. Another Tax Increase and Another Mayor Thompson came out not only for another income tax increase but also for a sales tax on services. That was almost revolutionary at the time. One issue that did get away from Governor Thompson in that summer of 1988 was his attempt to get another increase in the state income tax. In fact, he had tried for a tax increase the year before, too, in 1987, just four years after we had passed the temporary increase in 1983—the one that expired after eighteen months. I suppose most voters think that a temporary tax increase will always become permanent, but the 1983 one did not. It expired, and the state was feeling the consequences of diminished revenue. So in 1987, Thompson came out not only for another income tax increase but also for a sales tax on services. That was almost revolutionary at the time. His proposal was, to say the least, bold—and unpopular. His tax reform commission, headed by James Furman, had proposed it five years earlier, but it had gone nowhere. He tried again. There was talk about paying a sales tax on a round of golf and to your barber, plumber, and car mechanic but not to your lawyer and doctor. The lawyers and doctors had been included in Thompson’s proposal five years earlier, but both groups have very powerful lobbies in Springfield. Thompson took the preemptive strike of exempting them from the possible sales tax because one of the groups or both working together would have put all their influence into killing it. Thompson also wanted to raise the personal income tax from 2.5 to 3 percent. I thought that was reasonable, given the state’s needs, so I went on Chicago radio and spoke to Chicago groups about the state’s finances and the benefits of an income tax increase. I said I wanted to make sure that education and social service and mental health programs got their fair share of the new revenue. But I couldn’t support the sales tax on services, primarily because I didn’t think it would go anywhere. another tax increase and another mayor 186 Once again, I was the first legislative leader out of the box to get behind the tax increase. It turned out to be a lonely position, though, because the other three leaders never backed it. We ended the 1987 session without coming close to getting an income tax increase. The proposed new sales tax on services fared even worse; it had died two months before the session ended. Thompson couldn’t get anyone to back that one. The next year, 1988, Thompson tried again. There was an early distraction for me that year when Illinois Supreme Court justice Seymour Simon announced his resignation. My mentor and friend William Clark, former attorney general, was on the supreme court then, too, and there was widespread speculation that I would be appointed to replace Justice Simon. Even Chief Justice Thomas Moran, a Republican, advised me to go after it. I considered it but then decided against it because I didn’t want to walk away from my responsibilities in the Senate, especially as Senate president. Clark was a little disappointed that I didn’t join him on the bench. I stayed in the Senate, and Thompson again proposed an income tax increase. He directly challenged the Democratic majorities in the House and Senate to get the tax increase passed. I didn’t think that was fair. I advised him that I would support the increase and that he should spend his time convincing members of his own Republican Party to support it, too. I guess everyone knew I would be behind the increase, but Mike Madigan, as late as June 1988, was less forthcoming. The Chicago Sun-Times called Madigan the “wild card” in the deliberations, saying he “continued to keep everyone guessing about his intentions.”1 Pate Philip and Lee Daniels didn’t want a tax increase and said they would rather cut spending than raise taxes. But Philip was probably open to it because the governor wanted it. In the meantime—and I have to digress a bit to tell this story—on February 18, 1988, my district office manager, Pat Arman, told me we had to go to the deaf-blind center in Glen Ellyn for some kind of function . Because that center was so important to me, I always said yes to...

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