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THREE A Political Career on the Line W hilejust about everybody was reasonably sure it was coming, shock waves still were inevitable when Governor Ogilvie really did it. On April I, 1969, the April Fools' Day of his first year in Ogilvie asked the General Assembly to approve the imposition of a state income tax. For years, no subject had received a colder shoulder from his predecessors. None of the ventures by Governor Ogilvie would have near the impact of this one-on the governor himself, on legislators reluctant to go along with him, and on taxpayers not the least bit enthused at the thought of possibly having to ante up. Ogilvie was pictured by numerous friends and foes alike as a person engaged in the act of committing political suicide. Because his public career held so much promise, his supporters lamented, it was a shame. Even the man's detractors allowed that he was that rare officeholder with the gumption to take an action that had to be done, unpopular as it was. Some political historians were quick to equate Ogilvie's decision to seek an income tax with the pardon of three Chicago Haymarket Square bombing anarchists in r893 by liberal German-born governor John Peter Altgeld, a move early in Altgeld's governorship that undermined his popularity and led to his defeat when he sought reelection to a second term in 1896. Ogilvie had no illusion about the political risk involved in his income tax offensive. He was just as certain that the landmark governorship he envisioned would be a pipe dream without a massive infusion of new money into the Illinois treasury. Overcoming the state's fiscal jam, he believed, was the key to whether Illinois would sink or swim under his leadership. Without the income tax, he concluded, there would be no swimming. In his campaign for governor, Ogilvie did not tell voters that, if elected, he would try to impose a state income tax on them. 1b the contrary, he left many questioners with an impression that he was not convinced at all of the need for such a levy. Consequently, a lot of folks, Republicans included, felt betrayed when Ogilvie came out for the tax in less than three months after taking office. Reporters' attempts to pin down the timing of Ogilvie's decision to pursue an income tax got only ambiguous answers at the time. However, years later, cer29 30 . A POLITICAL CAREER ON THE LINE tain individuals with whom Ogilvie frankly discussed Illinois finances in the days following his election acknowledged coming away with the clear idea that he'd be going for an income tax in either his first or second year in office. John McCarter, who would be a major player in bringing a state income tax to Illinois, twice was asked by Ogilvie after his election to become Illinois finance director and to set up the state's first real budget bureau. But McCarter, a former White House Fellow, hadjust been elected a partner in Booz, Allen & Hamilton, a Chicago management consulting firm, and he rebuffed Ogilvie both times. Then McCarter had second thoughts. Realizing that not many thirty-year-olds have an opportunity to run a budget program for a state the size of Illinois, he changed his mind and asked Ogilvie to count him in. "Even before I accepted the job with Ogilvie," McCarter recalled, "the income tax was talked about. He was saying from the start that if the numbers confirmed the need for an income tax he'd go for it. I had no doubt that there would be an income tax in his first year in office or next. Not one bit of doubt."! Since the call for a state income tax would register highly on the Richter scale gauging public policy upheavals, Ogilvie knew that as much of an effort as possible at damage control had to be made. A foundation had to be laid. On the one hand, Ogilvie and his top aides were meeting covertly, often at night and at other odd times, putting together a much juicier fiscal program for Illinois, which was dependent for its success on approval of an income tax. The task was consuming much of the early time in office of the Ogilvie team, but it was carried out with a Los Alamos mentality because the Ogilvie men did not want to reveal their call for the income tax until the governor's first formal...

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