The chairman of the Illinois Green Party has some ideas on how the state can generate revenues.
Rich Whitney of Carbondale talked with lawmakers during a conference committee about a couple of ideas the state could employ to help offset Illinois' financial problems. Whitney says the state should follow North Dakota's lead and create its own state-run bank: " It would create a new revenue stream for the state of Illinois without raising taxes on anyone . Instead of depositing taxpayers' money on Wall Street, we invest it right here at home, where we make money off of it."
Whitney says the other idea would be for Illinois to impose a 0.01% surcharge on speculative trades such as options contracts, futures contracts, and credit default swaps traded in Chicago. Whitney claims the tax would generate $40-billion a year.
Neither idea is new, nor has neither gained much traction in Springfield. A bill creating a state-wide community bank (HB 7), and a bill implementing a transaction surcharge on certain financial transactions (HB 1554) both stalled in the House Rules Committee during the spring legislative session.
