Legislative Action GARY ADKINS and CELESTE QUINN
Veto session Nov. 14; WHEN the Illinois General Assembly returns on November 14 for what promises to be a humdrum veto session, the capitol will be bristling with talk of curbing taxes in the legislative 1979 session and the ensuing political possibilities in 1980. Rep. Donald Totten (R., Hoffman Estates) has a new plan for limiting taxes, and he already has the backing of 80 of his fellow legislators. Totten's proposal calls for a constitutional amendment limiting state taxes to 8 per cent of the state's total personal income and prohibiting local governments from increasing taxes by more than 3 per cent annually without a referendum. Home rule cities and counties could choose to include themselves in the 3 per cent limitation by a vote of their residents. Totten, who was Ronald Reagan's Illinois campaign manager in 1976, announced the tax limitation proposal September 6. The same day, Totten announced the organization of two committees — the Illinois Tax Limitation Committee (ITLC) and an 80-member bipartisan legislative advisory committee — to help assure the amendment's success. Totten heads the ITLC and Sen. George Sangmeister (D., Mokena) and Sen. John Graham (R., Barrington) are co-chairmen. Edward D. Murnane, a former administrative aide to U.S. Rep. Philip Crane of Arlington Heights (R., 12th district) is the group's treasurer. Totten's committee is also working to raise $750,000 for an ITLC campaign to win voter support for his proposal. Although Totten, who is known for fiscal conservatism, has worked for limiting taxes since 1975, this particular proposal couldn't have come at a more politically advantageous time. If as planned the amendment is introduced in January, and if it passes in the General Assembly, it will appear on the 1980 ballot for voter approval. Last fall, Totten introduced his "7 per cent solution" — a measure that would have limited state taxes to 7 per cent of the state's total personal income. The idea failed to win the support of the legislature. But last spring, Totten proposed that the state use the inflation rate to calculate the state income tax exemption. That idea won the approval of the legislature but not of Gov. James R. Thompson who vetoed the measure. Since the resounding success of California's Proposition 13, politicians everywhere have been trying to capitalize on the tax revolt idea, but Rep. Totten was pushing for some type of restraints on taxes long before anyone else. Totten's effort could also force Thompson into a political squeeze if the governor truly has presidential ambitions for 1980. Nationally, the GOP has taken up the Proposition 13 banner, and if Thompson doesn't like Totten's proposal, he may have to propose his own plan. 28/November 1978/Illinois Issues
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