Privilege Tax?

And once again, Springfield fails to pass a budget - now they're going to attempt the "Connecticut Solution:"

• The Illinois bill would put a 20% levy on fees earned by investment advisers. It passed the state Senate in a 32-24 vote Tuesday, and backers are hoping to get it through the House before the legislative session ends May 31.
  
  The new tax is pitched as a way to squeeze more revenue -- as much as $1.7 billion a year -- from hedge funds and private-equity firms, which purportedly get off easy on their federal taxes because of the “carried interest loophole.” But under the current version of the bill, Illinois would keep collecting the privilege tax even if Congress were to cease taxing carried interest at the lower capital-gains rate.

Connecticut tried something very similar - tax the millionaires and their companies to fill years of money mismanagement by democrats. Guess what the millionaires did? They packed up and left, leaving an even bigger hole in the state budget.

And if this nonsense stands, the same will happen here, which won't help this current news at all:

• Illinois had its bond rating downgraded to one step above junk by Moody's Investors Service and S&P Global Ratings, the lowest ranking on record for a U.S. state, as the long-running political stalemate over the budget shows no signs of ending.
  
  S&P warned that Illinois will likely losing its investment-grade status, an unprecedented step for a state, around July 1 if leaders haven't agreed on a budget that chips away at the government's chronic deficits. Moody's followed S and P's downgrade Thursday, citing Illinois's underfunded pensions and the record backlog of bills that are equivalent to about 40 percent of its operating budget.

"Death Spiral" has become "Death Cyclone."