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Chamber gearing up to oppose 'carbon tax'

Posted February 15, 2008 10:00 pm

Doug Finke

Even before Gov. Rod Blagojevich delivers his budget speech Wednesday, the Illinois Chamber of Commerce is gearing up to fight what it thinks he might want.

The chamber fears that Blagojevich will ask lawmakers to approve a tax on carbon emissions from power plants and other industries. While acknowledging it has no details about what Blagojevich plans to propose, the chamber thinks a "carbon tax" could be imposed to generate more than $2.6 billion for cash-strapped state government.

"We are planning as though this will be a major initiative," Todd Maisch, vice president of the chamber, said Friday. "His (financial) needs are substantial."

Maisch said a carbon tax would have the same effect as the ill-fated tax on businesses' gross receipts that was proposed by Blagojevich last year.

The chamber opposed that tax, too, because although either tax would be levied on business, it would drive up business costs that would then be passed on to consumers.

Blagojevich spokeswoman Rebecca Rausch issued a written statement that the chamber is misguided.

"It seems like a waste of time and resources,'' Rausch wrote, "but if that's what the chamber wants to do, it's their decision."

The governor's office has acknowledged that the current state budget is in the red because revenues are not keeping pace with expectations.

The administration put the deficit at $750 million for the fiscal year that ends June 30 and urged lawmakers to cover the difference by ending some business tax breaks and allowing funds that are reserved for special purposes, not general state expenses, to be tapped.

Illinois Comptroller Dan Hynes says the state has a built-in deficit of more than $3 billion because lawmakers chronically push Medicaid bills from one fiscal year to the next.

Doug Finke can be reached at (217) 788-1527.

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