IL: Media Coverage of Green Candidate Rich Whitney's Budget Plan

From WGIL:

Rich Whitney, the Green Party candidate for governor, has a new idea for raising money for state government: tax financial transactions, like those that occur at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and the Chicago Board Options Exchange. Whitney says a "miniscule" tax on such transactions would reap about $4.7 billion dollars.

From WJBD:

Rich Whitney said Quinn should have been more forthcoming about his income tax increase. Whitney said if elected governor, he would support changing the state's current flat-tax structure to progressive structure, where those who make more money pay more taxes. Whitney also suggested legalizing marijuana to generate extra tax revenue for the state. He also proposed creating a state-run bank and an independent commission to identify and eliminate wasteful government spending on pork projects.

 From Pentagraph:

Rich Whitney, Green Party candidate for governor, on Thursday laid out his state budget plans, which included raising income taxes, taxing financial transactions in Chicago, and legalizing and taxing marijuana.

From the Huffington Post:

Rich Whitney, the Green Party candidate for Illinois governor, announced his proposal to balance the state budget on Thursday. The announcement comes a day after Pat Quinn's annual budget address, in which the sitting governor painted the budget crisis as a choice between massive cuts for schools and an income tax increase. But Whitney has presented a comprehensive plan, incorporating ideas from Republicans, Democrats and independent budget analysts. The plan would generate nearly $16 billion in additional revenues, generating a budget surplus of over $2 billion.

From the Illinois Issues Blog:

Green Party candidate Rich Whitney today said that if elected governor, he would fix the state’s $13 billion budget problem by creating a new tax – a sort of sin tax on the profits of speculative trading – and by pushing a tax increase plan that stalled in the General Assembly last spring.