Jim Edgar makes House calls

Just talked to a spokesman for former Gov. Jim Edgar and according to him the story plays out this way ...

Gov. Pat Quinn called Edgar to ask if Edgar would call Republican lawmakers to get a real pulse on whether any of them could vote for an income tax increase.
Edgar said he would but told Quinn that Quinn needed to cut more from the budget before asking for one. Edgar talked to one Republican who said the same thing.

That pretty much matches what Edgar told me earlier this year when I called him up to get his take on the budget mess Quinn was inheriting. Edgar said there was likely no way out without a tax increase but that it had to be paired with unpopular budget cuts.

"If you raise taxes before you get other expenditures under control, you will never get them under control," said Edgar.

Edgar came into office in 1991 and made permanent a temporary income tax increase, but it was partnered with cuts to health care and welfare spending. He also called for hundreds of state layoffs and left thousands more jobs vacant.