Illinois taxpayers have many good reasons for rejecting an income tax increase ("Fix the budget - now," OurViews, July 9). They know that making Illinois a more expensive place to live and work will hurt efforts to turn around our state's economy.

Gov. Pat Quinn supported increasing the corporate income tax rate from 4.8 percent to 7.2 percent. This, combined with a 2.5 percent "replacement tax" on business income, would give Illinois the fourth-highest corporate income tax rate in the nation, at 9.7 percent.

Think about it. Would you want to start, grow, or move a business to Illinois when there are 46 other states that allow you to keep more of what you work hard to earn?

High taxes are a job killer, plain and simple.

Tax policy economist Scott Moody calculates that the personal income tax hike would cost the Illinois economy $8.6 billion in lost output over the long term.

This is the economic equivalent of taking all the 2008 tax revenue from the sales tax, cigarette tax, liquor tax, inheritance tax, corporate franchise tax and fees and insurance taxes and fees and dumping that money into Lake Michigan. Not a smart move.

If Gov. Quinn's $30 billion budget were reduced by 10 percent, his $3 billion income tax increase would be unnecessary. Reasonable spending reform is the fix Illinois deserves.

Kristina Rasmussen

Springfield

The writer is executive vice president, Illinois Policy Institute.