Illinois is facing an 11.5 *billion dollar budget deficit, and Governor Pat Quinn says fixing this financial crisis requires a "shared sacrifice". This means, for taxpayers our sacrifice could be a fifty percent spike in income taxes.

The Governor told lawmakers in Springfield today that Illinois is facing its greatest crisis of modern times, and to plug our multi-billion dollar budget hole. He wants to raise income taxes from 3 to 4.5 percent. So for example, someone making $45,000 dollars a year, would pay an extra 440 dollars in taxes. Quinn also wants to hike taxes on cigarettes by a dollar per pack, but the Governor says during tough economic times everyone must live within their means and that goes for state government too.

"I am proposing major cuts and cost reductions that will save at least 1.3 billion dollars. These cutbacks include ordering state employs to take furloughs of four days, requiring across the board reductions in grant programs and making targeted cost reductions at every state agency", said Governor Quinn.

There is much criticism over Quinn's plan from our local state leaders. Representative Dave Winters says the budget will be balanced at the expense of families already struggling to make ends meet during this sour economy.

Meanwhile, Senator Dave Syverson says, Quinn has left the Blagojevich medicaid programs untouched, programs that Syverson says increased new spending by billions of dollars at a time when we clearly can't afford it.