How did they vote?

Illinois lawmakers approved a 66 percent increase in the state’s income tax in the final hours of a lame duck session.

Despite tens of thousands of calls, emails, faxes and letters in opposition to increased taxes, our state legislators decided to raise the state’s personal income tax from the current 3 percent flat rate, to 5 percent and the corporate income tax rate from 4.8 percent to 7 percent.

The bill number is SB 2505.

In the Illinois House, our state representatives voted 60-57 in favor of this measure late Tuesday night. (The House needed 60 votes to pass it.) The Illinois Senate voted 30-29 in favor of this tax hike in the wee hours of Wednesday morning. (The Senate needed 30 votes to pass it.)

These votes were ushered through by House Speaker Michael Madigan (D-Chicago) and Senate President John Cullerton (D-Chicago) without a single Republican vote in favor. According to the Chicago Tribune, Governor Pat Quinn (D) is “happy” about the passage of these tax increases and is expected to sign the bill into law in the near future.

This lame duck session of the Illinois General Assembly ends today at noon.

We have one last chance to communicate to Governor Quinn about this anti-family proposal which will take much needed resources away from our family budgets to feed the ever increasing and insatiable demands of our growing state government.

Click HERE to urge Governor Quinn to VETO SB 2505. Tell him we do not have a tax problem — we have a spending problem!

Look at the chart below to see how your state representative voted, or you can download it by clicking HERE. To see how your state senator voted, click HERE.

**Please note: All state legislative seats will be up for election in 2012.