Gov. Pat Quinn is recommending a budget increase of $50 million to MAP funding, which will extend awards to more than 20,000 students in Illinois.

Abdon Pallasch, assistant Illinois budget director, said at SIU Carbondale, approximately 4,500 students receive between $16 million in awards.

“Under Gov. Quinn’s proposed budget, an additional $2 million would allow another 600 SIU Carbondale students to get MAP grants,” Pallasch said.

Under the budget that was not recommended, the MAP grant will be reduced by more than $50 million from its fiscal year 2014 level, a reduction of 13.5 percent. This will directly affect SIU students by taking away the MAP grant from 600 students.

Gov. Quinn recently hosted a MAP Matters Day Rally where students went to Springfield to support the increase for the MAP grant. Alex Soriano, a junior from Downers Grove studying business management was in attendance.

“The MAP grant is very important to my higher education,” he said. “As the eldest son of a single mother, I hope that the MAP grant will be protected. My sister will be applying for college next year and hopefully will be able to benefit from the MAP grant.”

David Yepsen, director of the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute, invited Tom Johnson, co-author of “Fixing Illinois: Politics & Policy in the Prairie State” and president emeritus of the Taxpayers’ Federation of Illinois, for Pizza and Politics at 5 p.m., Monday at the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute.

His book is a plan for effective and honest government, which debates restoring the faith of Illinois’ citizens in its institutions and reviving a sense of citizenship and state pride.

Illinois is known for its reputation as a high-tax state. For example, the state’s personal income tax rate was increased by 67 percent and corporate income tax rates were increased by 46 percent in 2011.

Yepsen said because of Illinois’ problems, Johnson collaborated with a colleague to write the book about changing the state.

“I think this book will be a great bit of information for students to benefit from,” he said. “He’s a former state revenue director and a tax expert. With the debate about whether or not to increase income taxes, I’m pretty sure he’d be the right guy to talk to right now.”

Yepsen said students would directly be affected on campus because an income tax increase means bigger classes, fewer staff, higher tuition and higher school fees.

Yepsen said he hopes many students will come ready with questions about Illinois tax system. 

“Students are busy at this time of their lives, they have school, they have work. If you don’t know about taxes, I think they’re going to learn pretty soon,” he said. “The best anyone can hope for is that the income tax increase doesn’t take place.”

Johnson said his book could be used as a primer for those who are interested in changing the state and improving the public’s trust in our state government.

“A recent Gallup poll has suggested the Illinois public has one of the lowest levels of confidence in their government than any state in the nation,” he said. “We are not wedded with our solutions, but we hope they generate discussion, ideas for improvement and most importantly identify champions to the reform efforts we suggest.”

Johnson will talk to students about what actions to take and how they are directly affected by the taxes in Illinois as a part of his lecture. He said college students are probably more impacted by the state’s other taxes than the personal income tax.

Johnson said for example, students pay more in sales tax than they do in income tax. Illinois has a relatively narrow sales tax base leading to high sales taxes, he said.

“The Tax Payers’ Federation of Illinois believe in broad base low rate taxes,” Johnson said. “Students probably spend more of their consumption dollars on goods versus services and therefore the high tax rates hits more of their consumption than does the consumer that spends more of their consumption dollar on services.”

The main purpose of Johnson’s lecture is to inform students about the tax systems in Illinois and how they are affected.

“I think college students should make an effort to not only understand our tax structure but how it compares to tax structures in other states, “ Johnson said. “Also, how do we compare and what do we need to do to be more competitive with other states in our overall tax burden?”

Johnson said that he wants those who have entered political life to take leadership in addressing more if these issues.

“I believe a broader tax base for both the income and the sales tax with lower rates would produce a fairer tax system than we currently have, and one that would be more responsive to economic growth,” he said.

Brittany Pettiford can be reached at [email protected], on Twitter at @BPettiford_DE or at 536-3311 ext. 268