Earlier this month, we called out gubernatorial candidate Dan Hynes for painting the tax increase Gov. Pat Quinn floated last spring as "regressive and unfair."  To refresh your memory, Quinn's proposal called for raising the personal income tax rate from 3 percent to 4.5 percent, while offsetting the impact on low-earners by tripling the personal exemption from $2,000 to $6,000.   The latter provision would have shielded most households earning less than $56,000 from the effects of the rate increase (a later version of Quinn's plan only raised the personal exemption to $3,000 while also doubling the state property tax credit). While these initial plans were far from perfect, Hynes seems to overlook that they still represent a less regressive system than the state's current tax structure.

Even so, he continues to push the line that Quinn "wants to raise everybody's taxes by 50 percent." Here he is last Wednesday during an appearance on WFLD's Good Day Chicago (jump ahead to the 4:30 mark):

HYNES: Pat Quinn wants to raise everybody's taxes by 50 percent. Our tax would only impact families making over $200,000. Now, he says he's for a progressive income tax, but when he became governor, and he actually had the power to implement something, he chose to tax everybody 50 percent -- all families, regardless of income. And I view it differently. I think we can raise the money we need to deal with the budget crisis. But we shouldn't be taxing middle-class families during a recession.

By focusing solely on the across-the-board rate increase -- while omitting the personal exemption and tax credit elements of Quinn's plan -- Hynes is being extremely misleading.

Moreover, while his hyperbole about the Quinn proposal may make sense politically, it has real-world risks.  As we've noted, progressive interests in Illinois are currently coalescing around an effort to push State Sen. James Meeks' tax plan when the state legislature reconvenes in January.  The most recent version of Meeks' proposal -- supported by the Senate Democrats back in May -- would raise the personal income tax rate by two percentage points, while providing property tax relief and targeted tax credits for low-earners.  So when this proposal reemerges as a viable option for raising much-needed revenue, does Hynes plan on attacking it as a "66 percent" tax increase?

Hynes has every right to push his alternative budget.  And as we've said before, the more elected officials in Illinois that emphasize the need for progressive taxation, the better.  But echoing the Republicans' framing of these other Democratic plans only does a disservice to the cause.

Full disclosure: The SEIU Illinois Council -- which sponsors Progress Illinois -- has endorsed Pat Quinn in the 2010 Democratic primary for Illinois governor.