Is the income tax hike too small

Well according to James Meeks it is if you read this Mark Brown column:

Case in point: Sen. James Meeks, the South Side minister who has been the state's most outspoken advocate of an income tax increase for the past seven years.

Meeks supports raising the income tax so that the state will adequately fund education. In particular, he wants to end the over-reliance on property taxes for school funding that shortchanges students in poorer communities such as some of those he represents in the south suburbs.

In the process, Meeks had also hoped to use a big chunk of the money from an income tax increase to provide direct property tax relief.
...
But Quinn's proposal does little to address the education funding problem, at least for the short term. Of the $2.8 billion in new state revenue that Quinn says his income tax plan would generate, he would direct only $174 million to schools and $40 million for colleges. And there's nothing in there for property tax relief.

"If there is anything that's going to be a deal breaker, that's going to be it," Meeks told me by telephone Wednesday from Springfield after Quinn finished his speech to the Legislature. "We have to get one of the two. We've always wanted both."

Well I'm sure many of us don't like tax increases in general, but the state's financial picture well it seems to make sense that we should consider everything from fees and tax hikes to making some cuts. The other guy who was outed from office in January wouldn't hike taxes no matter what. Of course some will blame him for the current financial picture of this state. We're supposed to have an $11.5 billion deficit.

What do you think?