Voters on Nov. 4 will decide the ongoing bare-knuckle fight for governor between incumbent Democrat Pat Quinn and Republican challenger Bruce Rauner.

Both candidates have pulled no punches in the race, which they both paint as a referendum on Illinois’ future, albeit for different reasons.

Quinn, who insists Illinois is “making a comeback” under his leadership, paints Rauner, a wealthy venture capitalist, as an out-of-touch one-percenter whose policies would hurt the poor and working class. Rauner, who has never run for elected office, says years of Democratic rule, especially under Quinn, have locked Illinois into a “death spiral” that taxpayers and businesses are fleeing.

While Quinn has repeatedly hammered Rauner over his wealth, Rauner has struck back at Quinn’s reputation as the Illinois rarity of a clean politician, linking him to ongoing investigations over patronage hiring at the Illinois Department of Transportation and money given out as Chicago anti-violence grants during his 2010 campaign.

Libertarian candidate Chad Grimm is also on the ballot, despite a failed Republican effort to remove him – Democrats succeeded in booting the Green Party candidate.

The following is a list of where Quinn and Rauner stand on the major issues of the state income tax, pension reform and the minimum wage.

Taxes

One of the core issues of the race is the fate of the 2011 income tax increase that is scheduled to expire Jan. 1.

Democratic lawmakers in the last hours of the lame-duck session after Quinn’s narrow 2010 election passed the largest tax increase in state history. It raised taxes 67 percent on individuals – or about an extra week’s salary – and 46 percent on businesses, to 5 and 7 percent, respectively. The business tax rate is 9.5 percent when the corporate personal property replacement tax is included.

Supporters sold the increase as necessary to straighten the state’s dire finances and pay down billions in unpaid bills, but almost all of it has been eaten by the state’s ballooning public pension obligations.

Quinn asked state lawmakers in his 2015 budget address earlier this year to break the promise made to taxpayers and make the income tax increase permanent.

He favors replacing the flat tax with a progressive one based on income, but such a move would require voters to amend the Illinois Constitution.

Rauner’s budget plan phases out the income-tax increases over a four-year period, back to the pre-2011 levels of 3 percent for individuals and 4.8 percent for businesses.

Among his plans to raise more revenue is to impose a state sales tax on more than 30 services, such as attorney and computer programming services.

Pension reform

Quinn supported a pension reform bill passed by lawmakers in December 2013, going so far as to make an unsuccessful attempt earlier that year to halt lawmakers’ paychecks because they were not moving fast enough for his liking.

Reforms include lowering the 3 percent compounded cost-of-living increase and raising the retirement age. It was almost immediately challenged by the state’s powerful public-sector unions, which allege the law violates language in the state Constitution that says public pension benefits cannot be diminished.

The unfunded liability for the five state-run pension systems for retired teachers and university professors, rank-and-file state employees, judges and General Assembly members is at least $100 billion.

It’s the worst unfunded liability of all 50 states, and years of inaction on the issue have played a large role in Illinois also having the worst credit rating of the states.

Rauner opposed the proposed pension fix as doing too little, and supports capping the defined benefit system and moving state employees going forward to a defined contribution system similar to how private-sector employees save for retirement.

The winner of the election might have to revisit pension reform if the Illinois Supreme Court rules it unconstitutional. A July ruling striking down another reform requiring retirees to pay health insurance premiums signaled that such a ruling is possible, if not likely.

Minimum wage

Quinn supports raising the state’s minimum wage from $8.25 an hour, presently the highest in the Midwest, to $10 over two years.

An advisory, nonbinding referendum appears on the Nov. 4 ballot asking whether the minimum wage should be increased to $10.

Rauner’s original position on the minimum wage hurt him, when he said at an event that he favored reducing the wage to the federal rate of $7.25 an hour.

He has since stated that he would not oppose raising the wage if it is coupled with significant business-friendly reforms and further reform of the state’s workers’ compensation laws.