SPRINGFIELD – Gov. Pat Quinn’s latest plan to pay off the state’s monstrous bill backlog is targeting income tax incentives that benefit Illinois corporations as a way to raise nearly half-a-billion dollars a year.

But a governor’s loophole is often a business executive’s job-creator. Business leaders call the plan a tax increase on corporations in a state they say is already woefully inattentive to the needs of employers.

As part of a $62.4 billion budget proposal laid out last week, Quinn proposed temporarily ending three tax breaks that would pump an estimated $454 million into the treasury. The money would go toward making a significant dent in $9 billion in overdue bills owed to providers of goods and services, the governor’s aides say.