Gov. Pritzker delivered a unique state budget address. Ralph Martire breaks it down in his regular column.
Guzzardi’s Illinois House bill would tax the unrealized portfolio gains of billionaires at the income tax rate for individuals of 4.95%. Skeptics say this kind of proposal could run counter not only to the Illinois constitution’s uniformity clause, but also to a provision that there will be only one tax on income. “Does taxing unrealized gains count as income?” says Ralph Martire, executive director at the nonprofit Center for Tax & Budget Accountability. “That question will come up.”
During the governor's budget address in late February, he said the amount of state funding for education would depend on whether the graduated income tax amendment passed. The level of state education funding was set through a bipartisan formula approved in 2017 but that apparently doesn't matter. in typical political fashion, especially in Illinois, the ends justify the means.
Not everyone agrees what constitutes sound fiscal policy for Illinois, particularly when it comes to the proposed graduated income tax amendment to Illinois' Constitution that voters will consider this fall.
"If you have a flat rate and you need to increase revenue, you have to increase taxes for low- and middle-income families," said Ralph Martire, executive director for the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability, a Chicago-based bipartisan think tank. The only way to avoid that is to have a graduated rate structure that shifts the tax burden to upper-income families, he said.
SPRINGFIELD – Education funding is once again top of mind at the Capitol, with a key cog of Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s fiscal year 2021 budget proposal addressing the matter already facing pushback.
The governor's new spending plan ties education support, pension funding and more to the outcome of a graduated income tax amendment on the November ballot. And if that fails? Says a watchdog, "We'll wait and see."
“This isn’t about punishing the rich; it’s about creating a system that’s more equitable for everyone
The battle of getting fair tax is on in Illinois. JB Pritzker, the governor of Illinois, said last March that the current flat tax of the state was regressive. The percentage of the same income had detrimental impacts on people earning $50000 or less per year. The taxpayers having high disposable income per month will not have many detrimental effects over the same percentage of income.
Pritzker said that people having higher incomes would pay more taxes. It will add more than $3 billion in additional tax revenue.
Tuesday, September 20th, at 9am, at the Union League Club, 65 W. Jackson, State Superintendent of Education Tony Smith, along with Rep. Will Davis (D-30), Sen. Toi Hutchinson (D-40), Sen. Kimberly Lightford (D-4), Sen. Karen McConnaughay (D-33), and Rep. Robert Pritchard (R-70), will speak at the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability's Annual Symposium.
The Center for Tax and Budget Accountability (CTBA) and the Taxpayers’ Federation of Illinois (TFI) jointly released a new report, Expanding the Base of Illinois’ Sales Tax to Consumer Services Will Both Modernize State Tax Policy and Help Stabilize Revenue. This report identifies why expanding the base of the state sales tax to include consumer services—like pet grooming, haircuts, country club membership, health clubs, and lawn care—would simultaneously help to stabilize revenue generation for the state’s fiscal system, while reforming tax policy to comport with the modern economy.