Excise taxes have failed to improve Illinoisans’ health while creating an undue burden for those with the least. But lawmakers have yet to kick the habit.
Anyone betting those lottery tickets they gifted will help education would lose.
Illinois homeowners pay double the national average on their property tax bills.
Sales taxes can exceed 10% in Illinois depending on where consumers do their holiday shopping. The average has been creeping up in recent years.
Chicago leaders are using another gas tax hike to help fill a budget hole driven by pensions. Total gas taxes and fees are closing in on $1 per gallon.
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot is trying to raise revenue to close large revenue gaps partially brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Nearly one-third of the cell phone bills in Illinois are taxes
Lightfoot’s budget depends on borrowing and property tax hikes.
The same law that doubled Illinois’ gas tax is now being used by DuPage County and Chicago to fill revenue shortfalls from COVID-19.
Asking Illinoisans to pay more in taxes to receive less in services has been the trend in state government for the past decade, driven by the ever-growing cost of Illinois’ worst-in-the-nation pension crisis.
Two-thirds of voters polled favored a “fair tax” in March. On Election Day that flipped to 55% opposing it. Voters understood how the amendment could usher in retirement and other taxes, but tax proponents found it easier to claim deceit.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s push for his “fair tax” is headed for rejection by Illinois voters. State lawmakers now must face the public pension debt driving the state’s fiscal crisis.
Two advisory ballot initiatives will ask Madison County voters about automatic raises for lawmakers and public worker double dipping.
Illinois politicians do not have a great track record when it comes to keeping promises to taxpayers.