Lawmakers should stand firm in tax-hike extension opposition during lame-duck session
Taxpayers finally scored a victory in Illinois. Lawmakers kept their promise and passed a budget slated to provide income tax relief starting in January 2015. But a threat to that relief still looms large. After the November election this fall, current lawmakers will meet for a final time in January for their lame-duck session. There’s...
Taxpayers finally scored a victory in Illinois. Lawmakers kept their promise and passed a budget slated to provide income tax relief starting in January 2015.
But a threat to that relief still looms large.
After the November election this fall, current lawmakers will meet for a final time in January for their lame-duck session. There’s already a plan in the works to go back on their promise and make the tax hike permanent in January.
Illinoisans are all too familiar with the flawed incentives lawmakers have in lame-duck session. Those who lost the election are no longer accountable to taxpayers but still have a say in what laws are passed.
The 2011 lame-duck session is a perfect example of those incentives at work. Lawmakers passed a record income tax hike in the final hours of that session in January 2011. Now they’re planning on doing it again.
That’s why now, more than ever, lawmakers and taxpayers need to keep up the fight against higher taxes in Illinois.
Illinois politicians need to keep their promise and let the temporary income tax hike sunset in January 2015. Thankfully, Illinois Policy Action has launched an initiative to make sure that happens.
Illinois Policy Action is asking all House and Senate members to sign our “Keep Your Promise” pledge, which will affirm politicians’ stated opposition to keeping permanent the temporary 5 percent income tax rate.
Signing this pledge doesn’t just assure constituents that Illinois politicians still deserve some sliver of trust, it also is an affirmation of a pro-growth tax policy that Illinois’ businesses and families desperately need.