The credit rating agency also said Illinois will soon pass the point of no return on public pension debt. It warned against schemes to stretch or delay pension payments.
Multiple members of the governor’s inner circle have publicly backed retirement taxes, even though Pritzker now denies he will use his “fair tax” on the state’s seniors.
The blue pamphlets sent to Illinois voters were mandated by law, but the constitutional amendment explanation inside included misleading language in its favor.
Vote Yes for Fairness misled Illinois voters by running ads based on a fake Twitter account. Gov. J.B. Pritzker almost single-handedly is funding the group.
Illinois would have lost an additional 10,577 seniors from 2012 to 2018 if outmigration were as severe as in Connecticut, the last state to enact a progressive income tax.
Taxing retirement income is not a new idea to Illinois politicians, but denying they want to tax seniors is new since that part of the “fair tax” plan slipped out.
Chicago’s $1.15 billion projected budget gap is the latest in a decades-long string of structural deficits. Making Chicago’s high taxes worse is not the solution.