An amendment to scrap Illinois’ constitutional flat tax protection is gaining sponsors in the Illinois Senate. Lawmakers have refused to discuss rates since those details killed the last progressive tax attempt.
While J.B. Pritzker has not released a detailed tax plan of his own, reasonable cost estimates suggest the tax hike required to pay for the candidate’s spending promises would require doubling Illinois’ state income tax rate and cost the state an estimated 132,000 jobs and $31.3 billion in forgone GDP.
As a result of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in South Dakota v. Wayfair Inc., most online purchases in Illinois will now be subject to automatic collection of the state’s 6.25 percent use tax.
State lawmakers should reform Illinois’ overly complicated sales taxes and other anti-business taxes, which violate guiding principles of sound tax policy.
Illinois is expected to raise an additional $200 million in sales tax revenue due to changes in the new state budget and the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in South Dakota v. Wayfair Inc. Lawmakers should offset this expansion of the sales tax by ending a $200 million harmful tax on business investment.
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.