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.
New IRS rules make clear that lowering the actual tax burden, not complicated workarounds, is the correct way to respond to tighter federal restrictions on SALT deductions.
Avenues for state oversight for cities with financial difficulties have limited utility in the face of massive pension debt and have almost never been invoked since Springfield passed them into law in 1990.
House Bill 4237 seeks to get around Congress’ limitation of a federal deduction that benefits high-tax states, but residents would be better served by efforts to directly reduce state and local taxes in Illinois.
If Illinois adopted Virginia’s spending habits along with policies that can reduce costs and raise home values, the Prairie State could vastly reduce the property tax burden that Illinois homeowners currently face.
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.