DEM CHAIRS READY TO CAMPAIGN for an ILLINOIS FAIR TAX
By Jillian Hawkins, Assistant Executive Director, @ILDCCA
No matter where you live in Illinois, the man-made budget crisis that Bruce Rauner forced on this state had an impact. Every school in the state lived with uncertainty, while universities slashed jobs. Roads crumbled and small businesses closed because they didn’t get paid for nearly a year. And, of course, the debt of the state drew deeper.
Though the failed Rauner experiment is over, the ripple effect remains. The takeaway is that Illinois simply can’t gain needed stability without a modernization of a tax code that reduces the burden on working and middle-class families and asks the absolute richest among us to pay their fair share.
On November 9, 2019, the IDCCA unanimously approved a resolution to support the effort to pass the Fair Tax Amendment to the Illinois Constitution. This amendment ends the outdated method of taxing poor people at the same rate as the rich. Instead, Illinois would more to fairer rate that applies lower rates to lower incomes and higher rates to the highest income.
Under the plan that has been discussed by Governor JB Pritzker, if approved by voters, the Fair Tax will boost revenues to create stability for the state’s budgets and ensure that 97% of Illinoisans will see no increase in income taxes. Many will experience a reduction in tax costs.
