DON'T TRUST POLITICIANS TO BE 'FAIR'

Last year, politicians passed a budget with a $4 billion deficit. Earlier this year, Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan suggested raising the state income tax back to 5%. Then Speaker Madigan (again) proposed a new tax on job creators, calling it the Millionaire’s Tax. Now, politicians are once again looking at scrapping our constitutionally-protected flat state income tax and replacing it with a graduated, or progressive, one calling it a ‘fair tax’.

Do you trust Springfield politicians enough to give them carte blanche ability to add brackets, increase the rates or lower the income threshold at which higher rates apply? If your answer is “NO,” then you’re not alone. In fact, a recent Gallup poll highlighted that a mere 25% of Illinoisans “are confident in their state government” - worse than any other state. That once again puts the state with the highest unfunded public pension liability, the worst credit rating, the second highest property taxes and the second highest outbound migration at the top of every list we ought to be at the bottom of and at the bottom of every list we ought to be atop.

When last discussed, in 2014, three separate rate schedules were proposed. The most modest of which was a three-tiered rate schedule that would’ve amounted to a tax hike on anyone with more than $22,000 in taxable income. The left-leaning Center for Tax and Budget Accountability called for an eight-bracket schedule with rates ranging from 5% – 11%, which would’ve given Illinois the second-highest top marginal rate in the country.

True enough, the graduated income tax amendment, HJRCA 8, currently before the Legislature does not include rates. Rather, it merely asks the good people of Illinois to bless the notion of a graduated income tax, leaving the details of brackets and rates at the discretion of our chronically irresponsible Legislature.

In fact, amongst the 34 states (and the District of Columbia) with a graduated income tax, Illinois’ median household income ($57,444) would be taxed at a top marginal rate of 5.46%, nearly two full percentage points higher than our current 3.75% flat income tax. The average number of brackets is six.

The last time this amendment was discussed in earnest, seven newspapers, from Chicago, the suburbs and Downstate, editorialized against the graduated income tax. The Chicago Tribune referred to it as “Tax Hike 2.0.” The suburban Daily Herald noted that it’s “a blatant money grab.” Meanwhile, a columnist for the the McHenry County Northwest Herald called the notion that most folks would actually pay less “a load of crap.”

Asking hardworking middle-class taxpayers to pay more is unfair and Illinois politicians haven’t earned the trust that such a dramatic change would entail.

Andrew Nelms is the Deputy State Director for Americans for Prosperity- Illinois, the nation’s leading grassroots organization advocating for greater economic freedom.