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PRITZKER
‘FAIR’ TAX COULD COST TYPICAL AURORA FAMILY $550
Illinois Policy Institute/
Joe Kaiser
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker claims his
progressive income tax will only affect the rich. But Illinoisans making
as little as $26,100 would see an income tax hike under rates Pritzker
cited in his budget address.
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 Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker has mentioned Wisconsin and Iowa as
models for a fairer income tax, but the typical family in Aurora, Illinois,
could pay as much as $550 more in state income taxes each year were Illinois to
adopt one of those states’ rates.
The tax hike would be $550 for an Aurora median income family with two children
making $76,747 if the state adopted Iowa’s rates. If Illinois adopted
Wisconsin’s rates, the family would pay $484 more in state income taxes. Those
are tax hikes of 16 and 14 percent.
Calling the rate structure a “fair tax,” Pritzker cited these
two states in his budget address Feb. 20 as examples for Illinois to follow.
Specifically, he said Illinois “can accomplish” a progressive income tax with a
“more competitive rate structure than Wisconsin and Iowa,” though it’s unclear
how he’s defining competition. Middle-income taxpayers in Aurora – already
dealing with high property taxes and a historic income tax hike in 2017 that
followed a prior record hike in 2011 – might not agree that yet another tax hike
is either fair or competitive.
Experts second that. A recent Tax Foundation study on Wisconsin’s tax code went
so far as to recommend exchanging its progressive income tax for a flat income
tax as one way to make the state more competitive. This is a move both North
Carolina and Kentucky have made in recent years.
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The only state in the past 30 years to embrace a
progressive tax was Connecticut. That state has since seen its
economy founder, lost residents and suffered more poverty for those
left behind – all while state income taxes and property taxes have
both grown and the state still spends more than it receives in most
years.
Pritzker’s “fair tax” isn’t the only progressive tax idea floating
around Springfield that should have middle-class taxpayers worried.
Another progressive income tax proposal introduced in 2017 would
have raised income taxes on Illinoisans earning as little as $17,300
a year.
With any of the proposals, the middle class gets hit hard, despite
Pritzker’s fairness rhetoric. Illinois families cannot afford
another tax hike, and it certainly wouldn’t be fair to push one on
them.
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