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PRITZKER
‘FAIR’ TAX COULD COST TYPICAL ST. CLAIR COUNTY FAMILY NEARLY $400
Illinois Policy Institute/
Joe Kaiser
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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 Though Gov. J.B. Pritzker has mentioned Wisconsin and Iowa as
models for a fairer income tax, the typical Illinois family in St. Clair County
would pay nearly $400 more in taxes each year with either of those states’
income tax rates.
A median income family with two children making $68,481 in St. Clair County pays
$2,994 under Illinois’ current flat tax. But if Illinois adopted Iowa’s
progressive rate structure, that tax bill would jump to $3,338. It would jump
even higher, to $3,369, under Wisconsin’s.
Calling the rate structure a “fair tax,” Pritzker cited these
two states in his 2019 budget address 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 St. Clair County –
already dealing with high property taxes and an income tax just hiked in 2017 –
might not agree that yet another tax hike is either fair or competitive.
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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.
Pritzker’s “fair tax” isn’t the only progressive-tax idea floating
around in Springfield that should have middle-class taxpayers
worried, either. Another progressive income tax proposal introduced
in 2017 would have raised income taxes on Illinoisans earning as
little as $17,300 a year.
With either proposal, 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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