Like other states, Illinois overall state and local taxes are regressive, taking a larger percentage of income from lower income people. A progressive state income tax would have helped offset that.
Illinois current flat income tax also impacts lower income people more. The same flat tax that can cause a lower-income person to become homeless would not impact the living standard of a really rich person.
https://news.yahoo.com/illinois-billionaire-governor-tried-hike-183734221.html
https://www.businessinsider.com/illinois-billionaire-governor-failed-to-hike-taxes-on-the-rich-2020-11
Juliana Kaplan
Nov 6, 2020, 1:37 PM
Illinois Gov. Jay Robert "JB" Pritzker — who is worth $3.4 billion, per Forbes — saw his graduated income tax proposal defeated on election night.
Pritzker wanted to do away with Illinois' current flat tax rate, where everyone, regardless of their income, pays 4.95% in state income tax. Currently, 32 states and the District of Columbia have more "progressive" models, where wealthier residents pay a greater percentage.
The new model would have kept the flat rate for those making under $250,000, and would increase from there. The highest possible rate would have been 7.99%.
"Had the Fair Tax passed, we would've been on a course toward long-term stabilization of our state's finances — balancing the budget, eliminating the backlog, making our pension payments & investing in a rainy day fund — in a way that would start to unburden our working families," Pritzker wrote in a Facebook post.
Per CBS Chicago, Pritzker said the defeat of amendment could mean a raise in the flat tax rate, and the state will have to make cuts of between 15% to 20%.
"That's approximately 15% fewer state troopers, that's 15% fewer students going to college, 15% fewer working parents receiving childcare assistance," Pritzker said in a press conference.
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One prominent opponent of the measure was billionaire Ken Griffin, who is worth $15 billion, per Forbes, the founder and CEO of Chicago-based investment firm Citadel. Business Insider's Taylor Nicole Rogers previously reported that Griffin had given $20 million to an organization that advocated against the proposal.
Another Chicago-based billionaire, Sam Zell of Equity Group Investments, also chipped in to opposition efforts, giving $100,000 through a real-estate trust.
[I notice that Griffin and Zell have no problem giving a large amount of money to oppose this proposal, so that they don't have to pay it to help the public good.]
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"The opponents of the Fair Tax lied about what would happen if it passed, and they left all of the working people of Illinois holding the bag," Pritzker said in a press conference.
He said that Illinois now sits at a "crossroads."
"Let me just say to the people of Illinois: you deserved a fairer tax system, and you still do. But that didn't happen."
[Seems to me that if voters choose not to be well-informed, they don't deserve a fairer tax system.]
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https://itep.org/whopays/illinois/
Illinois: Who Pays?
October 17, 2018
According to ITEP’s Tax Inequality Index, which measures the impact of each state’s tax system on income inequality, Illinois has the 8th most unfair state and local tax system in the country. Incomes are more unequal in Illinois after state and local taxes are collected than before.
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