(The Center Square) – Illinois House Republicans are calling for reforms to the state’s estate tax on farmers, saying it’s up to Democrats to find savings to make up for potentially millions of dollars in lost state revenue.
Earlier this month, Gov. J.B. Pritzker said he would support a change to the estate tax for family farms as long as proponents bring forward cuts to state spending to make up for possibly lost revenue.
“It’s a couple few hundred million dollars of revenue to the state,” Pritzker said after Ag Day events at the Illinois State Capitol. “So … if he’s able to come with his ideas about how to pay for it, then we ought to talk about it.”
During a news conference Wednesday, state Rep. Wayne Rosenthal, R-Morrisonville, joined other Republicans to support legislation they say will save family farms. He said finding savings to make up for lost revenue from reforming the estate tax is up to Democrats who run the statehouse and their priorities.
“Do we want to maintain and preserve the family farms, or do we just want to let them go by the wayside?” Rosenthal said. “And so that’s the critical thing there. So that would be up to him to make that decision whether he wants to maintain the farms or not.”
At an unrelated hearing Wednesday, Illinois Department of Revenue Director David Harris said just last week, they deposited more money than ever in the history of the department.
“In one day, we had $1.6 billion in one day,” Harris told Illinois state senators. “As my staff likes to say, or the person who handles this, that’s a lot of scratch.”
Rosenthal said there are savings to be had to make way for reforming the estate tax for family farms.
“We are spending a lot of money on undocumented immigrants in the state right now,” he said. “So do they think that’s more important than preserving our farm legacy, which is our No. 1 industry in the state?”
One proposed stathouse measure would increase the threshold for when the estate tax kicks in to $6 million, up from $4 million.
