(The Center Square) – Unofficial results show all three of Illinois’ non-binding advisory questions are on the way to approval.
On two of the three dealing with access to fertility treatments and election worker security, voters approved overwhelmingly. It was closer for the question asking voters if the state should tax millionaires a 3% surcharge for property tax relief. That received around 61% yes votes and 39% no votes.
Illinois Policy Institute’s Bryce Hill said it’s not just millionaires who will be affected by a proposed millionaires surcharge.
“What nobody has really talked about is the fact that nearly 24,000 of these quote-unquote ‘millionaires’ are actually small businesses who are Illinois’ largest job creators,” Hill told The Center Square. “So small businesses would be crushed by a quote-unquote ‘millionaires tax’ but then also the lack of revenue compared to the size of the bills that the state and local governments have.”
The measure is advisory only, but advocates for the proposal say the state legislature could approve a constitutional amendment to ask voters the same question as a binding referendum in two years.
Former Gov. Pat Quinn advocates for the idea.
“So that’s 77,323 millionaires, if they had to pay 3% more would generate $4.5 billion for property tax relief in Illinois,” Quinn recently told an Illinois House committee.
Wirepoints President Ted Dabrowski warned such an idea is more of the same.
“This whole tax increase, the progressive tax and the millionaires tax, kind of just really goes counter to the most recent data we saw that 93,000 people left the state on net last year for all kinds of reasons so more tax hikes can’t be anything but a people chaser,” Dabrowski told The Center Square.
Hill said policy makers should be working to focus on things driving high property taxes like high local pension costs. He advocates for a constitutional amendment to change the pension protection clause.
