(The Center Square) – Illinois families face the highest state and local tax burden in the country in 2025, with residents forced to pay at least 17% of their income in taxes, according to a new report.
WalletHub researchers report each Illinois household will spend an average of $13,099, or roughly 17% of their income, in 2025, adding families earning the median income of $79,004 will pay $4,472 more than the national average, or nearly 52% more.
State Sen. Craig Wilcox, R-McHenry, is urging Illinois voters to raise their voices amid the reports of Illinois’ tax rates that are the highest in the country.
“We should not give this majority party another penny until they can prove how they’ve been spending taxpayer dollars,” Wilcox told The Center Square.
Democrats have supermajorities in both legislative chambers and every statewide constitutional office like governor and comptroller are held by Democrats.
“We know there’s waste, fraud, and abuse in Illinois,” Wilcox said. “We see it every budget the last two years. Democrats give pork barrel projects to their members of the legislature and they exclude all of the Republicans, which make up arguably 45 to 50% of the population. They are playing games with taxpayer dollars.”
Wilcox said all the high taxes are coming at a steep price for the state with recent Census Bureau data showing the state lost population for at least eight consecutive years, only slowing the trend in 2023 on the strength of a massive spike in new international migration.
In addition, a recent survey found more than 50% of voters polled agreed if given the chance they too would move out of state with high taxes being their primary motivation.
Wilcox argues none of it has to be.
“It is absolutely theft of residents’ hard-earned dollars,” he said. “It costs us economic opportunities; it costs us employment opportunities; it costs us people moving out of the state and it causes businesses to not expand or grow here. We need government out of the way of individuals, out of the way of businesses, out of the way of residents.”
With the state also being home to the second highest property taxes in the country, data shows almost three out of every five state residents believe the value of public service they receive is not worth what they pay in property taxes.
“Republicans have said for years that the Democrats in Illinois have a spending problem, not a revenue problem,” Wilcox adds. “Illinois residents need absolute transparency on the spending in Illinois.”
