(The Center Square) – Illinois’ business tax climate lags behind the rest of the nation, including its neighbors, a new report shows.
Illinois is ranked 37th for its State Business Tax Climate. The numbers from the Tax Foundation show that Illinois also ranked 43rd in its corporate tax rate, 39th in the sales tax rate and 45th in the property tax rate, all among the worst in the U.S.
Despite the rankings, Illinois Chamber of Commerce interim CEO Keith Staats said things are not as bad as the rankings show.
“The good news in the rankings is that we get ranked higher than a number of other states do because we have a flat income tax,” Staats told The Center Square. “We went down one notch this year from 36 to 37, but that wasn’t as a result of anything that happened in Illinois. I think it was probably a result of one of the other states that may have cut a tax rate that affected their ranking.”
Neighboring states ranked much higher in the report, as Indiana ranked 10th, Michigan 11th and Missouri 12th.
State Rep. Adam Niemerg, R-Dieterich, said neighboring states are ranked higher on the list because of action at the Illinois Statehouse.
“It’s a result of poor public policy from the Democratic party when it comes to corporate income tax rates, when it comes to individual income tax rates, when it comes to just the plethora of taxes you have to deal with here in the state of Illinois,” Niemerg said.
According to U.S. Census data, Illinois is one of 17 states to see its average inflation-adjusted household income decrease in 2022, and as of September, Illinois’ unemployment rate of 4.4% also was higher than the national average of 3.8%.
“To say that Illinois is going in the right direction when it comes to the business climate is completely false,” Niemerg told The Center Square. “We need to do much better. We need to deregulate. We need to get government out of the way and we need to lower the tax burden so businesses will come back to the state of Illinois.”
