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House Joint Resolution Constitutional Amendment 26 calls for a
binding referendum to be placed on the general election ballot.
Former Gov. Pat Quinn joined state Rep. La Shawn Ford,
D-Chicago, at a news conference in Chicago last week to urge
support for the surcharge.
Quinn said people with homestead exemptions should be getting
rebates from the state’s property tax relief fund.
“The problem is there’s no money in the fund right now. That’s
why passing the millionaire’s surcharge only on millionaires can
get the money, $4.5 billion to fund annual property tax
rebates,” Quinn said.
Quinn said the resolution has a deadline of May 3 to be approved
by three-fifths of the General Assembly in order for it to be on
the Election Day ballot this year.
Although Quinn said the millionaire’s surcharge would generate
$4.5 billion, current Gov. J.B. Pritzker said only about $2
billion would go likely go to property tax relief.
“It takes a lot of things, just like in dealing with pensions,
you have to go at it from three or four or five or six angles in
order to try to reduce the burden of local property taxes,”
Pritzker said.
The governor said just keeping property taxes from going up
would be a huge benefit to people.
The proposed amendment would permit income over $1 million to be
taxed at 7.95% instead of 4.95%.
Illinois House Republican Leader Tony McCombie, R-Savanna, said
the millionaire’s tax would drive people out of the state.
“People will leave. They have the money to do so. They will find
loopholes to avoid it. Rather than looking at ways to raise
taxes, we need to be looking at ways to lower taxes,” McCombie
said.
Brian Costin of Americans for Prosperity Illinois said the
amendment does not have the right mechanisms to actually lower
property taxes.
“What you need to do is you need to limit the spending or limit
the taxing powers of those local governments. That's why
Indiana, compared to Illinois, they have done such a better job
of turning their economy around, turning their competitiveness
around,” Costin told The Center Square.
Costin said property taxes in Indiana are half what people pay
in Illinois.
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