Metro East Sun

Americans For Prosperity (AFP) Action disagrees with the "Fair Tax" proposal that would replace the state’s current flat income tax if approved by voters in November

“Current events are giving us plenty of reasons to vote against the graduated income tax amendment,” Andrew Nelms, senior adviser with AFP Action, told the Metro East Sun. “We're seeing lots of headlines about corruption, bribery and all sorts of unpleasant behavior on the part of our elected officials on the part of our politicians. These are the very people who are asking for more tax power and so fundamentally there's an issue of trust." 

Both chambers of the Illinois Legislature passed the Joint Resolution Constitutional Amendment No. 1.

"Does Illinois trust their politicians with greater tax power, and how do people think that this power will be used? Nelms said. "Our concern is that that power would eventually be wielded against the middle class.”

Gov. J.B. Pritzker allegedly introduced the graduated tax rate as a means to ease the burden on middle-class families because it would earn the state $3.4 billion in added revenue, as previously reported in the DuPage Policy Journal. 

“The idea has been on the table for years but the governor made it a cornerstone of his gubernatorial campaign and a foundation of his administration,” Nelms said. “He has since contributed $56.5 million of his personal wealth towards the Vote Yes effort.”

Vote Yes For Fairness is a campaign that favors the Fair Tax, which argues that the current tax system is broken and forces essential workers to pay the same tax rate as wealthier Illinois residents. 

Nelms, however, said the tax would, eventually and likely rather quickly, negatively impact the middle class.

“The rate schedule that was adopted by the Legislature purports to only raise taxes on people who earn more than a quarter of a million dollars a year, but nobody would be paying less than the 3.75% percent everyone was paying on the flat income tax before the last massive income tax hike in 2017,” he said. “Politicians want to raise our taxes in order to pretend to lower them.”

A survey by the Ideas Illinois group, which opposes the progressive income tax, found that 46% of Illinois voters felt that the proposed tax would hurt the state economy and could cause businesses to flee to more tax-friendly states.

“With a more complex tax system, far less predictability and more uncertainty when the state is struggling to recover from the current pandemic crisis, we need Illinois to become a more favorable place to do business and raise a family,” Nelms said. “Upending the tax code and implementing a far more complex system that can be altered on a whim certainly is not a great way to recover.

About 74% of Republicans, 46% of independents and 25% of Democrats oppose the graduated income tax, according to the study.

“Politicians have been trying to figure out a way to increase taxes, and we've seen it in the twin massive income tax hikes of the last decade, the doubling of the gasoline tax," Nelms said. "This is just the next step in that quest for ever-larger taxes." 

Americans for Prosperity Action recently hosted a webinar with state Rep. Avery Bourne (R-Taylorville) on the topic.

“So many businesses in our area have been devastated by this pandemic and subsequent stay at home order," Bourne was quoted in the event description. "We simply cannot allow for another tax increase for small businesses that are barely hanging on. We need to adopt policies that assist with Illinois’ economic recovery, not policies that will cause further closures and devastation of the state’s economy.”