Illinois Millionaires Tax doesn’t get support

By Sean Reed | The Center Square
The Center Square

(The Center Square) – A proposed millionaires tax was shot down late Wednesday in the Illinois House of Representatives.

Democrat leadership said they weren’t able to get enough votes together, but they aren’t giving up.

Proposed House Joint Resolution Constitutional Amendment 21 would have raised the tax rate on income earned more than $1 million from 4.95% to 7.95%.

Tax dollars brought in by the amendment would have been split equally between property tax relief and school funding.

Despite not being able to gather a large enough coalition to pass the tax in the single day between introduction and the deadline, House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch, D-Westchester, said his caucus won’t be giving up.

“What we heard from listening to a lot of people over the last few days is that more work needs to be done. And we’re committed to doing that work,” Welch said. “We were very close. Very close. But close is not enough, and we’re committed to getting it right.”

In a committee hearing Tuesday, multiple organizations advocated against the tax, telling lawmakers it may be unconstitutional and harmful to small businesses.

Noah Finley, the state director for the National Federation of Independent Business, said his organization opposed the tax because it would unfairly impact many small business owners.

“Many of them file their business income under a personal tax return. So it would have put them at a disadvantage,” Finley said. “This legislation would have detrimental impact to small businesses. Especially since there was no adjustment for CPI or inflation in it at that level. More and more businesses would have been caught up in it every single year.”

He expressed relief that lawmakers heard the concerns of small business owners, but would not say if he thinks there is a future where a changed version of the bill has the NFIB’s support.

House Republicans stood strong against the tax, questioning the feasibility of proposed tax relief in a committee hearing Tuesday.

In a statement Wednesday, Republicans said Democrats would take action to pass House Bill 9, an initiative from Rep. Dan Ugaste, R-St. Charles, which would fund property tax relief grants to school districts across the state.

Funding for such grants wasn’t allocated to the Illinois Department of Education for 2026 or proposed in Gov. JB Pritzker’s budget request for the coming year.

Darren Bailey, the Republican candidate for Illinois governor, told The Center Square he thought the proposal was deceiving.

“On paper, it looks and sounds awesome, but in reality everyone – absolutely everyone – is tired of being taxed,” Bailey said.