Illinois voters rejected a progressive income tax amendment that was criticized for having potentially devastating impacts on the state's taxpayers by removing the flat tax rate, skyrocket small business taxes by 47% and allow the possibility of taxing retirees.
The vote comes after a drawn-out and expensive campaign by Gov. J. B. Pritzker, who showed his strong support for the tax by donating almost $60 million to the tax's "Vote Yes for Fairness" campaign, $58 million of which he donated in barely six months, according to a Nov. 4 article from Illinois Policy.
While the governor and the proposed amendment's other supporters insisted that the new legislation would add fairness to Illinois tax law, election results from late Tuesday night showed that the public resonated more with the opposition – 55% of Illinoisans voted against the amendment. The idea was once popular across the state, with a March poll from the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute having reflected 65% of voters supporting the proposed legislation.
The Associated Press projected early this morning that the vote would not be in favor of the graduated tax, and the Vote Yes for Fairness Committee conceded its defeat shortly after.
“We are undoubtedly disappointed with this result but are proud of the millions of Illinoisans who cast their ballots in support of tax fairness in this election," Vote Yes For Fairness Chairman Quentin Fulks said in a statement reported by NBC Chicago.
Fulks pointed the bill's failure on Republicans, stating they "stand in the way of common sense solutions, choosing instead to play partisan games and deceive the working families of our state."
"Now lawmakers must address a multi-billion dollar budget gap without the ability to ask the wealthy to pay their fair share," the chairman continued. "Fair Tax opponents must answer for whatever comes next.”
Illinois Policy said in its article that the answer to fixing the state of Illinois' finances may lie in public pension reform, not graduated taxation. According to the publication, Moody's Investors Service also found little promise in the "fair tax," reaffirming that it would bring economic strife onto small businesses, married couples and retired people.
"Little has been done to slow the growing public pension debt," Illinois Policy wrote. "If Pritzker were to use a progressive income tax to fix the pension problem, Illinois would lose 95,000 jobs and $18 billion of economic activity."
While Illinois' mail-in ballots can legally be counted for the next two weeks and could possibly have an impact on the election's outcome, the 10% margin that the tax bill's "no" votes had over the "yes" was broad enough for the result to be declared Tuesday night.
Lissa Druss, spokeswoman for the Coalition to Stop the Proposed Tax Hike Amendment, said in a statement that the coalition believes there will be more "no" votes than "yes" votes even once all of the main-in ballots are counted, which will be "be a win for small business owners, middle-class families, family farmers, retirees, and large employers. In this election, Illinois voters sent a resounding message that with an $8 billion deficit and two massive tax hikes in the last 10 years, we cannot trust Springfield politicians with another tax hike."
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