A local Senator says that voting for the Graduate Income Tax Amendment is going to make the state’s problems worse. 50th District State Senator Steve McClure says that Governor J.B. Pritzker’s graduated income tax is going to continue to cause out migration of citizens and businesses, drive out investment, and fail to fix the state’s budget problems: “Obviously now it’s an issue that we all get to vote on. I think it’s going to be very contested. Governor Pritzker is going to need 60% to get it passed. My analysis of the bill is that #1 – when we looked at it and you listen to all of the promises that were made and what it was going to do, there is not enough millionaires in the state to pay for all the promises that were made, period. It’s not even close. There’s a misconception out there that if you tax everyone that’s wealthy, all of your wildest dreams are going to come true and that you are going to do whatever you want and have this, that, and whatever. This just doesn’t bare out in the statistics that I’ve looked at from other states.”
McClure says that people will simply set up residency in other states and take their money with them. “You can move out of the state but still live here. You just have to live in Florida six months and a day. I know of several people in Jacksonville who have become residents of Florida. They still have a residence here but they just live in Florida for six months and one day. That’s all it takes. You are not going to necessarily see people who are wealthy packing up and leaving physically, but they are going to take their money with them [elsewhere] and that’s going to hurt our state’s economy.”
McClure says that the continued ask by the government for taxes will only continue to happen with the Graduated Income Tax because the state has not be fiscally responsible. “On top of that, the rates are not in the Constitutional Amendment, ” McClure explained, “In other words, they are telling you that these are going to be the rates, but they can be changed at any moment by the State house. I don’t know about you but I don’t particularly trust the State house with my money.”
McClure says that Illinois business climate with the minimum wage increase, worker’s compensation laws, and over-regulation as well as the corporate tax rate all need to be reworked. McClure says that setting regional minimum wage laws rather than a one-size-fits-all approach would be better than raising the state’s overall minimum wage to 15 dollars an hour, which is higher than surrounding states, further drives out residents and shrinks the tax base. McClure says he likes the infrastructure projects as a way to lure people to Illinois, especially business. He says the state needs to find a better way of keeping and attracting new business to help cure some of the ongoing financial problems besides using the constitutional graduated income tax measure. The Fair Tax Amendment will be on the ballot next November for Illinois residents.