Dupage Policy Journal

The COVID-19 crisis is hitting Illinois hard, particularly in DuPage County.

Before the crisis, the county had seen a loss of nearly 1,000 manufacturing jobs in 2019. Some economists project that under Gov. J.B. Pritzker's progressive tax plan, the county will experience a job loss of 30 percent—amounting to 131,853 workers.

On April 15, instead of limiting his daily briefing on the medical impact of the coronavirus spread, Gov. Pritzker touted his proposed graduated income tax plan, dubbed the "fair tax."

Even though Pritzker says his plan will decrease taxes for 97 percent of citizens, the Illinois Policy Institute (IPI) estimates that the typical DuPage County middle-income family will be taxed $3,500 next year. In addition to the losses the COVID-19 crisis will produce, as many as 7,000 jobs will be lost.

IPI noted that the progressive income tax may lead to enough job losses to wipe out all the gains Illinois made in 2019.

"This is consistent with what happened in the last state to adopt a progressive income tax," the report said. "In 1996, Connecticut became the last state to adopt a progressive income tax, and the policy change cost the state’s economy more than $10 billion and 360,000 jobs, ultimately shrinking the labor force by an estimated 362,000 workers."

Pritzker's touting his proposed progressive income tax in light of these statistics angered some opposing politicians, including Illinois GOP Chairman Tim Schneider.

"It seems Governor Pritzker has taken Rahm Emannuel's 'never let a crisis go to waste' adage to heart," said Schneider. With a global pandemic that has plunged the state's economy to depths not seen since the Great Depression, this is the worst possible time to push through a tax hike that will crush small businesses who provide so many of our jobs. Pritzker using a Coronavirus briefing to campaign for the progressive income tax is inappropriate and unfortunate."

Because Pritzker asserts the tax will primarily affect the state's top earners, he promotes the plan as the “fair tax.” Because small businesses would pay more taxes, however, critics like Rep. David McSweeney (R-Barrington Hills) and Illinois Business Alliance implore the governor and the Illinois General Assembly to take the tax amendment off the ballot.