Dupage Policy Journal

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker recently announced that tax cuts could be in play if state revenues continue to exceed expectations.

The state legislature's nonpartisan Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability (COGFA) recently increased its projected estimates of revenue by approximately $1 billion in total for the current and upcoming budget year combined, a recent ABC7 Chicago news report said.

"You can see in every single month so far this fiscal year we've actually had a gain where we've generated more revenue in this fiscal year compared to the same time a year ago," Eric Noggle, a COGFA senior revenue analyst, said in the commission's March meeting, quoted by ABC7.

Pritzker did not go into detail on which taxes lawmakers are considering decreasing or whether the tax cuts would be permanent.

"I would like to see - as we feel comfortable with these new revenues coming in and their stability; and I think we're seeing a few years in a row now of the stability of that revenue - that we should be talking about whether there are tax cuts that we can implement," the governor said during a news conference at a Springfield community college, quoted by ABC7.

In a statement to Capitol News Illinois, House Minority Leader Tony McCombie (R-Savanna) said the House GOP stands ready to work with the governor.

"To hear the governor mention any tax cuts is an exciting prospect for families across our state," McCombie said in the statement, quoted by ABC7. "At the first meeting I had with Gov. Pritzker, we discussed the cumbersome franchise tax on small businesses and high estate taxes that unfairly target family farms. The governor recognizing conversations with Democrats and Republicans gives me hope that we will reinstitute the bipartisan budget working group with our budgeteers and appropriation teams leading the way."

Besides tax cuts, other likely uses for the excess revenue could include increased contributions to the state's pension system or deposits into the state's "rainy day" fund, the ABC7 report said. In their budget approved last summer for the current fiscal year, lawmakers included a number of mostly temporary tax relief items, including direct checks of $50 or more to most Illinoisans depending on income and number of children and a permanent expansion of the state's earned income tax credit to 20% of the federal credit.