Sen. Thomas Bennett | Photo Courtesy of Sen. Thomas Bennett website
Sen. Thomas Bennett | Photo Courtesy of Sen. Thomas Bennett website
State Sen. Thomas M. Bennett (R-Watseka) shared an update on legislation from the State Capitol in a Facebook post published on Jan. 27.
In a two-minute video attached to the post, Bennett spoke about a Republican bill to prevent a progressive income tax.
Senate Republicans have filed a resolution opposing a progressive income tax pushed by a Democratic lawmaker. The bill, SR0027, was filed on Jan. 25 and, according to the official synopsis, "[o]pposes the reconsideration by the Illinois General Assembly of any constitutional amendment intended to change the flat-rate income tax language of subsection (a) of Section 3 of Article IX of the Constitution of Illinois." Sponsors include: Sens. John F. Curran, Sue Rezin, Neil Anderson, Dale Fowler, Terri Bryant, Jil Tracy, Sally J. Turner, Donald P. DeWitte, Steve McClure, Dave Syverson, Dan McConchie, Win Stoller, Jason Plummer, Chapin Rose, Craig Wilcox, Erica Harriss, Andrew S. Chesney, Tom Bennett, and Seth Lewis.
State Sen. Robert Martwick (D-Chicago) is proposing the legislators revisit the progressive income tax rejected by voters in 2020. In that year, 53.3% of voters were against the progressive income tax that targeted higher income groups with a higher tax rate than others, according to Illinois Policy.
According to the Center Square, Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D) said that he's not currently prioritizing the issue and is putting his attention elsewhere.
"We have done important work to balance the budget and close corporate loopholes," Pritzker said. "There is a mistaken belief by some that the balancing of the budget was entirely because of money that came from [federal tax funds for COVID-19 relief] to the government, and that is just false."
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