Chicago Tribune: A Key Issue in Illinois Governor Race — Gov. Bruce Rauner, J.B. Pritzker Have Very Different Plans for State Income Tax
media mentionThe left-leaning Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, in its most recent review of state taxation, ranked Illinois as having the eighth-most-inequitable tax system in the nation for lower- and middle-income wage earners, in part because of the effects of its flat-rate tax and its reliance on sales and property taxes.
The group said taxpayers in the lowest 20 percent of incomes pay on average 14.4 percent of their income in state and local taxes while the top 1 percent pays an average rate of 7.4 percent.
Last year, state lawmakers raised income taxes and ended the state’s two-year budget impasse over the passionate objections and veto of Rauner. At the time, the governor called the move “another step in Illinois’ never-ending tragic trail of tax hikes.”