Illinois
Institute for the Public Good: A New Path To Transforming Chicago’s Financial Future
• By ITEP Staff
Moving away from false binaries, and creating a pathway with real solutions to solving Chicago's fiscal crisis, while charting a path for growth and increased quality of life for all residents.
State Rundown 10/8: Ballot Debates and Gas Tax Promises Accelerate as Election Day Nears
• By ITEP Staff
As the Iran War continues to cause gas prices to rise across the country, lawmakers are stepping on the accelerator instead of pumping the brakes on costly and ineffective proposals to suspend the gas tax ahead of the November election.
State Rundown 9/24: States Reckon with Tightening Fiscal Futures
• By ITEP Staff
States across the nation are reckoning with their tightening fiscal futures as inflation and economic woes continue to eat into their budgets.
State Rundown 8/27: Tax Policy is Cool as Summer Wraps
• By ITEP Staff
With many state legislatures already adjourned, developments in tax policy have slowed.
State-by-State Tax Expenditure Reports
• By ITEP Staff
Below is a list of tax expenditure reports published in the states.
2026 Sessions in Review: States Move to Tax the Rich and Corporations
• By Aidan Davis
This year several states raised income tax rates on high-income people to fund crucial services and make progress toward remedying the regressive tilt of their tax codes.
State Rundown 6/25: Trending This Summer? New Revenue!
• By ITEP Staff
It's the first official week of summer, and while many of us are planning vacations, state lawmakers remain busy finalizing and debating tax proposals.
State Rundown 6/11: Taxing the Rich Heats Up
• By ITEP Staff
As we head into summer, many state legislatures are in the final stretches of their sessions. Rhode Island moved another step closer to joining the ranks of Washington, Maine, and Hawai’i in enacting a new high-income surcharge this year.
A Growing Number of States Are Taxing the Sale of Advertising
• By Nick Johnson
ITEP’s report on taxing advertising identifies some reasons why states are curtailing longstanding sales tax exemptions for the ad sector.
States Are Standing Up to the Monster Known as QSBS
• By Nick Johnson
We estimate that by 2032, QSBS will be costing states $1.1 billion a year, and since states must balance their budgets, that’s money they can’t use for public services.
States Can Raise Billions by Ending a Tax Giveaway to Big Tech
• By Nick Johnson
An advertising tax offers a way to raise significant money from a sector of the economy that has been getting a free ride for decades.
State Rundown 6/4: Fiscal Flowers and Weeds Bloom in June
• By ITEP Staff
A veritable superbloom of tax and budget policies occurred over these last few weeks, including both flowers worth admiring and weeds worth fighting back.
State Rundown 5/14: Fund Priorities or Increase Shortfalls?
• By ITEP Staff
As many legislative sessions end, lawmakers are revealing their priorities.
The Bears Bill Is Bad by Design. Here’s How.
• By Rita Jefferson, Amanda Kass, Kristan Wong Karinen
State lawmakers are debating whether to subsidize a new Chicago Bears stadium in Arlington Heights, but this bill creates a new statewide property tax cut program for large development projects.
State Rundown 4/30: Aloha to Tax Cuts, Hawaiʻi Lawmakers Address Revenue Gap with High-End Tax Changes
• By ITEP Staff
This week Hawaiʻi lawmakers reached a compromise to balance the state budget and maintain tax cuts for most residents by, in part, raising rates on the richest Hawaiians. Other states are working to generate revenue from their wealthiest residents, too.
State Rundown 4/23: While Some States Stop Digging, Others Move Full Steam Ahead with Anti-Affordability Agendas
• By ITEP Staff
Missouri lawmakers passed legislation that will have residents vote on a proposal at the ballot box. The ask: for them to pay more in sales taxes to offset cuts – and the possible elimination – of the state's individual income tax, which makes up nearly two-thirds of Missouri’s general fund.
State Rundown 4/16: Tax Day, a New Millionaires’ Tax and Late Blooming State Tax Action
• By ITEP Staff
Yesterday was Tax Day, and with many state legislative sessions wrapping, some tax changes are gearing up or crossing over the finish line.
State Tax Watch 2026
• By ITEP Staff
ITEP tracks tax discussions in legislatures across the country and uses our unique data capacity to analyze the revenue, distributional, and racial and ethnic impacts of many of these proposals. State Tax Watch offers the latest news and movement from each state.
State Rundown 3/18: New Mexico Enacts Most Significant Corporate Tax Reform of the Year
• By ITEP Staff
As states lawmakers continue to weigh their linkages to the federal tax code in light of the recent federal tax law, New Mexico provides a blueprint for limiting multinational corporate tax avoidance.
State Rundown 2/19: Necktie (NCTI) Offers a Way Out of a Knotty Situation
• By ITEP Staff
State lawmakers are grappling with a range of challenges as their fiscal outlooks deteriorate, federal tax enforcement wanes (after the Trump administration cut the IRS workforce by 25 percent), and a rewritten federal tax code sends states scrambling to decide what changes they might want to make in their own codes.
State Rundown 2/11: This Valentine’s Day, Conscious Decoupling Is Our Love Language
• By ITEP Staff
While some may be excited for a romantic Valentine’s Day this weekend, many state lawmakers are breaking up and decoupling from recent federal tax changes that are poised to leave states with revenue shortfalls – much like a bad date who forgets their wallet and asks you to pick up the tab.
What Did 2025 State Tax Changes Mean for Racial and Economic Equity?
• By Brakeyshia Samms
The results are a mixed bag, with some states enacting promising policies that will improve tax equity and others going in the opposite direction.
Testimony: ITEP’s Brakeyshia Samms Explains How Property Tax Circuit Breakers Could Help Evanston, Illinois
• By Brakeyshia Samms
The prepared testimony below was delivered by ITEP Senior Analyst Brakeyshia Samms to the Illinois Committee on Housing and Community on January 20, 2026.
States Can Push Back Against Reckless Federal Tax Policy. Here’s How.
• By Aidan Davis, Wesley Tharpe
They should take steps to protect and boost their own revenues. And they should take a second look at their own tax cuts.
Local Governments Are Increasingly Strapped: 2026 Will Bring New Challenges and New Opportunities
• By Kamolika Das
2025 saw an intensification of state and local tax fights across the country, as well as growing experimentation with local-option taxes, levies, fees, and tourism taxes aimed at keeping budgets afloat while also navigating political constraints imposed by state legislatures.
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ITEP is a non-profit, non-partisan tax policy organization. We conduct rigorous analyses of tax and economic proposals and provide data-driven recommendations to shape equitable and sustainable tax systems.
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