Senate amendment would require supermajority vote to hike taxes on Illinoisans

Illinoisans are among the nation’s most overtaxed residents. A proposed Illinois constitutional amendment would require a two-thirds majority in both chambers before adding to that burden.

Illinois lawmakers are considering making it harder on themselves to take more from Illinois taxpayers.

State Sen. Dan McConchie, R-Hawthorn Woods, introduced Senate Joint Resolution Constitutional Amendment 12, which would require a two-thirds majority in both the Illinois Senate and House of Representatives before state lawmakers could increase any tax levied at the state level. Currently, Illinois lawmakers need a simple majority to pass a tax hike.

Most of Illinois’ neighboring states – Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri and Wisconsin – currently enforce some form of supermajority requirements for state lawmakers to pass tax hikes, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

The amendment is good news in Illinois, where state leaders’ main discussions have been about how to tax their way out of fiscal crisis.

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s proposed budget includes a slew of proposed tax and fee increases totaling $4.5 billion. This includes the first statewide plastic bag tax and a new tax on e-cigarettes, as well as tax hikes on cigarettes, video gambling and Medicare providers. Outside the governor’s budget proposal, lawmakers in Springfield are proposing to double the state’s gas tax. Illinoisans’ gas taxes already rank 10th-highest in the nation, but would skyrocket to second-highest under that increase.

Each of these pending tax hikes would be subject to a supermajority vote under the proposed amendment.

The defining feature of Pritzker’s term has been repeated calls for a graduated, or progressive income tax system, which would require scrapping the state’s constitutional flat tax provision.

The state’s flat income tax is one of Illinoisans’ only protections against endless income tax increases. Why? Because lawmakers face higher political risk raising a uniform tax rate statewide. Under a progressive tax system, lawmakers may target smaller groups of taxpayers at a time to relatively muted resistance. In Connecticut, the only state to switch from a flat to progressive system in 30 years, the median family has seen income taxes rise by more than 13 percent during the past decade, residents’ property tax bills climbed by more than 35 percent and poverty increased.

Illinois Policy Institute research has shown Pritzker’s proposed tax rates fall far short of the $3.4 billion his office projects – and would generate far less than the funds necessary to keep his spending promises. Middle-income families would inevitably see their tax rates spike to pay the difference. The governor’s office has already walked back its promise of tax relief for most Illinoisans.

Illinoisans endure the highest overall tax burden in the nation, driven by both state lawmakers’ penchant for tax hikes and a local property tax burden that has for years ranked second highest.

For decades, Springfield has failed to address the primary cost drivers – state employee health care and pensions – instead using record tax hikes that are still failing to fix the problems. By making it harder for state lawmakers to punish Illinoisans for lawmakers’ own fiscal mismanagement, SJRCA 12 would be a win for taxpayers.