Illinois lawmakers pass permanent income tax hike, override Rauner’s veto
The Illinois House of Representatives has completed an override of Gov. Bruce Rauner’s veto of a budget plan, including multibillion-dollar tax increases.
Members of the Illinois House of Representatives passed into law the largest permanent income tax hike in state history July 6, successfully overriding Gov. Bruce Rauner’s July 4 veto of a larger budget package.
The override vote with respect to Senate Bill 9, the revenue portion of the budget that includes a tax hike, passed on a 71-42 vote. Ten House Republicans voted yes.
The override passed the Senate July 4 on a 36-19 vote, with one Republican voting yes, state Sen. Dale Righter from Mattoon. Righter also voted in favor of the tax hikes in order to send the bill to the governor in the first place.
The budget package will now become law despite Rauner’s veto.
The personal income tax rate will increase to 4.95 percent from 3.75 percent and the corporate income tax rate will rise to 7 percent from 5.25 percent, retroactive to July 1.
Moody’s Investors Service has indicated that even with the budget deal, Illinois is likely to become the nation’s first junk-rated state.
Despite a 32 percent income tax hike, the budget package is devoid of any structural spending reforms to slow growth in the cost of government: It lacks comprehensive property tax reform, major pension reform, collective bargaining reform, reforms to Medicaid and more.
Illinoisans may recall the 2011 temporary income tax hike, which also took a tax-hike-without-reform approach. Despite $32 billion in extra tax revenue, the state’s unpaid bill backlog only declined by $1.3 billion (to $6.6 billion from $7.9 billion), and pension debt rose by $25 billion.
A statewide poll conducted in May by Fabrizio, Lee & Associates and commissioned by Illinois Policy revealed nearly two-thirds of Illinoisans surveyed opposed a budget that included a state income tax hike.
Below is the House roll call for the override of Senate Bill 9, which contains the permanent income tax hike.
Democrats voting yes (61): Ammons, Andrade, Arroyo, Beiser, D. Burke, K. Burke, Cassidy, Chapa LaVia, Conroy, Conyears-Ervin, Crespo, Currie, D’Amico, Davis, DeLuca, Drury, Evans, Feigenholtz, Fine, Flowers, Ford, Gabel, Gordon-Booth, Greenwood, Guzzardi, Halpin, Harper, G. Harris, Hernandez, Hoffman, Hurley, Jones, Kifowit, Lang, Lilly, Madigan, Mah, Manley, Martwick, Mayfield, C. Mitchell, Moeller, Nekritz, Phelps, Riley, Rita, Scherer, Sente, Sims, Slaughter, Soto, Stratton, Tabares, Thapedi, Turner, Wallace, Walsh, Welch, Williams, Willis, Zalewski.
Republicans voting yes (10): Andersson, Bryant, Fortner, Hammond, D. Harris, Hays, Jimenez, B. Mitchell, Phillips, Unes.
Democrats voting no (6): Connor, Costello, Moylan, Mussman, Stuart, Yingling.
Republicans voting no (36): Batinick, Bellock, Bennett, Bourne, Brady, Breen, Butler, Cabello, Cavaletto, Davidsmeyer, Demmer, Durkin, Frese, Halbrook, Jesiel, Long, McAuliffe, McCombie, McDermed, McSweeney, Meier, Morrison, Olsen, Parkhurst, Reick, Reis, Severin, Skillicorn, Sommer, Sosnowski, Spain, Stewart, Swanson, Welter, B. Wheeler, K. Wheeler.
Republicans not voting (5): Ives, Pritchard, Sauer, Wehrli, Winger.