FILE - IL House Speaker Michael Madigan 8-16-17
Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan talks at a press conference on August 16, 2017.
File image courtesy of BlueRoomStream
Illinois state representatives pushed House Speaker Michael Madigan’s progressive tax resolution forward to the House floor on Wednesday after more than two hours of sometimes heated discussion that failed to detail key factors such as what income levels would be targeted for increases and what the escalating tax rates would be. 
Madigan’ resolution is only advisory. Supporters missed the deadline to get a question on the ballot in November. The resolution says that a progressive income tax will “stimulate small business growth” and give a tax cut to most state residents. It also calls out Minority Leader Jim Durkin’s resolution opposing a progressive tax, which all but one Republican has signed off on.
Durkin, R-Western Springs, went after Majority Leader Barbara Flynn Currie, D-Chicago, and others for not revealing the rates at which they would tax income earners.
“Why isn’t anybody talking about what their rates are? What is [Democratic gubernatorial candidate] J.B. Pritzker and the Democratic majority hiding?” he asked, being told to drop the question of rates by the committee chair.
Not one rate or tax bracket was mentioned Wednesday. The only claim of what a progressive tax would mean for Illinois was that it would bring in more money for the state while giving the majority of workers a tax cut, with no specifics to back that up.
Currie maintained that defenders of a flat tax don’t have the best interests of the middle class in mind.
“People who oppose the idea are generally more responsive to the particularly well-off taxpayers, the rich, than they are to the middle-class,” she said, without providing details of what income levels would be paying which rates under Democrats' progressive tax push.
Illinois’ flat income tax is enshrined in the state constitution and would have to be put before the voters to change to a progressive tax.The conversation eventually moved to the heart of the matter in Democrats' terms: how could Illinois best raise new tax money to help pay for its escalating bills, which are running short even after a $5 billion income tax increase last July. Many Republicans say expenses need to be reduced instead.

“The amount of money that needs to be raised through a progressive income tax alone isn’t $2 billion, it’s $8 billion,” state Rep. Steven Reick, R-Woodstock, said. “That would destroy the Illinois economy.”
State Rep. Robert Martwick, D-Chicago, said the nonpartisan Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability told him the state would have to raise the current flat tax of 4.95 percent to 6.45 percent to keep up with state spending over the next several years, meaning all Illinois wage earners would see a tax hike.
“That’s not politics, that’s math,” he said.
According to at least one national analysis, Illinois residents already pay the highest combined local and state taxes in the U.S.
Opponents say that a progressive income tax would further hinder economic growth in Illinois, which has been lagging behind most other states for years.
“Individuals respond to prices, they respond to economic policy,” said Orphe Divounguy, chief economist at the Illinois Policy Institute. “Raising the tax rate would cause economic activity to decrease.”