A millionaires tax could still appear on the ballot in November. The last day for the General Assembly to approve a resolution to put a ballot referendum to amend the Constitution is May 3rd. This is under discussion among House members today because the resolution is starting on the House side.
Call your state rep TODAY and urge them to support this; time is short to get this through the House and over to the Senate. The bill may not get moving at all without a groundswell of support among state reps. Scroll down for a suggestion on what to say.
As we shared previously, according to a new report, a millionaires tax could solve our state K-12 funding problems. Entirely. The resolution under consideration in question (HJRCA 21) wouldn’t quite do that. It proposes to appropriate half the funds to school funding and half to local property tax relief. A large portion of school funding is provided by local property taxes, so less pressure on local budgets should help school funding.
In the current wording, the school funding would be distributed on a per-pupil basis, which, we’ll be frank, is not good policy. The Education Law Center rates Illinois a “D” for funding distribution because poorer districts are still getting less than wealthy ones in Illinois. So, we’d like to see that fixed before this goes to the voters. Putting these funds into the evidence-based funding formula instead would mean that they’d be spent to fulfil the promise the GA made back in 2017.
Overall, a millionaires tax is really popular according to polling that former Gov. Pat Quinn, a vigorous proponent of such a tax, shared yesterday. In response to the question, voters overwhelmingly answered yes: "Do you support or oppose the Taxpayer Action Amendment? This amendment would raise the state income tax only on millionaires in order to improve funding for schools and provide an annual $500 property tax refund to every residential property taxpayer in Illinois."
Here’s what to say when you call your state rep:
| Hi, I’m a constituent and a big supporter of public schools. I am urging my representative to support the resolution that will put the Millionaires Tax on the ballot. Any money that goes to public schools due to that amendment should be distributed fairly according to the state’s own formula. We were promised full, fair state funding for public schools by 2027, and I want to see that happen! |
Thank you for your continued advocacy. We’ll have an update for you later this week on some big advocacy wins in the fight against the federal school voucher program and protecting privacy! When we fight, we win, so let’s keep fighting!