McCaleb: To many, Illinois tax hike is inhumane
Jean Millburg doesn't necessarily want to leave Illinois behind.
She's just not sure she and her husband can afford to stay, particularly after the 33 percent income tax hike approved by the Illinois General Assembly last month despite Gov. Bruce Rauner's veto.
"Our [property] taxes are more than what our house payments are," Millburg said. "This tax increase is so wrong on so many levels."
Schaumburg area residents for the past 30 years, the Millburgs are struggling to pay their mortgage, real estate taxes and other bills on just one income. Jean, 55, has been without a job since 2012. Her husband works as an IT specialist at a local company, but he had to take a 10 percent pay cut in 2006 and he hasn't had a raise since.
"With the cost of living going up, we are all struggling," Millburg said. "We are starting to dig into our retirement savings and my husband is 60 years old. He is afraid he is going to lose his job and we will lose our home."
Illinoisans pay the second highest property taxes in the nation. According to one report, we pay the highest combined local and state taxes in the country - and that was before this month's $5 billion tax increase. Earlier this year, financial analyst firm WalletHub said Illinois residents pay 15 percent of their household income on state and local taxes each year, or $8,162 on average. The next highest is Nebraska, whose residents send 13.9 percent of their income to local and state governments.
That sad fact didn't stop House Speaker Michael Madigan, Senate President John Cullerton and the respective chambers of the legislature from voting to override Rauner's vetoes of the tax increase and $36.5 billion spending plan that relies on the tax increase to be balanced. One Republican joined the supermajority Democrats in the Senate and 10 House Republicans joined the majority-holding Dems in the House on the tax hike override votes.
The deal ended a two-year budget stalemate between Rauner and the Democrat-controlled General Assembly, but it left Illinoisans like the Millburgs on the brink.
The average Illinois household now will have to hand over about $1,000 more a year to a bloated, wasteful and inefficient state government.
"Many of us, we are scraping by, barely living paycheck to paycheck with less take-home pay and having a one income household," Jean Millburg said. "We have no idea where our money is going ... This tax increase is hurting people even more. They can no longer afford to live here in this state or Cook County."
Millburg's right.
Before this latest tax increase, Illinoisans were fleeing for greener pastures in record numbers, according to U.S. Census Bureau statistics.
From July 2015 to July 2016, Illinois' population declined by more than 37,000 people - worst in the nation. It was the third consecutive year Illinois led the nation in state population loss. Since 2000, 1.2 million more people have left Illinois than those who have moved here from other states. And it's not just retirees or middle class working people who are leaving Illinois. Millionaires, who pay much more in taxes, are as well. New World Wealth analysts estimate that Chicago alone lost 3,000 millionaires to out-migration in 2015.
What's more, Cook County, where the Millburgs live, saw its population drop by more than 21,000 between July 2015 and July 2016. The U.S. county with the next largest population decline, Wayne County in Michigan, lost fewer than 8,000 residents during the same period.
Higher taxes are only going to accelerate the state's out-migration problem. And, of course, fewer people means fewer taxpayers, meaning those left behind have to pay even more.
"I have lost faith in our politicians in this state," Millburg said. "They are not serving or caring for the hardworking, middle and lower class legal citizens in this state. I feel they are robbing us of all the money we have left and worked for - gone, just like that."
Illinois News Network