Letter: Bank on taxes going up or staying the same

Legislators who enthusiastically endorsed Gov. JB Pritzker's budget proposals need to explain how his policies will pull Illinois out of the deep fiscal hole into which we have fallen.

Start with a major driver of the deep fiscal hole, the public employee pension system, I quote the Chicago Tribune from Feb. 25: "The only way to save the pension funds, and protect taxpayers, is to amend the Illinois Constitution's pension clause. No, Pritzker didn't say anything about that."

Studies show the governor is using inflated assumptions to claim his graduated income tax will raise $3.4 billion in revenue. Groups such as the Illinois Policy Institute found that his proposed rates will fall at least $1 billion short of raising this projected revenue.

Wasn't the increase in both individual and corporate rates enacted in 2017 supposed to solve our fiscal problems?

The governor has changed his promise from "cutting taxes for 97 percent of Illinoisans," to "97 percent of Illinoisans won't see a tax increase." In other words, under his proposal, he has moved from "your taxes will be cut" to "your taxes will remain the same." But staying the same is highly unlikely.

Which do you prefer: income tax revenue contributed by wealthy Illinoisans at today's rate, or zero revenue from the wealthy Illinoisans who will pack up and leave? To make up the loss, and to pay for the governor's proposed rounds of new spending, taxes for the rest of us will have to rise.

In 2017, Illinois ranked 42nd in the nation in jobs growth and in 2018 continued to lag. If you were an employer seeking to expand, would you look to a state planning to raise income taxes?

Cynthia Goldring

Lake Forest