Lawmakers send graduated tax to voters

SPRINGFIELD - Voters will decide whether to change Illinois' income-tax structure after the House approved a constitutional amendment on Gov. J.B. Pritzker's graduated tax proposal.

The House voted 73-44 Monday to put the question on the November 2020 ballot. It needed 71 votes.

Voter approval would mean eliminating the current flat-rate tax of 4.95%. Democratic Pritzker intends that a progressive structure would increase taxes on incomes higher than $250,000. Pritzker says 97 percent of taxpayers would pay no increase in taxes.

The amendment does not specify what rates would apply to income levels. That must come in separate legislation.

But minority House Republicans complained that the proposal amounts to a tax hike and allow runaway Democratic spending.

The Senate approved the amendment May 1.