Editorial Roundup: Illinois
Arlington Heights Daily Herald. March 24, 2022.
Editorial: IDOR may want to cut some late-filers a little slack
Filing your Illinois taxes online is generally a good way to go. It's pretty easy, it's quick, and -- if you use the Department of Revenue's 'œMyTax Illinois'ť program -- it's free.
But there's a little bug in the system right now that could cause filers new to MyTax Illinois to wind up filing late. And it behooves the Department of Revenue to make an effort to find a remedy.
Until this year, taxpayers could file form IL-1040 on MyTax Illinois without creating their own account. This year, registration is required and it's for a good reason: Maura Kownacki, IDOR spokeswoman, says the department recently discovered some fraudulently filed Illinois tax returns that were not the result of a breach within the department.
Having to create an account is a practical solution to the problem of a few fraudulent returns, without making the system unduly cumbersome for everybody else. It's not difficult to create an account. But to use the account, the applicant first must receive a 'œletter ID'ť from IDOR, and that can take up to 10 days.
Kownacki told our Mick Zawislak that people who have used MyTax Illinois in the past were alerted to the change via email, and a reminder was just sent. A message also is posted on the department's home page.
The potential problem isn't with most regular users then. It's with people who decide to file electronically for the first time this year. If they procrastinate -- or hold onto their money until the last possible minute -- they won't have eight to 10 days to wait for their ID to arrive before their return is late. In Illinois, payments less than 31 days late are penalized at 2% of the amount due; payments later than 31 days or more are penalized at 10%.
Last year, Illinois received about 5.3 million returns, or 87.5%, electronically, Kownacki said. Most are from tax preparers or taxpayers using off-the-shelf software. About 180,000 taxpayers use MyTax Illinois.
Is there a solution to keep unwitting taxpayers from being penalized?
Well, working on your taxes early is always a good idea. But we wonder if the IDOR couldn't do a little more to publicize the time lag, suggesting taxpayers get their taxes in early or reminding them they can file for an extension.
And maybe there's more: Could IDOR push the deadline back for first-time electronic filers on MyTax Illinois who make a good-faith effort to hit the deadline? Or waive the penalty for those people? Or at least shoot them a form to file for an extension?
Getting taxpayers to register is a sound idea, and if it takes 8 to 10 days to turn around the corresponding ID, so be it. All we're asking is a little consideration for somebody who -- despite IDOR's attempts to reach everybody -- remains in the dark until it is too late.
___
Chicago Tribune. March 28, 2022.
Editorial: What happened to '~social equity' marijuana? It's tied up in court
Billions of dollars have been raked in by the state's marijuana industry since recreational weed was legalized in Illinois two years ago.
Yet, so far, none of that bonanza has reached past the major growers and suppliers to small-business applicants for the 'œsocial equity'œ program that had been one of the legalization movement's biggest selling points.
While the large-scale growers, processors and distributors of legal cannabis thrive, the law's social equity program - designed to give a boost to individuals and communities that need an infusion of free-market enterprise the most - still struggles to get off the ground.
What happened? Blame a string of lawsuits, as well as the COVID-19 pandemic, along with a variety of other hurdles and disputes holding up the program.
After the state awarded 40 growing licenses last summer, a year later than mandated by the 2019 law, the law and its criteria for choosing licensees were hit with a succession of lawsuits, mostly from unsuccessful applicants who charged inconsistencies in the scoring system used to determine which applicants would be awarded licenses.
The first litigation came in 2020 when officials discovered their first list of winners of licenses to sell recreational marijuana contained no people of color. That's a no-no under the diversity goals set by state legislators.
Yet one constant in the new legalization era is the predominance of large companies in control of the Illinois marijuana business. The state's cannabis industry continues to be dominated by 21 growing operations which the state licensed back in the days when only medical marijuana was legal.
Illinois lawmakers expanded legalization from medicinal to recreational use, saying they wanted to diversify the industry, which was dominated by whites. They would do this by awarding a bonus to 'œsocial equity applicants'ť who had been nabbed in low-level cannabis arrests or lived in areas most affected by the war on drugs.
That sounded like a good idea. But the complicated and costly application scoring process ended up last year with just 21 of 937 applicants qualifying for the initial lottery to get one of the 75 licenses for the retail outlets known as dispensaries.
After howls of protest and lawsuits pointing out that many applicants had wealthy or connected white investors, officials added 110 more licenses and two more lotteries to expand the pool of qualifying applicants.
Meanwhile, applicants for Illinois' new 'œcraft grow'ť licenses, sought by small-scale growers who produce the specialty 'œcraft'ť weed and edibles, have been going broke while trying to maintain their facilities - and hired experts for the pot businesses they still hope to operate as soon as the state licenses them.
Their hopes took a big step in the right direction March 14 when the state won a court order to award 60 new craft cannabis growing licenses in Illinois, lifting an earlier injunction.
In a ruling that craft growers hailed as a major victory, Sangamon County Judge Gail Noll restored the applications of 11 who had sued the state after receiving rejections from the Illinois Department of Agriculture, which administers marijuana licenses.
The agency may now reconsider those applications, and is expected to rank all applicants to see who qualifies for a license. In case of a tie among top scorers, the department would hold a lottery to determine the winners.
That's an important victory for practical governance, too, a giant step away from the irrational criminalization that has cost especially Black Americans dearly and could have been avoided by sensible regulation.
Unfortunately, an even larger hurdle remains on the industry's retail side. While craft grower 'œinfuser 'ť (introducing cannabis into other edibles) and transporter licenses were issued this summer, Cook County Judge Moshe Jacobius has ordered all 185 dispensary licenses held up indefinitely while he decides the fate of a stack of lawsuits by a few firms that are challenging the fairness and constitutionality of the process.
Which, once again, leaves the industry and countless potential consumers wondering when they'll be able to see craft weed in Illinois.
Now some of the social equity applicants say they have burned through hundreds of thousands of dollars as they slog through a process that was designed to give them a break. In practice, it did the opposite.
Craft growers have suggested that the key to helping minority investors survive might be to immediately widen their allowed growing space from 5,000 square feet to at least 14,000 square feet.
Such an expansion of their allowed 'œcanopy space,'ť as Scott Redman, president of the Illinois Independent Craft Growers Association, explained to us, would make their businesses more attractive for financing when competing against existing growers, whose space can go up to 210,000 square feet.
In other words, the worthy aims of 'œsocial equity'ť marijuana licensing might be saved by the mere loosening of the heavy hand of government that made the licensing possible.
___
Chicago Sun-Times. March 27, 2022.
Editorial: Illinois should make this budget fix for local government
Two proposals in the General Assembly would partially restore Local Government Distributive Fund revenue that was cut more than a decade ago.
Raise your hand if you know what 'œLGDF'ť stands for in state and local government circles here in Illinois.
For those with hands still down - a fair number of our readers, we suspect - LGDF stands for Local Government Distributive Fund. That is the share of Illinois income tax revenue distributed to cities, towns and villages to help shore up local budgets and pay for critical services like road maintenance, garbage pickup, snow removal, police and firefighters, street signs, traffic lights, libraries and parks.
In short, it's money that pays for all the basics people expect from local government.
For years, LGDF money has been a sore spot with mayors and other municipal leaders. When the state's income tax rate was temporarily raised in 2011 from 3% to 5%, municipalities didn't get a boost in LGDF. Instead, the state cut LGDF from 10 % of net income tax revenue - where it had been for years - to 6%, essentially erasing the revenue increase cities and towns would have received due to the higher tax rates.
It should not be surprising, then, that mayors and city managers and other local officials have been clamoring for the state to restore those cuts.
Two proposals now in the Illinois Legislature, HB 4169 and SB 3010, would partially restore LGDF to its original percentage by raising it from 6% to 8%. Chiefly sponsored by state Rep. Anthony DeLuca, D-Chicago Heights, and state Sen. Laura Murphy, D-Des Plaines, the legislation has the support of a broad coalition of mayors and groups that include the Illinois Municipal League, South Suburban Mayors and Managers Association, Lake County Municipal League and more.
Dozens of legislators from both parties, including House Speaker Emanuel 'œChris'ť Welch and Senate Majority Leader Kimberly A. Lightford, have signed on as co-sponsors.
More lawmakers should get on board. The bills are, at the least, a starting point for the Legislature to come up with a concrete plan and timeline to fully restore LGDF to its original 10%.
'œWe're not asking the state for money,'ť as Darien Mayor Joseph Marchese, vice president of DuPage Mayors and Managers Conference, told the editorial board. 'œWe're asking them to give us back what is legitimately ours, to give us money that truly belongs to the taxpayers.'ť
Restoring local governments to their prior percentage share of income tax revenue would make a 'œmeaningful difference,'ť as Ralph Martire, executive director of the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability. told us. Chicago, for example, would receive over $160 million more in new revenue annually.
It would also be a boon for suburbs like North Chicago and Hazel Crest that do not have big box retailers or shopping malls that generate significant local sales taxes. An extra, say, $400,000 to $500,000 for them could make a major difference in budgeting for services - and avoiding property tax increases on residents.
Fixed stream of revenue
That will cost the state money, of course. Restoring LGDF to 10% now would cost $1 billion, according to a spokesperson for Gov. J.B. Pritzker. The state has sought to support local government with more revenue from other sources and has provided $1.1 billion annually.
But that's a patchwork solution, in our view, too reliant on year-to-year decision-making.
'œIf we have to worry every year if that money will be there, that's a struggle, a lot of pressure, especially on smaller communities,'ť Hazel Crest Mayor Vernard Alsberry Jr. said.
And not every town or village wants to allow weed shops or bring in video gambling - which means the state ought not count 'œlegalized recreational marijuana'ť and 'œincreased video gaming operations'ť among the sources of additional revenue provided for local municipalities.
Mayors got a raw deal in 2011. Perhaps the state had little choice, given its fiscal problems then and in the years since.
It's time to rectify that raw deal.
END