ILLINOIS POLICY
Pritzker price tag: Candidate’s spending promises require doubling state income tax
by Adam Schuster
October 10, 2018

Democratic gubernatorial candidate J.B. Pritzker has promised a number of new spending programs as well as closing Illinois’ current structural deficit. To finance these promises, Pritzker has proposed a progressive income tax hike. But how much would these promises cost? And how high would taxes need to be to finance them? Reasonable estimates show the cost of Pritzker’s spending promises demand an income tax hike of $13 billion to $18 billion. This would require approximately doubling the state’s personal income tax to 9.95 percent on the high end and 8.51 percent on the low end from the current 4.95 percent income tax rate. READ MORE