Pritzker Takes Credit for Tax Cut He Repealed
Governor JB Pritzker speaks during the first gubernatorial debate last week in Normal. During the debate, Pritzker took credit for cutting a tax he reinstated two years later. (Photo: Illinois State University)
When Governor JB Pritzker took credit for cutting taxes on 400,000 small businesses during last Thursday’s gubernatorial debate, he left out the detail that he reinstated the tax two years after repealing it.
Pritzker signed a repeal of the Corporate Franchise Tax, a Republican initiative in the so-called Blue Collar Jobs Act, in 2019. But in his 2021 budget proposal, Pritzker reversed course and proposed eliminating the tax, which the Illinois Manufacturers’ Association claimed would raise taxes on 317,000 businesses, to the tune of around $30 million annually.
In his budget address in 2021, Pritzker lumped the franchise tax in with other “corporate loopholes.”
At the time, Rep. Tom Demmer (R-Dixon), the lead budget negotiator for House Republicans (and a current candidate for State Treasurer), said Democrats “went back” on their deal to eliminate the tax.
“The Democrats broke that agreement,” Demmer said the day after the budget passed in 2021.
When asked about Pritzker’s comments, two different Pritzker campaign spokespeople sent information about the repeal, but did not respond to our question about why he took credit for a tax he put back in place.