Pritzker Tamps Down Sales Tax for Services Idea
Governor JB Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson sign an original tile as developers and government officials celebrated the start of renovation construction of the former James R. Thompson Center Monday. (Photo: Chicago Tribune)
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Sometimes, at the end of a spring legislative session, the slightest comment can get entirely blown out of proportion.
That appears to be the case for Governor JB Pritzker after a statement last week that led some to believe he was somehow open to a new sales tax on services to help fund mass transit in Chicago.
Pritzker walked the hullabaloo back Monday.
Last Wednesday he was asked at a news conference if there were any revenue ideas he “wanted to take off the table,” odd wording, to fund mass transit.
“I haven’t heard every proposal,” Pritzker said, laughing. “I’m sure there are some that I wouldn’t agree with.”
He was then specifically asked about a sales tax on services.
“I have never been in favor of that before,” Pritzker said. “There may need to be a source of revenue here, but that’s not something I have favored in the past. I really don’t want to start saying ‘we’re not gonna do this, we’re not gonna do that.’ At this point, there are just so many pieces of this that we have to look at before we’re making decisions about how we’re gonna pay for what’s necessary here as we come off of support from the federal government and making sure we’re restoring transit services.”
That’s the answer of a politician “keeping his power dry” and attempting to avoid drawing any meaningless lines in the sand.
Then came a gigantic headline in a newspaper column this week that Pritzker “no longer rules it out.”
Pritzker was asked about it again Monday and he again downplayed any sort of revenue from a new tax on services to fund mass transit.
“I don’t have a position about that. Nor do I advocate for a particular source of revenue,” he said. “We’ve gotta look at all of the options. This is gonna be a multiple party negotiation and discussion. I don’t think anything has been resolved yet.
Pritzker again reiterated he has opposed a sales tax for services and all parties need to keep options on the table for mass transit funding.
But it still likely doesn’t involved a sales tax on services.
“That is not one that I have considered in this regard,” he said.
Welcome to May in Illinois politics.