Republicans Warn of Lame Duck Tax Hike, Democrats Say No Increase Planned
House Minority Leader Jim Durkin (R-Western Springs), fields questions from reporters at the Illinois Capitol in Springfield in 2019. (Image: Capitol News Illinois)
House Republicans are warning of a secret Democratic plan to raise income taxes during a lame duck session beginning Friday, but leading Democrats say there is no tax increase in the cards next week.
House GOP Leader Jim Durkin (R-Western Springs) held a news conference Monday claiming Democrats would “sneak” a tax increase through the legislature during a lame duck session, which begins this weekend.
“Madigan and his cohorts will be trying to sneak a tax increase into the lame duck session,” Durkin said.
He claimed comments from Speaker Madigan in December declaring the Speaker would raise the state income tax “at the Governor’s request,” signaled a tax increase was bound for a vote. Pritzker, as recently as late December, confirmed he would not ask for a tax increase during the lame duck session.
State Rep. Mike Zalewski (D-Riverside), a Madigan ally, says he doesn’t believe there’s any plan to pass a tax hike.
“Given the leadership fight the House Democratic Caucus is facing, coupled with our sincere desire to make our tax truly flat by closing loopholes, my prediction is the income tax rate will remain the same headed into the 102nd’ General Assembly,” he said.
House Majority Leader Greg Harris (D-Chicago) told the Sun-Times the GOP is playing politics.
“I have not heard of any tax increase proposals,” Harris said, adding that Republicans are following “their traditional path” of saying there should be budget cuts though they’re not proposing any cuts of their own.
If a tax increase isn’t passed, lawmakers will still have to close a budget hole of around $1.3 billion, taking into account a COGFA report putting the budget hole at $4 billion combined with $2 billion in borrowing and another $700 million of proposed cuts from Governor JB Pritzker.
“We need to fix the Democrats’ budget mess caused by an irresponsible and unbalanced budget passed only by Democrats and signed by Governor Pritzker. A budget which spent $42 billion when we were told that we only had $37 billion in our pocketbook,” said Durkin. “This budget may be the most reckless and foolhardy budget I’ve seen in decades. It was dependent on a federal bailout and the passage of the Pritzker-Madigan tax hike. Neither happened. To make matters worse, where was no contingency plan in place if either one of those failed. So here we are.”
When asked if House Republicans would release a list of cuts they would support to help close the state’s remaining budget deficit, Durkin baulked.
“Governor Pritzker and Speaker Madigan own this budget mess and its errors.”