A week after ballots were cast, former Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn said the Nov. 5 election results show voters are willing to support a graduated income tax structure to provide property tax relief.
Quinn, who left office in early 2015, made a stop at the Illinois Capitol in Springfield on Tuesday to discuss the results of the election and how 60% of voters supported a question on the ballot to create an additional 3% income tax surcharge on people with taxable incomes exceeding $1 million per year to fund property tax relief.
The ballot question was advisory only, meaning any implementation of such a tax would require separate action from lawmakers – and, in this case, voters.
Illinois has a flat income tax system, however, meaning voters would have to approve a constitutional amendment to change the tax system in order to implement a surcharge on millionaires. A majority of voters rejected a proposed amendment in 2020, but Quinn said a question on the 2026 ballot could get more support if it clearly states a tax rate and income threshold and where the funds would go.
In Quinn’s mind, money derived from such a surcharge should be deposited into an already-created property tax relief fund that has yet to receive state funding. Money in the fund would then be allocated to counties and distributed to taxpayers qualifying for a homestead exemption.
“We have a specific way that the voters have identified exactly how to put money into the property tax relief fund,” Quinn said. “It’s a fair way based on a principle that’s as old as the Bible that income taxes, and all taxes, should be based on ability to pay.”
The results of the advisory question, Quinn said, show that voters would get behind a more specifically worded amendment.
“We can win the referendum no matter how much the big shots spend against it. I think we can take them on because our proposal, as exemplified here, is what the people want,” Quinn said.
Senate Republican Leader John Curran, R-Downers Grove, said Tuesday he believes voters would reject an amendment a second time, as they did in 2020 if there is a vigorous campaign opposing it like there was in 2020.
Quinn agreed there are other ways to reduce property tax burdens, but he said after a career of organizing ballot referendums and teaching a property tax law class he concluded that “the only way to really get the ball rolling in the right direction for taxpayers is refunds, rebates, and that’s what this law says.”