By: Ted Dabrowski and John Klingner | Wirepoints
There were two big takeaways from Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s 2026 combined state of the state and budget address last week.
First was Pritzker’s use of a constitutionally-required speech to frame Trump and, by extension, his 70 million-plus supporters, as Nazis. “I do not invoke the specter of Nazis lightly,” Pritzker said, as he proceeded to equate the MAGA movement with Nazism.
Somebody forgot to tell Pritzker about Godwin’s Law – that when you invoke Nazis in an argument, you automatically lose. Wirepoints detailed Pritzker’s comments in a sister piece, Pritzker says he is fighting against Nazis in astounding speech, so we won’t go into more detail here.
The second big takeaway – and the focus of this piece – is how wide the gap has gotten between what the governor says he’s done for Illinois versus reality on the ground. Look beyond the spin and you’ll see that Illinois’ economic growth since he took office ranks nearly last nationally. Same for private-sector job creation. Educational outcomes have also worsened despite billions more in spending. All the while, Illinoisans’ tax burdens are going up.
This state is increasingly an extreme national outlier on most fiscal, economic and demographic issues that matter. The data is undeniable.
Unstoppable spending
Incessant increases in spending have had all kinds of negative consequences for Illinoisans, which we detail in the following sections. Gov. Pritzker and his Democratic supermajorities have spiked spending dramatically in recent years and their projections show they want to continue that spending into 2030. Just look at the graphic below.
In 2019, Illinois’ budget was just $40 billion. They pumped it up to $50 billion during covid – a whopping 25% increase in just four years. For 2026, Pritzker wants 10% on top of that, to $55 billion. And his budget projections take it to $63 billion by 2030.
Pritzker’s rationale for hiking spending in his first term was pandemic relief, though that much of that was needed due to the governor’s protracted lockdowns and one of the nation’s strictest mitigation regimes.
But covid and his three-year-long rule by executive order are now far in the rearview mirror. That emergency spending should have been reversed two years ago, but it never happened. Instead, Human Services spending in 2026 will be up nearly 100% over 2019. Government Services will be up 50%. The bloat continues.
Massive spending growth means no tax relief
The flip side of all that spending is Illinois’ lost competitiveness. While Illinois was increasing budgets and raising taxes of all kinds – a billion alone just last year – 29 other states were busy cutting their income taxes.
Some states dumped their progressive tax schemes altogether and moved to far lower flat tax rates. Others dropped their top marginal rates, while yet others flattened their progressive schemes and reduced the total number of brackets. That’s especially true of our neighbors. Here’s what they’ve done since 2019:
- Iowa scrapped its progressive tax scheme and moved to a flat tax in 2025. Its top marginal rate of 8.98% is gone and in its place is a flat tax of 3%.
- Kentucky, too, ended its progressive tax structure and went to a flat 5% rate in 2019. Since then, it has lowered its rate again to 4%.
- Indiana cut its already-low flat rate from 3.23% to 3.00%.
- Missouri’s top marginal tax rate in 2019 was 5.4%. It’s now 4.7% for income above $9,191. For all practical purposes, it’s now a flat tax.
Every one of Illinois’ neighbors now has a lower top rate than Illinois except Wisconsin.
Illinois has also done nothing to address the state’s ballooning property taxes, already the nation’s highest. On the contrary, Illinois lawmakers have added on more mandates and more costs, inflating property tax bills across the state.
When Pritzker took office in 2019, total property tax revenues totaled $32.9 billion. By 2023, they jumped to $38.5 billion. Today, the total is sure to be over $40 billion and they’ll keep going up by $1 to $2 billion for the next few years.
Read more here.
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