By Bryce Hill | Illinois Policy Institute
An advisory referendum on the Nov. 3 general election ballot will gauge Cook County voters’ support for a statewide income tax increase on millionaires.
The results are non-binding, so the vote will not trigger any policy change.
Cook County voters will be asked:
“Shall Illinois adopt the Millionaire Amendment for Property Tax Relief and Education, which would enact a 3% income tax surcharge only on millionaires and use 50% of this new revenue to provide property tax relief for residential and commercial taxpayers and 50% to improve state funding for public education?”
The ballot language is similar to a constitutional amendment that failed in the Illinois House earlier this year and a previous statewide ballot question from 2024. However, notably absent from the Cook County ballot question is language that specifies the additional 3% income tax would be only on income above $1 million rather than on all income for a taxpayer whose income tops $1 million. A 2019 proposal from Gov. J.B. Pritzker was widely criticized because it would have raised the state income tax to 7.95% from 4.95% on all income of a taxpayer whose income topped $1 million.
Proponents of the push to scrap Illinois’ constitutionally protected flat income tax say the increased revenue would provide property tax relief. However, previous analysis of the proposal and Illinois’ state finances shows the massive tax hike would come up more than $2 billion short of being able to provide Illinoisans with any such relief.
That’s because the state projects future budget shortfalls in excess of $3.8 billion, and the current pension funding plan shorts contributions by more than $5 billion, according to the plan’s own actuaries.
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