* I’m thinking if they were truly serious about inflation, they wouldn’t be injecting even more money into the economy, but whatever. [That was mostly snark, by the way.] Here’s Center Square…

“We may not be able to address at the state level the root causes of inflation, we can and we think it is our responsibility to provide relief,” Bourne said. “And that’s why today we’re proposing inflation tax relief for Illinois families.”

State Rep. Tom Demmer, R-Dixon, wants to give up to $400 of tax credits to taxpayers under certain income thresholds.

Single tax filers up to $75,000 would get $200 back, joint filers up to $150,000 would get $400 and head of household filers up to $112,500 in income to get $200.

“Four hundred dollars won’t make all the problems go away, but it could have a positive impact,” Demmer said. “It could be an extra week or two of groceries, it could be an extra few utility bills, it could be the difference between being able to buy new shoes or winter coats for your kids.”

To pay for the $1.4 billion plan, Demmer suggested reprioritizing state spending to be offset by some of the $8 billion in federal COVID-19 relief funds.

“We can dedicate funds to pay down our unemployment insurance trust fund debt and deliver relief to taxpayers,” Demmer said.

* Federal law banned using ARPA money for tax reduction, but then last week happened…

A federal judge has blocked the U.S. Treasury from enforcing a provision of the American Rescue Plan Act that prohibited states from using the pandemic relief funds to offset new tax cuts. […]

The judge described the tax-cut restrictions as “a federal invasion of State sovereignty” that was “unconstitutionally ambiguous” — leaving states guessing as to whether their tax cuts would trigger a repayment of federal funds.

“The Tax Mandate’s restriction on direct or indirect state tax cuts pressures States into adopting a particular — and federally preferred — tax policy,” Coogler wrote. That “may disincentive” states “from considering any tax reductions for fear of forfeiting ARPA funds,”

This plan wouldn’t be ambiguous in the least. But, we’ll see how that all works itself out. The plan probably isn’t going anywhere, obviously, but the media is all abuzz about inflation these days, so I’m sure this will get a lot of coverage.

Ironically, one tool to beat back inflation is raising some taxes. But that should be a national strategy. And since the supply chain bottlenecks are showing signs of easing, there’s probably little harm in some one-time temporary relief.

* From the governor’s office…

For the entirety of the pandemic Republicans have refused to engage on meaningful solutions aimed at helping working families deal with the resulting economic challenges. While Republicans now try and weigh in 18 months too late, this administration is hard at work putting billions of dollars of rental and mortgage assistance, small business grants, and utility assistance into the hands of working families, all of which passed without help from the GOP caucuses.

Adding to the irony is the fact that Republicans staunchly opposed the fair tax which would have provided tax relief to 97 percent of Illinoisans. Since Republicans in Illinois now support providing direct relief for the costs that are weighing on working families, we look forward to their support of President Biden’s Build Back Better agenda and would urge them to share their views on this with their counterparts in Washington.