* Tribune…
After his gubernatorial hopes were dashed in the March primary, state Sen. Daniel Biss, D-Evanston, says he doesn’t really know his next career move but he plans to continue his push for the state adopting a progressive income tax structure – and he could throw his full support behind his former billionaire opponent J.B. Pritzker. […]
The two men have had multiple phone conversations since the primary, and Biss said he meets regularly with Pritzker’s staff. […]
“I have no doubt that J.B. is serious about getting this [graduated income tax] done,” Biss said. “But others who have been serious about it have failed. In fact, all of them have failed. So the question is, what’s [his] plan that’s different from the plans we’ve had in the past?”
Incumbent Gov. Bruce Rauner, who is running against Pritzker, said through a spokesman that “raising taxes on the people of Illinois has been the cornerstone of J.B. Pritzker’s campaign.”
“Daniel Biss is an unapologetic supporter of the graduated income tax hike while J.B. Pritzker supports it without giving any details of his own plan,” Rauner spokesman Alex Browning wrote in an email. “Biss is right, it’s time J.B. gets more specific so the people of Illinois know the truth.”
Discuss.
*** UPDATE *** Carol Marin tried to drag details out of Sen. Biss about his own graduated tax hike proposal back in January…
MARIN: Do you have a number?
BISS: It’s a real burden. So we need to change the constitution to allow for a progressive income tax. It’s something I’ve been fighting for for a long, long time and use that tool to adequately fund schools.
MARIN: But do you have a number? What the Civic Federation and what the tax accountability groups all look for are some sort of rate and some sort of yield, so we know what we’re gonna get that we don’t otherwise have.
BISS: That’s right. It would have to be patterned after what we see in neighboring states. It would have to be arrived at by working through a series of negotiations on both sides of the ledger by the way. There’s no sense in just setting tax rates unless you said something about what to do with the money, but we need to make sure that resources are adequate to fund our schools properly, which requires significant more revenue.
* Related…
* New ad campaign warn taxpayers about progressive tax: Nelms said once Illinois lawmakers get the power to add tax brackets, and raise rates, the sky is the limit. “If we scrap our flat state income tax and implement a progressive tax, that would give the legislature carte blanche,” Nelms said.
