Capitol Fax.com - Your Illinois News Radar

Pritzker refuses yet again to talk details about his tax plan

Posted in:

Illinois
YouTube
Updated Posts

Democratic candidate for Illinois Governor, J.B. Pritzker, is promoting his plan for a progressive or graduated income tax, but is declining to provide specifics.

When questioned Wednesday by WJBC’s Sam Wood, Pritzker was vague about taxes during the two years he says it will take to amend the state constitution, which is required to enact a progressive tax that forces the wealthy to pay more.

Pritzker pledges to reduce the tax burden on the middle class.

“Lowering the tax burden is the goal by lowering the tax rate that they might pay on income taxes, and also, very importantly, lowering local property taxes, which are so regressive,” Pritzker said.

* Raw audio…

* Aside from his refusal to lay out his tax rates or say which income levels will pay higher rates, the other problem with Pritzker’s argument about making the wealthy pay more state taxes is this…

The returns also showed that in 2014, [JB Pritzker and his spouse] paid no state income taxes after taking nearly $150,000 in tax credits for research and development, as well as for property taxes and educational expenses.

Even 10 percent of nothing is still nothing for someone with a smart CPA.

…Adding… From the interview…

If we create jobs, we’re gonna add revenue to the coffers of the state of Illinois because we’re gonna bring new jobs online so people will pay taxes. Businesses will grow, they’ll pay taxes. That’s a great way to do, to bring revenue into the state without raising taxes at all. And that would be my goal, of course. You know, nobody wants to raise taxes.

Um, OK. He’s said time and time again that he’ll pay for his proposals by raising taxes.

posted by Rich Miller
Thursday, Apr 5, 18 @ 12:38 pm

Comments

–The returns also showed that in 2014, [JB Pritzker and his spouse] paid no state income taxes after taking nearly $150,000 in tax credits for research and development, as well as for property taxes and educational expenses.–

Clearly, he wasn’t thinking of running for office at that time. Rauner was cunning enough to show that he paid a reasonable rate in the years just before running.

Comment by wordslinger Thursday, Apr 5, 18 @ 12:47 pm
The more he talks about his tax plan, the more the tax payers will dislike his plan and will not vote for him.

Comment by Anonymous Thursday, Apr 5, 18 @ 12:47 pm
===The returns also showed that in 2014, [JB Pritzker and his spouse] paid no state income taxes after taking nearly $150,000 in tax credits for research and development, as well as for property taxes and educational expenses.===

For the love of Pete… what “pain” is Pritzker going to show, his accountant’s billing?

I’ve bit my tongue, waited long enough…

When you talk about specific changes being made to taxes and an overhaul… you won’t get a pass for too long, let alone 7 months… as to the numbers to it.

You can phony ideas, or phony cuts with “waste, fraud, and abuse…”

You can’t hold off on “I’m changing this, it’s an overhaul”

It’s either gross naïveté, or a purposeful misleading that will make you look untrustworthy to your policies.

You can’t have this taxing epiphany and the light you are using is fuzzy.

You open the door with “numbers of”, “tiers”, “levels”, those words are the kiss to specifics. Air kisses won’t land the love needed.

Comment by Oswego Willy Thursday, Apr 5, 18 @ 12:54 pm
“Billionaire pays no state taxes” and “Billionaire rips out toilets in buffer mansion to avoid property taxes” are not good looks.

If you’re Pritzker, which way do you bounce to mitigate the inevitable onslaught of negative spots?

Do you just ignore it, counter-punch on Rauner’s rich dude problems and failures in office, while selling your own positive message?

Or do you have a CTJ moment where you express remorse for taking all your rich-dude outs?

Tough call. Rauner is going to whack this all the way to November, no matter what.

Comment by wordslinger Thursday, Apr 5, 18 @ 12:57 pm
Dumb mistake #3. A week or so removed from the primary and we have a natural hat trick. All unassisted. He’s only 4,997 behind Rauner, but at this rate……

Comment by BlueDogDem Thursday, Apr 5, 18 @ 12:57 pm
Hey, if he is waiting until after Labor day fine. Now let us try to pigeon hole him on what kind of Cannabis tax rate he is thinking of?

Comment by Al Thursday, Apr 5, 18 @ 12:58 pm
It’s a long time before November, there’s plenty of time to release a plan. It might be smart politically though to hold off on specifics. If he does release a plan the Rauner campaign will just run a ton of false commercials attacking it.
It seems logical to me that someone’s taxes will have to be raised. Rauner will have left his successor with a pile of unpaid bills that have to be paid.

Comment by The Dude Abides Thursday, Apr 5, 18 @ 1:01 pm
Umm voters already voted in favor of a millionaire tax aka graduated income tax without knowing the exact details and rates of such a plan.

Comment by Real Thursday, Apr 5, 18 @ 1:01 pm
Give JB credit: he really knows the Illinois tax code. For a guy with his wealth paying zero income tax in 2014 is pretty amazing. It makes it much harder to go to a progressive income tax when you hear stories like this.

Comment by Steve Thursday, Apr 5, 18 @ 1:03 pm
Nov 5, 2014 - Illinois approved by a wide margin a proposal that would impose an additional 3% tax on income over $1 million to help fund schools. The nonbinding vote was essentially a measure of public opinion — a way to send a message to state lawmakers.

Comment by Stand Tall Thursday, Apr 5, 18 @ 1:14 pm
Is the Pritzker crew incapable of delivering anything more than some top line messages? Has their team not prepared their candidate for at least one more layer of depth? They better get to work before voters start paying attention.

Comment by Anonymously Thursday, Apr 5, 18 @ 1:23 pm
What’s he thinking? He should adamantly deny all plans to tax anyone but millionaires and billionaires until after the election. then he can safely spring the bad news on the public.

Comment by jim Thursday, Apr 5, 18 @ 1:32 pm
Pritzker should look at trying to own it and portray himself as opposite of Rauner, who refuses any responsibility for all the terrible things that happened to Illinois during his term. Pritzker said he’s not perfect and won’t try to fool people with costumes. Time to consider putting that in action.

Comment by Grandson of Man Thursday, Apr 5, 18 @ 1:36 pm
Here is the reality- Dems/Pritzker will raise taxes, do nothing on pensions, spend uncontrollably and wonder why higher taxes won’t solve their problem. Seems familiar - blago first term.

Comment by View from the cheap seats Thursday, Apr 5, 18 @ 1:46 pm
===Seems familiar - blago first term===

What taxes did Rod raise in his first term?

Comment by Rich Miller Thursday, Apr 5, 18 @ 1:49 pm
===Here is the reality- Dems/Pritzker will raise taxes, do nothing on pensions, spend uncontrollably and wonder why higher taxes won’t solve their problem===

(Sigh)

“Here is the reality- Rauner/Raunerites will vote against their own constituencies, do nothing on pensions, won’t vote to pass a budget and wonder why higher taxes are used to balance Rauner’s phony budget proposal.”

Sound familiar?

Comment by Oswego Willy Thursday, Apr 5, 18 @ 1:52 pm
It’s actually taking less time then I thought it would for the Dems to learn what a headache nominating JB will be. For love of God- a sham with his real estate taxes and paying zero in income to the state. And for the idiotic comment about Rauner’s taxes- you can’t avoid paying a lot of Illinois taxes on his income. As long as he is a resident the flat rate on his income is in the millions and not just recently. JB is a fraud and he might just lose if he keeps promising to raise taxes an unspecified amount while paying zero himself.

Comment by Sue Thursday, Apr 5, 18 @ 2:10 pm
Sometimes I wonder if it wouldn’t be smarter for JB to just come out with a statement like this (grammatical errors and all):

Yeah, Illinois income tax favors rich guys like me and Rauner who can afford accountants to find the loopholes. But heres the difference: Bruce wants to keep it that way. Me; I want to make sure the rich do end paying their share.

Memorize it and repeat from now until Election Day.

Comment by RNUG Thursday, Apr 5, 18 @ 2:13 pm
RNUG - Exactly right. Own the fact he’s rich and benefited from the loopholes. Run on making the Rich guys like him pay more.

Comment by ryan Thursday, Apr 5, 18 @ 2:31 pm
Weird, its like Team JB needs a mathematician or someone who already proposed reasonable solutions to help him out with this or something.

Comment by ILDemVoter Thursday, Apr 5, 18 @ 2:35 pm
I don’t know if you could actually lower middle class income taxes and still balance the budget. But he might offer a larger property tax exemption and put a limit on that based on average middle income property taxes. That might appease middle class home owners.

Comment by A Jack Thursday, Apr 5, 18 @ 2:35 pm
He is offering a progressive tax so those that work and earn an income pay, he has said nothing about getting rid of loop holes to the best of my knowledge, so he could raise rates to 25% and he will still pay possibly nothing.

Comment by Stand Tall Thursday, Apr 5, 18 @ 3:00 pm
It is called magical thinking and JB is a major purveyor of it. Really no different or better than Rauner’s brand and every bit as insulting to the intelligent.

Comment by Captain Obvious Thursday, Apr 5, 18 @ 3:06 pm
Hope most people wake up before November- JB is the nominee because he will roll over for the Unions resulting in massive public sector cost increases and sign whatever budget the Dem controlled legislature sends up to the second floor. It’s no wonder the Unions all fell in line and signed on. It’s sad to project out a few years what the State’s finances will look like and just how much tax increases will be needed to pay for JB’s largesse

Comment by Sue Thursday, Apr 5, 18 @ 3:12 pm
Maybe I’m naïve, but why do JB and the Dems fear a direct message? California soaked the rich and they went from Illinois-levels of budget badness to a surplus. I actually *don’t* like the soak-the-rich approach because Illinois isn’t California: they have more millionaires and people will pay a premium to live there that they won’t pay to live here. But what’s so hard to run tv ads showing California’s Rauner/1%er type naysayers were wrong and blare “we could have budget surpluses TOO”? If nothing else it blunts Rauner’s message.

Comment by lake county democrat Thursday, Apr 5, 18 @ 3:44 pm
== how much tax increases will be needed to pay for JB’s largesse ==

how much tax increases will be needed to pay for all Rauner’s debt, pinstripe patronage, and insider dealing

There, I fixed it …

Comment by RNUG Thursday, Apr 5, 18 @ 3:55 pm
At this point in my life the “Magical Growth Elf” solving government revenue issues (or providing replacement revenue for a tax cut) is less plausible than me playing center field for the White Sox (I wanted to be Chet Lemon as a kid).

Comment by OneMan Thursday, Apr 5, 18 @ 4:00 pm
- lake county democrat -

How many Illinois taxpayers would want to pay 9.3% at $52,612.00 ?
https://www.tax-brackets.org/californiataxtable

Comment by Steve Thursday, Apr 5, 18 @ 4:03 pm
RNUG add to the tax increase, for the spending programs JB is pushing for.

Comment by Anonymous Thursday, Apr 5, 18 @ 4:07 pm
If this were not such a strong Democratic state and Rauner was not such a lousy Governor, Pritzker wouldn’t stand a chance.

Comment by skeptic Thursday, Apr 5, 18 @ 4:35 pm
lake county democrat - Thursday, Apr 5, 18 @ 3:44 pm:

Maybe I’m naïve, but why do JB and the Dems fear a direct message? California soaked the rich and they went from Illinois-levels of budget badness to a surplus.

It would have been a lot easier if Pritzker had paid a few $million in state income taxes himself.

Comment by skeptic Thursday, Apr 5, 18 @ 4:38 pm
Should be interesting, to see how many voters will vote for a candidate, who they know is going to raise their taxes.

Comment by Anonymous Thursday, Apr 5, 18 @ 4:42 pm
This should be an uncontested layup for Pritzker with Rauner’s lack of base, accomplishments or vision.

However, Pritzker can’t seem to get out of his own way at times. Don’t tell people you are going to raise taxes without specifically saying “just the rich.” Particularly when you as a candidate do EVERYTHING to avoid paying your “fair share.”

Blago, toilet tear ups and I’m sure there is more to come will make this a closer race than it should be.

Comment by Generation X Thursday, Apr 5, 18 @ 5:00 pm
RNUG- Rauners debt wasn’t for new spending but for cuts the courts reversed and then had to be paid- only a fool will believe Pritzker doesn’t intend to (1) drastically increase spending and (2) raise taxes by a ton to pay for it all

Comment by Sue Thursday, Apr 5, 18 @ 5:01 pm
==Should be interesting, to see how many voters will vote for a candidate, who they know is going to raise their taxes.==

Not sure about the state, but in suburban Cook County, over 40% of the registered voters are 55+. So either very close to retirement or in retirement, upon which a tax hike becomes irrelevant.

So your perceived mandate is just that. But keep hunting.

Comment by City Zen Thursday, Apr 5, 18 @ 5:26 pm
@ sue- 0nly a fool would continue to support Rauner and his lying and deception.

What does Stephanie Munger do again?

Comment by JS Mill Thursday, Apr 5, 18 @ 5:41 pm
JB, just more of the same taxation and spending increases. And the guy doesn’t even pay state income tax or Chicago real estate tax?

Comment by Ron Thursday, Apr 5, 18 @ 8:15 pm
== Rauners debt wasn’t for new spending ==

I used to work with the SSRF … DoIT and all the new systems and software was all new unbudgeted pinstripe patronage spending.

Comment by RNUG Thursday, Apr 5, 18 @ 10:05 pm
How do we end up with such “interesting” choices. Sheesh….

Comment by Solomon Friday, Apr 6, 18 @ 8:28 am