Latest Post | Last 10 Posts | Archives
Previous Post: It’s just a bill
Next Post: SUBSCRIBERS ONLY - Fundraiser list
Posted in:
* My weekly syndicated newspaper column…
One of the bigger state budget expansion fights we could see play out in Springfield this spring is the creation of a permanent $300 Child Income Tax Credit.
The new proposal has been scaled back from last year’s $700 per child tax credit bill, which went nowhere in the House after it was introduced in February and ultimately had 15 sponsors and co-sponsors. But proponents say even the downsized version would make a major difference.
The problem, of course, is the cost, pegged at about $300 million per year. As I’ve told you before, numbers crunchers with the Governor’s Office of Management and Budget are saying Illinois could face a budget deficit of $891 million next fiscal year, which begins July 1. That deficit could rise to $1.4 billion in fiscal year 2026 and $1.66 billion in FY27.
But this issue has real potential to take off in the General Assembly.
“We have the data that shows roughly 60% of the recipients of this benefit across the state would be Black and Brown households,” state Rep. Mary Beth Canty, D-Arlington Heights, said recently on WTTW’s Chicago Tonight program. “We’re talking about being able to make a difference in the lives of about a million and a half children across Illinois. That is a game-changer for families.”
The idea is framed as a partial replacement for the now-expired but massive 2021 expansion of the federal child tax credit.
“Monthly checks of up to $3,600 offered parents reliable resources to pay for basic goods, like formula, diapers and school supplies, and basic necessities like shelter, utilities and food,” wrote Natalie Foster in a recent Crain’s Chicago Business op-ed. “The expanded federal CTC slashed child poverty in half, decreased food insecurity and improved educational outcomes.”
“This is something that has to be dealt with at the federal level,” Canty admitted last week. Efforts are indeed being made in Washington, D.C., to revive a scaled-down version of the federal tax credit program. A bipartisan agreement has been announced, but D.C. being D.C., nobody can be certain it can actually pass.
So the states, Canty said, “have a real opportunity to make a difference. There are 14 other states that are running programs like this.”
Asked how she would pay for the new tax credit program, Canty said, “Where there is a will there’s a way,” which is not exactly an answer. “We always talk about a budget being a moral document,” Canty said, “So when you talk about your policies, those are the things that you want people to know, but what we fund is where your morals really are. Those are your real values.”
All true, of course, but, unless he goes along with it, this could be one of the most interesting challenges to the governor’s effort to tamp down attempts to add permanent costs to the budget in the face of possible future deficits.
Keep in mind that more than half of all current House Democrats never served under then-Gov. Bruce Rauner’s budget disasters, and the budget crunch during the pandemic’s early stage was beyond anyone’s control and was dealt with in just a few session days, so the newbies really have no idea what it’s like to try and manage a possible deficit year.
Meanwhile, Capitol News Illinois reported in December on the Commission on Equitable Public University Funding, which is “tasked with developing a new model for funding higher education.”
The news service reported that “some draft meeting materials presented at the board’s November meeting suggest it would require as much as an overall $14,000 per-student increase in state appropriations to fully fund higher education. With 130,000 undergraduates and 56,000 graduate students enrolled at state universities this year, these numbers suggest the needed funding increase could reach into the billions.”
Not included in the article was the arithmetic, which would total $2.6 billion in spending. That’s per year, by the way.
There’s just no possible way the state can pay for that. But it could be in the realm of possibility for another spending “ramp,” something along the line of what the state did with pension funding and with gradually bringing all K-12 schools up to adequate funding levels.
Anyway, just add that potential cost to the pile.
posted by Rich Miller
Monday, Jan 22, 24 @ 11:13 am
Sorry, comments are closed at this time.
Previous Post: It’s just a bill
Next Post: SUBSCRIBERS ONLY - Fundraiser list
WordPress Mobile Edition available at alexking.org.
powered by WordPress.
“We always talk about a budget being a moral document,”
Here’s Merriam-Webster definition
” budget:
a statement of the financial position of an administration (as of a nation) for a definite period of time based on estimates of expenditures during the period and proposals for financing them”
Comment by Donnie Elgin Monday, Jan 22, 24 @ 11:37 am
Just mind numbing that we still don’t have a progressive income tax yet, this has to happen as does bolstering LGDF.
Comment by Macon Bakin Monday, Jan 22, 24 @ 11:46 am
===this has to happen===
There was a vote a few years ago and the voters said nope.
Comment by Rich Miller Monday, Jan 22, 24 @ 11:47 am
Take it out of the LGDF.
Take it out of the useless grants IDOT gives to local police to ‘enforce traffic’ during holidays, or even just regular weekends. That’s supposed to be the job local police are doing anyway. Additionally, the vast majority of tickets written during these grant-funded patrols are local ordinance tickets and not fines which are coming back to the state.
The way the grant program is currently functioning, is to pay municipalities to not send money to the state.
Fix these broken programs municipalities have been using as nothing but a money siphon, and I bet a lot of money suddenly turns up for other programs.
Comment by TheInvisibleMan Monday, Jan 22, 24 @ 11:52 am
That $14,000 figure jumped out at me.
Even if the goal were to match where state spending were in FY2001 or 2002 I think you’d only need about a billion more. Which, ofcourse, still billion with a B. For 14K per would suggest something closer to $3 billion.
Comment by Nick Monday, Jan 22, 24 @ 12:00 pm
The enemy of great bills isn’t the Rules Committee, it’s the question of “how are you going to pay for it?” Man that COVID related fed money was really addictive. Now back to reality.
Comment by levivotedforjudy Monday, Jan 22, 24 @ 12:01 pm
==We always talk about a budget being a moral document==
Too bad the state can’t just print money like the feds can. I don’t want to slide back to the Rauner/Blago days when costs get deferred or unpaid.
Comment by Jocko Monday, Jan 22, 24 @ 12:12 pm
===The idea is framed as a partial replacement for the now-expired but massive 2021 expansion of the federal child tax credit.===
I am a big fan of progressive tax policies, but this really begs a specific question — which pretty bluntly put is, “Why?” And the response to the explanation of how important progressive tax policies are and the meaningful impact it has on families is, “But why, though?”
The State of Illinois already awards a earned income tax credit based off of the state’s earned income tax credit. We’ve already expanded it. Lower income families with children already receive significant benefit from the State and Federal Earned Income Tax Credit.
Illinois does not print our own fiat currency. We do not set our own monetary policy. Every dollar we give out as a credit must be a dollar collected. We don’t get to massive deficits without running into problems paying our bills.
Progressive or not — supportive of families or not, this is bad fiscal policy.
===So the states, Canty said, “have a real opportunity to make a difference. There are 14 other states that are running programs like this.”===
We do not have a progressive income tax policy. How many other of these unnamed states do?
===what we fund is where your morals really are. Those are your real values.”===
As already noted, this isn’t an answer. Make Rep Canty identify a cut or specify a tax increase when she advances bad fiscal policy like this hoping to earn positive media coverage and I promise you it will stop.
Sure, a budget is a moral document. So what are we cutting to literally give other taxpayers money to families with children?
Alternatively, how much are everyone taxes going up? Shall we make the rate 5.5%? 6.0%? — Pardon, 5.95%. Definitely not 6.0%.
The state has actual problems to solve right now. Rep. Canty doesn’t need to go and invent a new era of fiscal irresponsibility to create new problems to address. Fix the policy problems we have now before finding fun ways to invent new ones.
But sure — now you can run for office telling people you tried to ‘put more money in their pocket’ without bothering to find where it came from.
Our state doesn’t need more leadership like this.
Comment by Candy Dogood Monday, Jan 22, 24 @ 12:20 pm
Personally the checks really helped out when they came. No denying that.
But the state isn’t in a place to start and to keep doing that.
Comment by Cool Papa Bell Monday, Jan 22, 24 @ 12:22 pm
We have to put it on the ballot again
Comment by Macon Bakin Monday, Jan 22, 24 @ 12:28 pm
=That is a game-changer for families.”=
$300 is a game changer? Sorry, but color me cynical.
For most people that I hear say the word “equity” it does not really mean equity. It means inequity and they are fine with that, rural poor matter and poor kids matter regardless of ethnicity.
And school funding, while better, has not been fixed. Our district’s tax rate is more than double the rate CPS taxes in a normal year. And, only 50% of their funding comes from local sources. In comparison, our district received 82% of our funding from local sources. We are not a wealthy community in anyone’s eyes except the ISBE.
Talk about equity indeed.
Comment by JS Mill Monday, Jan 22, 24 @ 12:32 pm
@ Candy Dogood is really spot on here.
Comment by JS Mill Monday, Jan 22, 24 @ 12:43 pm
I feel this is among the so much significant information for me.
And i am satisfied reading your article. However wanna statement
on few general issues, The website style is ideal, the articles is truly nice : D.
Excellent job, cheers
Comment by Business Loan Monday, Jan 22, 24 @ 1:25 pm
“… the useless grants IDOT gives to local police to ‘enforce traffic’ during holidays … .”
Usually those grants are mostly, if not entirely, federal $$.
Comment by Anyone Remember Monday, Jan 22, 24 @ 5:22 pm