Illinois has passed its largest tax hikes in state history with nearly one billion in new taxes in a $53 billion budget. But the state has also dispersed nearly as much as the tax hike on migrant spending alone.
The tax hike disgusted Republican State Senator Dan McConchie. He noted almost the entirety of the tax hike is going to more spending on Joe Biden’s migrant problem in Illinois, and he told his constituents that the legislature “raised your taxes just to spend on migrants.”
After hours of closed-door discussions not open to the public or the media on Sunday, the state’s Democrat-dominated senate hammered out a budget that total in at $53.1 billion for fiscal 2025 that will begin on July 1.
A man walks through a small tent community for migrants, Wednesday, Nov. 1, 2023, near a Northside police station in Chicago. Nervous officials in suburbs and outlying cities near Chicago are giving migrants arriving from the southern border a cold shoulder. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast, File)
The budget was passed on a 38-21 vote with no Republicans voting in support, according to the State Journal-Register.
The initial proposal included $1.1 billion in new revenues through tax increases, the paper reported. But by the final vote, that huge glut of new taxes was whittled down slightly to a total of $870 million in new taxes.
One staggering increase was the tax on sports wagering which could range as high as 40 percent, a hike that had the betting industry warning that they will likely stop investing in the Illinois gaming sector.
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The tax hikes, though are barely adequate just to cover the huge amount that Illinois Democrat Gov. J.B. Pritzker is spending on Joe Biden’s wave of border crossers.
Early last year, Pritzker had already spent $475 million on the migrant influx, but by Nov., the Gov. had added another $160 million to that total. And according to WTTW, early this year, Pritzker insisted that he was going to throw in another $182 million to kick off fiscal year 2025.
That is more than $817 million, which is nearly the entire amount of the $870 million in new taxes the new budget is set to impose on the state.
The spending is shocking to Republican Senator Dan McConchie of Lake Zurich said the state had raised taxes merely to turn around and spend it all on migrants and noted that he voted “no” on the bill.
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“We’ve just passed the largest budget in Illinois State history. Over $53 billion, includes almost a billion in tax increases and nearly a billion dollars on the migrant crisis. So, we actually raised your taxes just to spend on migrants,” he said on a video posted to social media.
Gov. Pritzker touted one tax cut, though, that he claimed was important for Illinois families in these tough times of Bidenflation.
Pritzker proposed that the state tax on food be dropped for 2025. Local municipalities, though balked at the plan and succeeded in convincing Democrats to nullify the tax cut.
Instead of the cut being implemented for the 2025 budget, the cut was put off until 2026, but senate Democrats also slipped in a provision allowing towns and cities to implement their own tax on food, a move that will void the elimination of the state tax.
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