After learning the state of Illinois collected $1.5 billion more in tax revenue than was expected in April, House Republican leadership this week argued that the good news is proof that new taxes are not needed to right the state’s financial ship.
“The numbers are clear,” House Republican Leader Jim Durkin (R-Western Springs) said at a Capitol news conference. “We now have the money to balance the budget with no new taxes, no tax increases. There’s no need to talk about raising taxes on bags, cigarettes, businesses or the middle class. And there is certainly no reason to be even considering a graduated tax.”
On Tuesday, the greater-than-anticipated revenue was announced in a letter written by Department of Revenue Director David Harris and Alexis Sturm, director of the Governor’s Office of Management and Budget who stated that as an immediate result of the strong April performance, coupled with revenue collections year-to-date, the State of Illinois will be able to address most of the $1.6 billion shortfall in the enacted FY2019 budget because of the April revenues alone.
The Department of Revenue also raised its official estimate of next year’s tax collections by $800 million. That allowed Governor Pritzker to scrap an unpopular proposal that would have decreased the statutorily-mandated state contribution to the pension fund for fiscal year 2020 by about $800 million, allocating the money to other state spending.
