Say what? Republicans don’t want to allow you to vote on the graduated income tax
Illinois House Republican Leader Jim Durkin submitted a joint resolution Monday asking lawmakers to deny voters the opportunity to weigh in this November on the idea of allowing the state to impose graduated income tax rates.
The General Assembly placed the graduated tax referendum question on the ballot a year ago — in May 2019 — when economic conditions were considerably rosier than they are now in the midst of an international pandemic. This has prompted opponents of the idea not only to argue that now is not the time to impose higher taxes on those who earn higher incomes, but also to argue that now is not the time even to allow citizens to vote on the proposal.
Talk about suppression.
A little background: Article IX, Section 3 of the 1970 Illinois Constitution specifies that state income taxes be levied “at a nongraduated rate,” meaning that everyone pays the same flat percentage (currently 4.95%). A key plank of Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s campaign platform in 2018 was a promise to amend the constitution to allow for graduated rates, as used by the federal government and more than 30 states.
Doing so requires a three-fifths vote by each chamber to put the question on the ballot, then approval by three-fifths of those who vote on the question or yes votes from a simple majority of all those who voted in the election. It’s tough, in other words.
Debate over the graduated income tax proposal would have been by far the biggest state political story of 2020 before what I have taken to wearily referring to as “All This” came to dominate the news.
The debate remains compelling. Opponents argue that it’s unfair to ask higher earners to pay more in taxes, and doing so risks driving entrepreneurs and wealthy job creators out of the state. Supporters argue that graduated rates better allocate the pain of taxation and help narrow the gap between rich and poor. Now is the time to raise extra money from the wealthy because the economic ravages of COVID-19 will leave us with particularly big budgetary holes to fill.
The Republican call to shortcircuit this debate isn’t going anywhere. Durkin has 42 cosponsors, all members of his caucus, but to nix the referendum will require 60 votes in the heavily Democratic chamber, so the effort is purely for show.
But to show what, exactly? That Illinois Republicans don’t trust voters to consider all sides of the argument and cast an intelligent ballot on a major, pressing issue in the state?
Who do they think they are,
Illinois Democrats?
Republicans have been criticizing legislative Democrats for years for failing to bring to the voters questions about removing the unusual pension-protection language in the constitution, imposing term limits and, most recently, curbing gerrymandering by removing partisanship from the way political maps are drawn.
In general I’m not a huge fan of government by referendum — so-called direct democracy, as opposed to the representative democracy we now have. It’s risky to turn often complicated legislative questions into simple campaign issues where bumpersticker sentiments and special interest advertising can overwhelm serious analysis. Not every policy dispute should become a plebiscite.
But when certain big questions continue to loom over a legislative body and opinion polls suggest that either outdated constitutional provisions or timorous, beholden lawmakers are standing in the way of popular change, then yes, let the people vote.
Make it hard but not impossible for citizens to get binding questions on the ballot and keep the threshold for enactment high — three-fifths approval sounds about right, as opposed to a straight majority. But the evidence is compelling that the General Assembly isn’t always coming up with the best answers.
I have my opinions about the main questions referenced above and they may well differ from yours. But I hope we can agree that voters should be heard on them.
Convention or not, Trump wins
The Republican National Committee began sending out official invitations Monday to its nominating convention, scheduled for Aug. 24-27 in Charlotte, North Carolina. The mailing was an act of supreme optimism bordering on defiance given all the public health warnings about the importance of physical distancing to limit the spread of the novel coronavirus.
I’ve covered national political conventions, and from the main hall to the back corridors to the side meetings to the buses to the elevators to the bars and restaurants, they are veritable mosh pits of human contact. Events far less crowded and far further in the future are already being canceled or turned into virtual gatherings, as is almost certain to happen with the Democratic National Convention now scheduled for Aug. 17-20 in Milwaukee.
Even if infection rates, hospitalizations and deaths from COVID-19 are way down three months from now — and let’s hope! — it’s still likely to be a very risky idea to jam some 50,000 visitors together purely for the purpose of a political spectacle.
Publicly the RNC isn’t backing away from the idea of a convention as usual, as its presumptive presidential nominee Donald Trump has repeatedly insisted upon. It would be a bad look for Trump’s proclaimed “transition to greatness” if he and his party exhibited a fear of gathering in late summer, a time when his son has already proclaimed that the nation will be “rockin’.”
But luckily for Trump, North Carolina has a Democratic governor and Charlotte has a Democratic mayor, officials who see their jobs as protecting all their residents from disease, especially those hired to work the convention site, and not providing a big stage for a Republican president.
In an interview with the Washington Examiner about the convention, Trump said of Democrats, “They’re playing politics, as you know, by delaying the openings.” Thus did he signal that he’ll be more than happy to play chicken and force Charlotte to cancel or severely restrict convention activities so he doesn’t have to do it himself.
Instead — just wait and see — he’ll portray himself and his party as victims of mask-wearing, handwashing, physically distancing weenie Democrats.
Re: Tweets
The winner of this week’s reader poll to select the funniest tweet was “Even the idiots on Gilligan’s Island listened to the professor and not the millionaire” by @NYinLA2121.
The poll appears at chicago tribune.com/zorn, where you can read all the nominees. For an early alert when each new poll is posted, sign up for the Change of Subject email newsletter at chicagotribune.com/newsletters.