Sangamon Sun

Rep. Mike Murphy is calling on Gov. J.B. Pritzker to not push for the income-tax decoupling from a provision in the CARES Act.

Murphy is concerned that the legislation will force small businesses to shut down as they have been badly hit by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Put yourself in the shoes of small businesses in 2020 — literally the worst year any of them could ever imagine. (They are) just figuring out how to stay afloat in 2020. And now at the last minute, the state of Illinois comes to strip you of your last dollar by pulling the plug on the tax deduction," Murphy said at a news conference. "These people have put their entire life into their businesses and done everything they could to prepare for the worst.”

The representative from District 99 also said that the governor has to realize that many businesses would be affected by the decoupling that would increase their tax burden from $500 million to $1.4 billion.

“Governor there are more than 400,000 businesses that would be affected by this, Charlie Parker’s being one of them. Don’t put more of them out of business and kill the jobs that they provide for so many because your state budget is so far out of balance.”

Murphy and his wife own Charlie Parker's, a diner in Springfield.