Gov. J.B. Pritzker wants to put Illinois businesses on the line for $500 million in tax liabilities, even after businesses have struggled due to COVID-19 restrictions.
Pritzker said last week that he wanted to decouple the state tax code from a federal change that would lower the tax liabilities for businesses that have been struggling due to pandemic lockdowns, but business groups say that change will cause businesses to suffer.
Pritzker said the change would give the state back half a billion dollars
“That would essentially deprive Illinois of revenues that it otherwise should get and it’s literally a technical fix,” Pritzker said, the Washington Examiner reported.
Business groups are strongly opposed to the move.
NFIB, Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce, Grain and Feed Association of Illinois, Hospitality Business Association of Chicago, Illinois Chamber of Commerce, Illinois Hotel & Lodging Association, Illinois Licensed Beverage Association, Illinois Manufacturers’ Association, Illinois Retail Merchants Association, Technology & Manufacturing Association and the Valley Industrial Association have come together to oppose the change and issued a joint statement asking Pritzker to rethink the decision.
“We urge the Governor and legislature to reject this massive tax increase at a time when thousands of small businesses across the entire state are struggling to stay afloat during a pandemic and government-imposed shutdowns,” the group said in the joint statement. “This will have a dramatic impact on every aspect of business, including some of our most decimated industries. We understand the desire to find revenue, but this is the opposite of an ‘all-in’ approach.”
Republican state lawmakers agreed with the business groups, saying the legislation would cause the state to look less attractive.
“Taking away yet another piece of relief for them could cause even further revenue hits to the state budget and decimate jobs and communities across Illinois,” Rep. Tom Demmer (R-Dixon) said.
Demmer also said he didn’t know if the governor even had the power to freeze the incentives.
“Again I’ll remind you, a bill that passed with bipartisan support and that he himself signed that says in statute businesses shall be eligible for these incentives starting on Jan. 1 of 2021,” Demmer said, the news media reported. “The fact that he’s seeking to take this unilateral action I think continues a trend that we’ve seen out of the governor’s office of government by the executive branch alone. That’s not the kind of leadership for Illinois.”
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