Proposed Tax Increase Bigger Than Expected

Proposed Tax Increase Bigger Than Expected « CBS Chicago – Breaking News, Sports, Weather, Traffic, and the Best of Chicago
SPRINGFIELD (AP) — Top Illinois Democrats have agreed to push a plan that would temporarily boost income taxes by 75 percent and double cigarette taxes, Senate President John Cullerton said Thursday.
Illinois’ personal income tax rate, now 3 percent, would climb to 5.25 percent for four years under the plan Cullerton outlined. After that, it would drop to 3.75 percent.
That means someone who now owes $1,000 in state income taxes would owe $1,750 at the new rate, then $1,250 after four years.
The permanent portion would be used several ways. Some would be devoted to schools and some to repaying an $8.5 billion loan that would be used to pay overdue bills, Cullerton said.
Another chunk would go to property tax relief in the form of annual $325 checks, he said. The checks would replace the property tax exemption that homeowners can now claim on their income taxes.

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