Even though I wrote about proposed tax increases in Illinois just 10 days ago, it’s time to revisit the issue because the Tax Foundation just published a very informative article about the state’s self-destructive fiscal policy.
It starts by noting that the aggregate tax burden is higher in Illinois than it is in adjoining states.
Just what are Illinois’ neighbors doing on taxes? They’re taxing less, for starters. In Illinois, state and local taxes account for 9.3 percent of state income. The state and local taxes in Illinois’ six neighboring states account, in aggregate, for 8.0 percent of the income of those states.
Here’s the table showing the gap between Illinois and its neighbors. And it’s probably worth noting that the tax gap is the largest with the two states – Indiana and Missouri – that have the longest borders with Illinois.
While the aggregate tax burden is an important measure, I’ve explained before that it’s also important to focus on marginal tax rates. After all, that’s the variable that determines incentives for productive behavior since it measures how much the government confiscates when investors and entrepreneurs generate additional wealth.
And this brings us to the most important point in the article. Illinois politicians want to move in the wrong direction on marginal tax rates while neighboring jurisdictions are moving in the right direction.
Except for Iowa, all of Illinois’ neighbors have cut their income taxes since Illinois adopted its “temporary” income tax increases in 2011—and Iowa is on the verge of adopting a tax reform package that cuts individual income tax rates… Over the same period, Illinois’ single-rate income tax was temporarily raised from 3 to 5 percent, then allowed to partially sunset to 3.75 percent before being raised to the current 4.95 percent rate. A 1.5 percent surtax on pass-through business income brings the rate on many small businesses to 6.45 percent. Now there are calls to amend the state constitution to allow graduated-rate income taxes, with proposals circulating to create a top marginal rate as high as 9.85 percent (11.35 percent on pass-through businesses).
Here’s the chart showing the top rate in various states in 2011, the top rates today, and where top tax rates could be in the near future.
What’s especially remarkable is that Illinois politicians are poised to jack up tax rates just as federal tax reform has significantly reduced the deduction for state and local taxes.
For all intents and purposes, they’re trying to drive job creators out of the state (a shift that already has been happening, but now will accelerate).
Normally, when I write that a jurisdiction is committing fiscal suicide, I try to explain that it’s a slow-motion process. Illinois, however, could be taking the express lane. No wonder readers overwhelmingly picked the Land of Lincoln when asked which state will be the first to suffer a fiscal collapse.
P.S. Illinois politicians claim they want to bust the flat tax so they can impose higher taxes on the (supposedly) evil rich. High-income taxpayers doubtlessly will be the first on the chopping block, but I can say with 99.99 percent certainty that class-warfare tax increases will be a precursor to higher taxes on everybody.
P.P.S. Illinois residents should move to states with no income taxes. But if they only want to cross one border, Indiana would be a very good choice. And Kentucky just shifted to a flat tax, so that’s another potential option.
