The Capitol dome echoed with chants of “We are the 99 percent,” “Whose money? Our money” and “Tax the rich.” Every so often, a hush fell over the crowd as they raised their fists in solidarity.
That was the scene last week as protesters swarmed the Statehouse to protest Gov. Bruce Rauner’s proposed budget cuts. Between 1,500 and 2,400 people packed the Capitol rotunda from the ground floor to the third-floor balcony on March 11, calling for higher taxes on the wealthy.
“We wanted to call the question,” said Hannah Gelder, a Chicago community organizer with ONE (Organizing Neighborhoods for Equality) Northside. “Who are the legislators and the governor going to stand with: the people of Illinois or big corporations and the one percent?”
The building was so packed that a man with long white hair and a safety vest patrolled a corridor made of people, ensuring the path was clear from the back of the crowd to the governor’s office. Most of the protesters wore t-shirts reading “We Rise” on one side and “Who will you choose?” on the other. Groups of people took turns going into the governor’s office with petitions for child care assistance funding. There were between 7,000 and 8,500 signatures, according to organizers with the Service Employees International Union (SEIU)
Fred Kinsey, a pastor from Chicago who attended the rally, said people had also come to support mental health services, Medicaid funding and Grow Your Own, a program that trains teachers from low- to moderate-income communities. He said the people being asked to bear the weight of the cuts have already sacrificed enough and that new revenue should come from new taxes on the wealthy.
“There’s been no mention of revenue by the governor yet,” Kinsey said. “And we know that there’s money out there.”
A study released last week by the Keystone Research Center (KRC) in Pennsylvania claims that if the top fifth of income earners paid all taxes at the same rate as the middle fifth, Illinois would raise an additional $8.6 billion in tax revenue. KRC conducted the study nationwide and released specific studies for nine states, including Illinois. Stephen Herzenberg, executive director at KRC, said Illinois was chosen because it has a particularly regressive tax structure.
“We focused on states where tax fairness could make the biggest contribution to the state budget,” he said.
Herzenberg pointed out that Illinois was ranked fifth on the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy’s (ITEP) ‘Terrible Ten’ list of states with the most regressive tax systems. He said Illinois’ tax system is regressive because high-income earners spend a smaller percentage of their income on sales and consumption taxes than low-income and middle-income earners, who have to spend a greater share of their income on things like groceries. He said the state’s top earners also pay a smaller share of their income on property tax.
“There’s only so much McMansion you can buy,” he said.
Many people at the rally said they supported raising taxes on the wealthy in order to pay for services, but it’s not that simple. Illinois has a flat income tax written into its constitution, so without a constitutional amendment, raising taxes on the wealthy would also mean raising taxes on everyone else.
Herzenberg says that there are ways of getting around the constitutional issue, such as raising the income tax and exemptions for low and middle income earners together or instituting a tax on wealth. He said 42 percent of wealth in the U.S. is in the hands of the top one percent of income earners.
Herzenberg said that balancing a budget on cuts alone, as Rauner has proposed, will not result in a growth economy.
“It’s pretty simple,” he said. “There’s lots of evidence on this: A cuts-only approach to the budget will weaken your economic recovery and lead to slower job growth and slower revenue growth.”
He pointed to his own state of Pennsylvania, which he said came in 50th place for job growth nationwide since it began using cuts alone to balance its budget in 2011.
“If Illinois wants to be 50th for job growth four years from now,” he said, “it’s on the right track.”
Contact Alan Kozeluh at intern@illinoistimes.com.
This article appears in Mar 19-25, 2015.
