If anyone in the state legislature understands the challenges faced by a mayor, it’s a former mayor.
So it’s striking that state Rep. Anthony DeLuca, former mayor of south suburban Chicago Heights, is the chief sponsor of a bill moving through the Illinois House that would bid forbid counties or municipalities from imposing taxes on companies based on the number of workers they employ.
This measure is a direct response to Mayor Brandon Johnson’s feverish attempt late last year to tax the largest private-sector employers in Chicago to the tune of $21 per job per month.
Johnson was so intent on forcing that terrible idea through the City Council that he took Chicago to the brink of a government shutdown before allowing a budget without the head tax to become law without his signature.
DeLuca told the Tribune he has been a strong proponent of local rights. But, he said, the awful message sent to businesses by taxing the very jobs they create made this issue an exception for him. “We must have a pro-growth, a business-friendly atmosphere in Illinois,” he said.
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In that effort, he is supported by an assortment of business groups, led by the Illinois Manufacturers’ Association.
The bill cleared the House Revenue and Finance Committee March 19 on a 19-0 vote, which included the support of panel Chairman Curtis Tarver. Tarver represents a South Side district and has been a persistent critic of Johnson’s approach to Springfield.
Ordinarily, like DeLuca, we wouldn’t be supportive of state lawmakers telling localities what policies they can’t pursue in trying to solve their own problems. But there are exceptions to every rule, and we agree wholeheartedly with DeLuca on this one. When both Chicago and Illinois have significantly lagged the nation as a whole in terms of economic growth, there are few tax ideas more counterproductive than penalizing big companies for employing people within a city’s boundaries.
The Johnson administration didn’t help its cause when it unaccountably failed to dispatch a representative to testify at the hearing on the bill. Asked about that, the mayor’s chief of external affairs, Kennedy Bartley, said, “point well taken.”
But, she added, “It isn’t a secret what our advocacy is centered around, it’s progressive revenue like the … head tax.”
Sure, everyone is well aware of the mayor’s fixation on higher taxes. But that doesn’t excuse failing to execute on the ABCs of lobbying — such as not bothering even to show up at a hearing on a policy the mayor considers an urgent priority.
While Chicago is at no imminent risk of instituting Johnson’s jobs tax following the City Council’s adamant rejection, Springfield ought to make the possibility of a later revival of that policy a dead letter. Taking that option off the table for good would help boost badly needed business confidence in the future governance of Chicago.
That said, Springfield has hindered municipalities in important ways from addressing their budget constraints. DeLuca over the past several years has been a leading voice in the Capitol for sharing more of the income tax revenues the state generates with municipalities. What for decades was a 10% share with localities was chopped to closer to 6% when Illinois hiked its income tax to 4.95% in 2011.
The percentage has bounced around since then, but the bottom line is that the state has retained virtually all the revenues from the income tax hike while localities have resorted to one of the only revenue sources available to them — property taxes. In many parts of Illinois, we now have a full-fledged property tax revolt on our hands as a result.
Gov. JB Pritzker has proposed to make the situation even worse in his fiscal 2027 budget, proposing to shave localities’ share of income taxes to 6.28% from 6.47% in order to help balance the state’s budget.
The General Assembly should restore that higher share in its final budget next month.
It’s distressing that Johnson’s fellow Democrats in the Statehouse must expend time and energy trying to stave off his economically destructive policies. It used to be that when Chicago mayors spoke in Springfield, lawmakers listened and in most cases tried to help. That hasn’t been the case for the entirety of Johnson’s term, which now is about to enter its fourth year.
Until Chicago, the state’s economic engine, can begin rowing in the same policy directions as our representatives in Springfield, getting Illinois out of the economic mud will continue to be an uphill battle.
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