Illinois Chamber doesn't like proposed 'job tax'
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- Published on Monday, 30 January 2017 17:27
From ILLINOIS NEWS NETWORK
The Illinois Chamber says it has a number of problems with the “grand bargain” pending in the state’s senate, but one problem stands out — the tax for the “privilege of doing business in Illinois.”
“We call it the job tax,” the Illinois Chamber of Commerce’s Todd Maisch explained. “For a state that lost 17-thousand jobs last month to come up with a response that says ‘Let’s put more taxes on jobs,’ is really problematic.”
Maisch said all jobs in the state are important, but small businesses drive a lot of the job creation.
“It is so heavily weighted toward small and medium sized employers, who are particularly ill positioned to go ahead and afford it.”
Maisch said the Illinois Chamber is also not a big fan of many of the other $6 billion in tax increases included in the Senate’s bargain.
Instead, Maisch wishes lawmakers would focus more on adding jobs and growing the state out of its economic morass.
The State Senate adjourned last week without voting on the plan, which reportedly will increase taxes on a variety of items, including income, business and service taxes, while increasing spending by about $4 billion.
However, Senate President John Cullerton, D-Chicago, has told lawmakers to be prepared to vote when they return to the capitol next week.
