"As a former small business owner, I've personally experienced how difficult it is to keep your business afloat during hard times, but nothing compares to the hardship being faced right now," said Rep. Murphy. "I cannot tell you how many calls I've received from businesses that won't make it if the state decouples this federal relief and they're hit with a tax increase. These people have put their hearts and souls into keeping their businesses, and the jobs they provide to so many families, going through this pandemic. The Governor cannot fix his unbalanced budget by putting these people out of business."
In the waning hours of the Lame Duck Session last week, Governor Pritzker attempted to rush legislation through the General Assembly that would have amounted to a tax increase estimated at anywhere from $500 million to $1.4 billion. That legislation would have decoupled Illinois' income tax from a provision in the federal CARES Act passed last spring to provide support for small businesses hit hardest by COVID-19 by allowing them to deduct additional losses in 2020. The legislation failed to pass, but the Governor said in a press conference after its failure that he is planning to push the proposal again and try to force its passage before taxes are due this year.
While other states acted last spring and summer to decouple their income taxes from the CARES Act relief, giving businesses the ability to prepare, Representative Steve Reick questioned the timing and motivation of the Pritzker administration. "The fact that other states were on top of this, giving companies a chance to do some tax planning while Illinois didn't learn of it until October and then chose to sit on it until January, is an example of either incompetence or executive branch cynicism over its messaging on the Fair Tax. There's no third option," Rep. Reick stated.