Taxes on millionaires are perhaps blunt instruments to even out our collective responsibility to maintain government and educational functions, but other options to achieve this goal don’t seem to get voters’ approval. Six years ago, Gov. JB Pritzker proposed a graduated income tax for Illinois. The Tribune Editorial Board vigorously opposed it, going to its fallback position that the state must first cut spending. And where would these cuts be? Well, pensions, of course. Indeed, pension costs are swallowing enormous portions of state revenue as they are for Chicago and its public schools. But pension protection is written in the state constitution, something not likely to change.

Increased revenue, however, offers a path to pay down those costs. A progressive tax system that allows no exemptions would increase revenue without, like the current system, taxing everyone at the same rate. A taxpayer earning $35,000 a year is faced with a much greater burden than a billionaire taxed at the same rate. Pritzker has already shown paying down pension obligations is good government. Think what could be done with new revenue.

The editorial board loves to roll out as a cautionary tale Ken Griffin’s departure for Florida. Griffin, of course, provided huge sums to defeat a progressive income tax before leaving. So, no longer will our museums and other institutions receive some of his millions. But the board should take note of wealthy Chicagoans who continue to support these institutions. Not all the very wealthy are Ken Griffins who flee for the forever goal of endless wealth.

No millionaires’ tax? Then support a progressive income tax.

— Roger Flaherty, Chicago

Changing tax structure in Illinois

I recently moved to Chicago from South Carolina that, for the moment, has a graduated income tax and relatively low property taxes. It’s a different way of doing things, and the contrast has made me pay closer attention to how tax structure — not just tax rates — shapes everyday affordability.

I’ll admit. I’m coming north willingly. Chicago is a world-class city, with its architecture, lakefront and neighborhoods offering something you don’t find just anywhere. But like anyone making a move, I’m also looking at the practical side of things, and the numbers tell a clear story.

Illinois has some of the highest effective property tax rates in the country, around 1.8% of a home’s value. In many Southern states, that number can be less than 0.5%. That difference doesn’t just exist on paper; it shows up in escrow payments, monthly budgets and long-term decisions about whether to stay or go.

At a basic level, states fund themselves through three primary levers: income taxes, sales taxes and property taxes. When one of those levers is constrained, the others have to do more of the work. Illinois relies heavily on property taxes — particularly for education, where roughly 60% of funding comes from local sources — while maintaining a flat income tax rate of 4.95%. The result is a system in which the burden tilts heavily toward property owners.

I understand Illinois voters rejected a graduated income tax in 2020, and I don’t dismiss that. People want confidence that new revenue will be handled responsibly before they agree to it. That kind of trust has to be earned.

And to be clear, I’m not suggesting the Southern model is perfect. In many ways, states like Illinois help subsidize parts of the South through federal tax flows. But that only underscores the point: There has to be a better way to strike a balance at the state level.

A carefully designed, moderate approach to income taxation, paired with clear guardrails, transparency and accountability, could help ease pressure on property taxes over time. From where I’m sitting, this isn’t about punishing success or protecting one group over another. It’s about using all three levers wisely.

If Illinois wants to remain not just a great place to visit but a sustainable place to build a life, it may be worth looking beyond the current debate and focusing on how the system works as a whole.

— Cale Collier, Chicago

We have money for the Bears?

Illinois has massive unfunded obligations (mostly fat state worker pensions), is losing population and businesses due to excessive taxation, and underfunds health care to care for those most in need, but now believes it can subsidize a new stadium for the billionaire owner of the Bears.

This is what one-party rule has brought to Illinois. Will voters ever awake?

— David Howard, Rockford

Taxation a tool that we can use

The Tribune Editorial Board (“New York Mayor Mamdani was wrong to target Griffin,” April 26) implies that New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s drawing of attention to Florida-based billionaire Ken Griffin’s $238 million New York penthouse is an “attack” comparable to a would-be assassin charging a crowded hotel to shoot the president.

To be fair, the board also notes Griffin’s “counterattack”: threatening to axe his NYC construction project and lay off 6,000 construction workers over Mamdani’s pied-à-terre tax plan. If Chicago is any indication, he could also wind down his philanthropic giving in the city.

What follows in the editorial is a timeworn argument.

In prerevolutionary France, the argument was that we need a nobility to control the wealth; otherwise, no one will create any, and the peasants will end up worse off. Then, as now, those financially required to work for a living actually create the wealth, and the nobility hoard and ultimately weaponize it.

But now, we have tools infinitely superior to the revolt and violence of the late 1700s. We have taxation: a democratic, legal and time-honored mechanism to recapture wealth being weaponized by a tyrannical nobility.

Taxation is not violence. However, there is some level of violence in several thousand people being put out of work because a man is protesting paying his property tax (which would amount to less than 1% of what Griffin earned last year). You don’t have to break out your Friedrich Engels and endorse the concept of “social murder” to understand there is a human cost to these decisions.

As the board points out, violence feeds violence. So, it’s important to separate taxation and violence. Violence is an unacceptable response to being made to pay a tax (essentially, being made to obey a law you disagree with).

Ultimately, the editorial board is right: Billionaires have the power to harm our communities, and they often shape public policy by threatening the public. The good news is: We have the tool to reduce their power, return it to the people and stop living under threat.

— Chris Curme, Chicago

CTU’s planned actions on May 1

On May 1, I will gladly honor the Roman celebration of the goddess Flora over protests in Chicago that mock the broad success of the American labor movement. Labor protests used to involve personal risk in the pursuit of human rights. Workers put their bodies, livelihoods and lives on the line to oppose employers and governments that exploited physical laborers through inhumane working conditions. It was not uncommon for federal troops to squash uprisings at events, such as at the Pullman strike, the West Virginia mine wars and the steel strike of 1919. In true American tradition, workers died fighting for rights that many of us take for granted today.

In Illinois, the script has flipped. Protests are now government events. The Chicago Teachers Union, likely the most protected class of workers in the city, is leading the charge. This is a group where 40% of its members in 2024 were chronically absent, defined by 10 or more missed days in a year. Regrettably, their students are chronically uneducated.

I do not think it’s a stretch to say that our politicians have been captured by the CTU, especially, but not limited to, our mayor.

In Chicago, we have publicly funded teachers who want to protest government injustice while protected by the publicly funded police. Sadly, private-sector working residents are faced with both increasing taxes and increasing public debt, much of which goes to our CTU protesters.

With respect to the goddess Flora, I think I will mostly recall the saying: “Nero fiddled while Rome burned.”

— Thad Smith, Chicago

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