Democrats’ Graduated “Fair Tax” Plan Cuts Taxes on 99% of Illinoisans

Fair-Tax-graphic

A few examples of how the change would affect Illinois families, courtesy of the Fiscal Policy Center.  Click for a larger view.

Maybe you saw some headlines in the last few days about the plan from State Representative Lou Lang (D-Skokie) to switch from our current flat state income tax to a graduated (aka “progressive”) “Fair Tax” plan.  You probably didn’t see that the plan would constitute a tax cut for 99% of us, while raising an additional $1.9 billion of revenue for our hard-pressed state.

Here are a few pieces from Capitol Fax with details.  You have to love the Pavlovian response from the Rauner people (“The straw that breaks…”):

Unsurprisingly, the papers heard that it was a cut for 99% of folks and promptly wrote stories about the few folks who would pay more.  Now, how do you think a reading public trained to be cynical will read those stories?  The Trib of course made it a “Madigan!” thing, too: