BUDGET
Illinois House Republicans Slam $6 Billion in Proposed Tax Hikes. Legislators Condemn Pritzker’s Dangerous Political Rhetoric on the National Stage. Illinois House Republicans slammed proposals from progressive interest groups that would raise taxes by $6 billion on Illinois working families and businesses.
Last week, progressive Democrats ramped up their campaign for a graduated income tax hike, despite Illinois voters soundly rejecting a constitutional amendment for a progressive income tax in 2020. And the Illinois Revenue Alliance presented a list of tax hikes that would raise taxes by $6 billion.
State Representative Chris Miller called out what he considers to be the most egregious tax hike proposal: raising the Estate Tax by cutting the exemption in half (from $4 million to $2 million).
“Families, businesses, and farmers have been used by progressive Democrats in Illinois to fund their pork projects and make life easier for illegal immigrants. Illinois residents are fed up with policies that make their life harder and they are fed up with being taxed to death.”
While progressive Democrats are demanding tax hikes for more wasteful government spending, Governor JB Pritzker is spending his time stumping around the country for his 2028 presidential aspirations. Even worse, Pritzker is resorting to inflammatory, dangerous rhetoric in his attacks on President Trump and Republicans.
Referring to President Trump at a speech in March, Pritzker said, “Bullies respond to one thing, and one thing only, a punch in the face.” During that same speech at a California LGBTQ convention, Pritzker said, “I won’t continue to advocate that we wage conventional political fights when what we really need is to become street fighters.”
Illinois is in a Crisis and Democrats Have Done Nothing
WATCH: www.facebook.com/RepChrisMiller110/videos/1190777812492404
Gov. Pritzker’s calls for political unrest and his wink and nod toward political violence didn’t end there. Earlier this week at a New Hampshire Democratic Party fundraiser, Pritzker ramped up the rhetoric.
First, he started his speech by saying, “It’s time to fight everywhere and all at once.”
Then, Pritzker crossed the line in calling for political violence.
“Never before in my life have I called for mass protests, for mobilization, for disruption, but I am now. These Republicans cannot know a moment of peace.”
ENERGY
Electric bills set to soar again this summer. Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO), the interstate grid operator that posts prices for peak-load electrical supplies bought by utilities and end-users throughout central and southern Illinois, has reported a massive increase in summer capacity prices.
These are the price levels charged by peak-load electrical generation suppliers that operate and supply electricity online during times of peak summer demand. In some cases, these peak-load electrical supply prices, which electric utilities are legally empowered to pass on to their customers, are 22 times higher than last summer’s prices. These price levels reflect the continued withdrawal of coal-fired and other carbon-based electric generation from the supply picture of the central U.S. states, coupled with improved use of mathematical algorithms by the remaining suppliers to maximize their prices and profits.
The largest utility serving central and southern Illinois, Ameren, warned customers this week that the utility expects to pay approximately 50% more this summer for the electricity it purchases. Ameren expects the overall prices will increase from 8 cents per kilowatt hour (kWh) last summer to 12 cents/kWh this summer. After these supply prices are passed on to customers as allowed by law, the average summer 2025 consumer electric bill will be 18% to 22% higher in summer 2025 than during the comparable months of 2024. This price increase will apply to the four-month period beginning June 1, 2025, and ending on September 30, 2025.
Starting on October 1, 2025, and in line with expected end of summer temperatures and air-conditioning-related peak demand loads, the summer 2025 capacity price structure posted by MISO will expire, and the billing surcharges to be charged by Ameren and other Downstate Illinois electrical utility suppliers may be partly reduced. The Downstate Illinois summer 2025 electrical pricing picture was described to members of the General Assembly on Wednesday, April 30.
Rep. Miller says energy prices are soaring because of the “Green New Scam”
“Radical Democrats have destroyed reliable and affordable energy in Illinois because they are eliminating the most effective source of energy and replacing it with solar. We have an energy crisis with brownouts and blackouts looming, and these people still support the climate hoax.”
TAXES
Four Illinois cities rank among the highest property tax rates in the country. A new study reported by Crain’s reveals four out of the top five urban areas with the highest property tax are in Illinois.
The report comes after a property information service, Attom, analyzed the property tax rates for 217 different urban areas.
The four cities listed were Rockford, Chicago, Peoria and Champaign-Urbana. The report detailed the percentage homeowners pay above market value for their home.
Here are the results:
- Rockford: 2.06% above market value
- Chicago: 1.91% above market value
- Peoria: 1.89% above market value
- Champaign-Urbana: 1.88% above market value
Attom’s analysis also said the effective property tax rate by homeowners in those cities was more than double the national average.