Why the Holdup Using Artificial Intelligence to Cut Illinois Government Costs? – Wirepoints
May 18, 2026
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A largely unasked question is becoming glaring: Is Illinois doing all it should to use artificial intelligence to make government cost less and work better? So far, the evidence says no.
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If this bill passes, say goodbye to local control over all Illinois parks and expect to see open drug and alcohol use, needles, no sanitation and fire hazards, but no ordinary park users.
The other issue no one hardly mentions is the estate tax. Illinois has one of the lowest thresholds in the nation when it comes to confiscating wealth. HB1576 just continues to collect dust in Springfield and another reason people of wealth have or want to leave this state.
And who decides what constitutes a millionaire? Income? Property? Future income? Stocks? Bonds? Baseball cards? Face it, greedy Springrad pigs want to steal every penny of your hard earned, rightful wealth to finance their blue, socialist unicorn dreams.
We need to defeat the machine.
You know they are going to do it anyway, and you sheep will let it happen. So sure. Why not. It’s not like those Millionaires have any options. Once that door is open, do any of you think that you won’t soon be defined as a millionaire? You may laugh, but I can assure you that the courts and the politicians can do it regardless of how the amendment reads. Go ahead. Open that door. I can hardly wait to laugh at what rushes in.
It seems the big taxing issue for state of Illinois, City of Chicago, counties & municipalities, Illinois 7,000 units of gov, etc is …….will any of these taxing bodies once all the ARPA-COVID fed funds are spent REDUCE spending to pre-COVID levels…..all one has to do is look at recent Chicago budget to realize taxpayers are on the hook to somehow paying for all the $billions in increased permanent spending baked into budgets from COVID. There will be no end to taxing schemes/ No CUTS…millionars tax will only be one of many.
An issue that impacted the vote last time was the proposed elimination of the flat tax in the Illinois Constitution would allow retirement income to be taxed at some level. Treasurer Frerichs made that fateful comment and it fired up retirees across the state, many of whom felt they had paid enough taxes to the State of Illinois. Retirees vote, and they’ll vote again if word gets out that Pritzker is taking another bite at the apple. The rejection of the “fair tax” was clearly an indication that Illinois residents don’t trust Illinois Democrats. And why should they, Governor Pritzker… Read more »
Michigan taxes retirement income.
They do tend to have hooks for some of these initiatives, such as “Fair Tax,” that often describe the opposite of what’ll happen. They’re sneaky that way (LOL).
Any struggling business needs to expand revenue while cutting costs to return to fiscal health. Since the market typically sets what a business can charge it has more control of reducing costs. Illinois makes zero attempts to control spending, and by that I mean no attempts to address the pension problem, and by that I mean eliminating pensions for new workers hired after a specific date and giving them 401k options for retirement as in the real world since the early 80’s while funding existing pension commitments for however many decades until the last participants have died. I’d support an… Read more »
Tax codes shouldn’t be in constitutions just as pensions shouldn’t be. Let the politicians vote on these issues so we know where they stand. They want the citizen to do their job for them so they don’t have to be responsible for adding more taxes.
Step 1: get the tax approved
Step 2: change the income brackets as time goes on
Nothing new here; its just the prelude to a middle class tax hike
Bingo!
That’s been the ongoing result for eons in IL politics, hasn’t it—turning a somewhat reasonable concept on its surface into an increasing nightmare over time? How could any long-term IL resident think this will be different?
Have you ever considered maybe it’s time to realize that what sounds reasonable is probably not, despite what you wish were true? It works better to figure out up front what won’t work, rather than complain that it was a good idea but got ruined.
It should now be clear to Illinois residents that there will never be enough tax and fee revenue to feed the Illinois Mismanagement Machine (IMM). Major components of IMM are corruption, greed, and good old lack of skill to do the job. Major output includes too many government offices, too many employees, too many unneeded projects, too high salaries, and too high benefits. I can’t think of a state in the entire country that abuses its taxpayers more. Here we go with another year of fun for us suckers who continue to stay as Illinois residents.
There are plenty of (good) people moving out of IL now to low-income tax states in anticipation of this. The Dems seem to be forgetting that higher wealth individuals can shift their residency fairly easy and transition to being post-Illinoisan in a very short time. Not near as hard to do with being able to work remotely, setting up or moving to offices in other states, or bordering states with lower taxes that are within an hour drive of Chicago. There are many people thinking that the tax will continue to increase once it is enacted and could approach 10%.… Read more »
How often does the revenue received for raising taxes match the revenue projections of the politicians? See cigarette, liquor, sales tax revenues. Only gambling and cannabis revenues exceed expectations.
One problem. With the way the tax system works, who will be a millionaire? Warren Buffet pays less in taxes than his secretary. Jeff Bezos and Amazon pay little in taxes. And millionaires, such as Pritzker, hide income in offshore accounts. They become millionaires by knowing how to shelter their income from the tax man. There will become new innovations by lawyers and accountants to avoid this millionaire tax.
Your portrayal of Warren Buffet as paying less taxes than his secretary surely has to be wrong. I know that’s the common way it’s often said, but what’s more likely is that his top income tax bracket RATE is lower than hers rather than the total income tax owed, don’t you think?
Warren Buffet knew what he was saying and it was a purposeful lie. Warren likely pays a flat 20% long term capital gains tax rate on the income he derives from growth of his investments. He also doesn’t pay social security or medicare taxes on this income. However, his highly paid secretary probably earns several hundred thousand dollars a year and pays *ordinary* income tax rates ranging from 35% to 37% plus 6.2% medicare and social security up to $168k. Warren was unintentionally making the case that his secretary’s tax rate should be lowered to the same as his.
Sounds like Buffet wouldn’t fit into the millionaire’s tax bracket. Him, along with how many other “not millionaires”?
I was implying the scenario you suggested even though I didn’t express it. Still, I can’t begin to believe her total income tax liability exceeded his.
Sorry, James, the issue originally came from Obama during a state of the union address talking about unfairness of tax system. Check Forbes for the story
So, cutting to the chase here, I’m guessing you’re telling me that my assumption that Buffet’s total income tax payments for at least one year was greater than that of his secretary is wrong. If that’s the case I am truly surprised, but again for all I know that may be true only for one or two cherry-picked years rather than a reasonably long sequence of years. Otherwise, it would seem to be somebody trying to bluff it.
It’s probably been consistent for years. As others pointed out, Buffet’s income comes from capital gains. His secretary gets a salaried income. Capital gains are taxed at a much lower rate than salaried income. So this situation has and will continue unless the tax code is changed. This applies to most rich people whose earnings come from capital gains such as Pritzker, Romney, and probably Trump.
Sure, but aren’t you essentially ignoring that his income in many years likely is many hundreds or even potentially thousands of times larger in some years than is hers? Mathematically his lesser highest-bracket income tax bracket still is going to result in him paying more income taxes overall in such years. Capiche?
Sure, but the fact is that his 15% capital gains tax rate saves him from falling into the “millionaires” tax bracket. He may pay a lot in taxes, but not nearly as much as anyone who pays in the higher tax brackets. Pritzker’s millionaires income tax will not apply to people like Buffet (and Pritzker himself) because he doesn’t have income susceptible to tax brackets.
Yes, I agree. We can like it or hate it, but that’s the way it works.
Plus 3.8% on any investment income.
He must pay her very well if she is in such a high-income tax bracket. I wish I had her problem.
You are not understanding the Buffet situation and the millionaire tax issue. The tax is NOT based on net worth. It is based on income. There would essentially be an additional/higher tax rate for INCOMES over $1MM. Earning $1MM does not necessarily make someone a “millionaire”. Buffet NEVER said that his secretary pays more in income taxes. What he said was that his secretary pays a higher EFFECTIVE TAX RATE than his secretary. His secretary’s income is considered ordinary income which is subject to a progressive tax scale. Buffet’s income is derived from items such as long term capital gains… Read more »
Big mistake, this will just chase out more high-income residents that the state needs so badly.
By the time it passes, will there be any millionaires left in IL besides Pritzker and Dem politicians?
Almost guaranteed to be on the ballot in 2026. Chances of passage quite high since it affects so few voters.
One more way for the State of Illinois to demonstrate they hate success