By: John Klingner
State Sen. Bill Cunningham (D-Chicago) has proposed a bill that would allow local governments to impose a local gas tax. The senator’s proposal would allow municipal governments to vote on tax hikes of up to 3 cents per gallon to pay for the maintenance of local roads.
Municipal gas taxes would pile on yet another layer on top of the state and federal gas taxes that already exist. The proposal comes less than a year after the state passed a record gas tax hike of 19 cents a gallon as part of the state’s massive $45 billion infrastructure plan.
Add Cunningham’s proposal to the list of taxes that will swallow up Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s promised $65 in tax cuts from his progressive tax.
Hiking gas taxes
Last year’s tax hike pushed Illinois’ total gasoline taxes to the third-highest in the nation. Before the hike, Illinois’ gas taxes ranked 21st in the nation.
Now, Illinois’ gasoline tax is 1.5 times higher than the national average and the highest among its neighbors. Illinois’ gas tax is over three times as high as Missouri’s.
Illinois politicians can’t seem to leave the gas tax alone.
Rep. Camille Y. Lilly (D-Oak Park) has even proposed a bill that would forbid Illinoisans from pumping their own gas, which would raise the cost of buying gas even more.
And it’s not just gas that’s eating up working families’ transportation budgets. Illinoisans are also paying more taxes for parking, vehicle registration fees, licensing and more.
It’s getting more and more expensive to own a car in Illinois. No wonder Illinois residents have been driving right out of the state for the past six years.
A set of state lawmakers want to extend CPS’ current school closing moratorium to February 1, 2027 – the same year CPS is set to transition to a fully-elected school board. That means schools like Manley High School, with capacity for more than 1,000 students but enrollment of just 78, can’t be closed for anther three years. The school spends $45,000 per student, but just 2.4% of students read at grade level.
Hopefully, all media will get the message, in Illinois, too.
Ted joined Tom Miller of WJPF to talk about Illinois’ highest-in-the-nation property taxes, why lawmakers don’t want to touch the tax’s cost drivers, just how much Illinoisans’ tax burden has grown over the decades, why Gov. Pritzker failed to meet his promise to reform property taxes, and more.
Gee, that was surprising
“As currently written, HB 4571 would create the “Gas Station Attendant Act,” which provides that no gas may be pumped at a gas station in the state unless it is pumped by a gas station attendant employed at the gas station. ” “You can continue to do that with this concept,” Lilly said. “As mentioned, the bill that is out there, it was just a vehicle to be utilized to talk about what the intent is. The thought we discussed was how can you have both these options at a gas station. This is not a bill I would move… Read more »
Yes, time to tax the poor again. Thanks you JB!
Next on the agenda will be a usage tax based on the number of miles you have driven. This will be on top of the gas tax.
Not of top, but I don’t see why a gas tax based on miles doesn’t make perfect sense. use 10 miles a day or 100 miles a day your putting the same wear on the roads per mile and this includes and electric car.
The IL tax should include your milage, a car is born with N miles when you buy it, N miles when you sell it, and N miles when it’s junked.
I’ll drive an old car, and swap out the odometer for one with less miles when I sell it. ” I guess the odometer didn’t work right” hmm.
then after that everyone gets microchipped with GPS trackers, and you’ll be taxed for walking on the sidewalks, riding bikes, taking elevators, thems sidewalks don’t pay for themselves!
Breathing air, we’ll all be charged for breathing air. Oh wait, they have that already, it’s called ‘carbon tax’, they tax the air we breathe.
Hey Illinois, how about a tax every time you start the engine?
One of these days,Illinois will just be like a clock that stopped.No money to send to nobody,no cops.no firefighters,no water, no sewer,no nothing.When the bond holders gets scared that will be it.Then the fun starts. The gangs will come to the rich areas,no cops,THey will be the gov..All the gun haters will wish they had guns when they come into their homes and take over..Its coming.Chicago and all of illinois will be like that.Do you think one cop will be there with out being paid,.The way the cops have been treated by the mayors and the scumtimes.That will be wealth… Read more »