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Quote/Term of the Week

Millionaires or Billionaires Tax / noun

Also known as a wealth tax, these usually are added income taxes for an area's wealthiest people. These are often proposed as ways to generate more money for local social services.

What would a millionaires tax look like in Illinois?

Some state lawmakers are pushing to get a wealth tax on the ballot in November. 

Illinois House Speaker “Chris” Welch is backing a proposal to implement an additional 3% income tax on those making more than $1 million annually, a.k.a. the millionaires tax, but legislators don’t agree  on how to use the potential revenue.

One plan from state Rep. La Shawn Ford, D-Chicago, would put all of the money  toward property tax relief, giving $1,500 in rebates per property owner. Another plan by state Rep. Natalie Manley, D-Joliet, would put half of the money toward public schools and half toward property tax relief, WBEZ reported.

A recent study from researchers at the Illinois Economic Policy Institute and University of Illinois dove into what this kind of tax policy might mean. They concluded it could generate $3.8 billion in its first full year and $4.2 billion by 2030. The study also notes that it would affect 41,000 taxpayers in Illinois — around 0.6% of Illinoisans who pay taxes — and that similar taxes have allowed other states to invest more in public education and infrastructure. 

The study also explored three key ideas of what Illinois could do with the added revenue, including property tax relief, fully funding public schools using evidence-based funding, or freezing school property taxes and providing more money for education.

Illinois has come close to shifting our tax systems to compel the wealthiest residents to pay more. In 2020, Illinois put the “fair tax” amendment on that year’s ballot, which would have instituted a statewide graduated income tax to increase the tax burden on the state’s highest earners and alleviate some of it from middle and low-income families.

The measure, which was backed by Gov. JB Pritzker (himself a billionaire), failed with 53.2% of voters opposing it. 

Pritzker poured $56 million of his own money into the campaign only to go head-to-head with billionaire hedge fund operator Ken Griffin, founder of Citadel and then Illinois’ richest man, who put $54 million  to campaign against it.

Mayor Brandon Johnson also attempted to increase taxes and fees for wealthy residents and large corporations in his 2026 budget proposal, most notably with the controversial “corporate head tax.” That would have charged $21 per employee each month to companies with 100 or more full-time employees who work 50% of their time in Chicago. However, the measure was excluded from the alternate budget that ultimately passed. 

Who else is taxing the rich (or trying to)?

Mayor Zohran Mamdani ran a campaign on making New York City affordable for working people and making the wealthiest pay their fair share. 

Mamdani, who took office in January, inherited a multi-billion-dollar budget deficit. One of his proposed solutions to close the budget was to increase taxes on corporations and the city’s wealthiest residents. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul has been broadly against these proposals, but in a compromise, she proposed a tax that would target wealthy New Yorkers who own multiple homes. 

The “pied-à-terre” tax proposes a yearly tax surcharge on second homes in New York City that are worth $5 million or more. According to Hochul, the tax could garner up to $500 million annually that would go towards offsetting New York City’s $5.4 billion deficit. 

In light of federal funding cuts, organizers and legislators in California have floated multiple proposals to increase taxes on corporations and billionaires in order  to fund the state’s health care program, Medi-Cal. Around 2 million low-income residents are at risk of losing healthcare coverage under the cuts.

In 2022, Massachusetts enacted a tax similar to the one proposed in Illinois, with a 4% tax on those earning over $1 million. 

The Illinois proposal has plenty of critics, including some who would rather see the state revisit graduated income tax proposals. Others say it would drive away the state’s highest earners and reduce the tax base. 

The Illinois researchers say that didn’t happen in Massachusetts — quite the opposite, in fact. There are high-profile examples of prominent millionaires and billionaires leaving states (Griffin famously left Illinois for Miami), but overall, people who leave Illinois tend to be younger with lower incomes, while people who stay put earn more and own homes, researchers said. So they do not think a millionaires tax in Illinois would cause that many more people to leave the state. Some older research came to the same conclusion.

Like with the graduated income tax proposal, a millionaires tax requires Illinois lawmakers to approve a constitutional amendment, which requires at least 60% of legislators supporting it in the House and the Senate. 

And the deadline is quickly approaching. Illinois lawmakers must pass a constitutional amendment proposal by May 3 in order for this latest tax proposal to appear on the Nov. 3 general election ballot. 

If it makes the ballot, a “supermajority” rule applies, meaning either 60% of people voting on the question or a simple majority of all voters must support it. This is what doomed the graduated tax proposal in 2020, with only 47% of voters in favor. 

While “affordability” may be politicians’ new favorite buzzword, the crises around affordability are impacting everyday lives for Chicagoans and Illinoisans. 

Follow along as we dig further into the state of affordability in Chicago and Illinois.

What you can do:

Contact your state representative: Click here to find your state representative and let them know your thoughts on the millionaires tax in Illinois.

A version of this story was first published in the April 22, 2026 issue of the Newswire, an email newsletter that is your weekly guide to Chicago government, civic action and what we can do to make our city great. You can sign up for the weekly newsletter here.

Have thoughts on what you'd like to see in this feature? Email Civic Editor Dawn Rhodes at dawn@citybureau.org.