Progress Illinois

The following is from Keith Kelleher, president of SEIU* Healthcare Illinois and Indiana, on the passage of the tax break package passed by the Illinois House earlier today.

By granting a large tax break today to one of Illinois’ most prosperous companies, the Illinois House has concentrated more wealth in the hands of the rich, even as average workers are literally taking to the streets to decry growing income inequality.

While we applaud the House for passing a separate bill that expands the Earned Income Tax Credit for low-wage households, the benefits of this measure are eclipsed by the magnitude of the tax breaks lawmakers approved for the state’s corporate heavyweights. For every one dollar in tax breaks the House has given to workers struggling to propel themselves out of poverty, it has doled out nearly two dollars to corporations.

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The Fair Care Coalition held a rally to call on the state Dept. of Revenue to rethink property tax exemptions to some non-profit hospitals. In a letter to Illinois Dept. of Revenue Director Brian Hamer, the advocacy group cited a 2009 Center for Tax and Budget Accountability study that showed the amount of charity care to the poor and uninsured by non-profit hospitals in Cook County only represented 36 percent of the value in their tax exemptions. This, the group said, means so-called not-for-profit hospitals are actually making record profits from the millions via tax breaks and subsidies.

It also appears, according to the coalition’s research, that a few hospitals are also carrying the bulk of the burden to provide free or reduced-cost health services to the state’s most vulnerable. Citing a state Supreme Court decision in the 2010 Provena Medical Center v. The Department of Revenue case that ruled charity care is the measure for property tax exemption, the coalition released this info-graphic that shows the top 9 and bottom 9 providers of charity care and their respective tax breaks. See the info-graphic after the jump.
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Washington D.C. is observing Emancipation Day today, commemorating the historic bill President Lincoln signed into law in 1862 ending slavery in the nation's capital. The Internal Revenue Service is observing the holiday, meaning taxpayers will have until April 18 this year to file their returns. Businesses too. And significant chunks of corporate America will get a pretty sweet deal when it comes time to turn in their returns, if recent history continues. Take Chicago-based Boeing as an example. 

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Illinois' 9th District congresswoman Jan Schakowsky introduced HR 1124, a bill she's calling the Fairness in Taxation Act. The legislation would create a new series of tax brackets for the country's very wealthiest earners. The current tax code, Schakowsky writes in Huffington Post-Chicago, "fails to distinguish the merely 'well-off,' from the 'super-duper rich.' By introducing new tax brackets, we ensure a basic principal of fairness: those who have benefited the most from the opportunities that our great country provides should also invest in making those opportunities a reality for all Americans." Here are the new tax brackets her bill proposes:

• $1-10 million: 45%
• $10-20 million: 46%
• $20-100 million: 47%
• $100 million to $1 billion: 48%
• $1 billion and over: 49%

According to the Tax Foundation, the current top income tax rate of 35 percent starts for heads of households, wealthy individuals, and married joint filers with incomes up $379,150, a rate pushed by ex-President George W. Bush and temporarily extended by the lame duck Congress and Obama administration last December. The top rate is down from the 39.6 percent during the Clinton White House years.

There's no chance HR 1124 will gain traction in the GOP-controlled House of Representatives, but with a battle about the Bush tax cuts looming, Schakowsky's effort seems aimed at starting to shape that debate. "Despite GOP cries for austerity and fiscal restraint, they continue to defend corporate subsidies like tax breaks for big oil companies and more tax breaks for the wealthiest," she writes.