Quinn pushes millionaire tax referendum for property tax relief vote

Former Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn is again pressing lawmakers to let Illinois voters decide whether millionaires should pay a 3% surcharge on income above $1 million, a proposal he says could help ease the property-tax load on families and businesses in Morgan County and across Illinois.

The pitch lands in a county where property taxes are never abstract. Illinois households paid about $23.2 billion in residential property taxes in 2022, a burden that reaches homeowners in Jacksonville, village taxpayers in places like Meredosia and every school district, township and county budget that depends on local levies. Quinn’s argument is that a new statewide revenue stream could create room for relief at the local level, rather than leaving counties to keep squeezing the same taxpayers year after year.

Supporters point to the numbers. The Illinois Department of Revenue has estimated the millionaire surcharge could generate about $4.5 billion a year, and Quinn has said that could support annual property-tax rebates for more than 3 million Illinois households. That is the heart of the debate for Morgan County residents: whether a tax aimed at the state’s highest earners would translate into real help for people paying the bills in Jacksonville, South Jacksonville and the surrounding rural communities.

Voters have already shown an appetite for the idea. In 2024, a statewide advisory question asking whether Illinois should amend its constitution to create an additional 3% tax on income above $1 million for property tax relief passed with 61% support, or 3,288,462 yes votes to 2,121,507 no votes. A similar millionaire-tax advisory question passed in 2014 with nearly 64% support, but lawmakers never turned that vote into a constitutional amendment.

Opposition is lining up again. State House Republican Leader Tony McCombie has argued the proposal is just another version of a graduated income tax, saying voters already rejected that direction. The political math is steep as well. Constitutional amendments need a three-fifths vote in each chamber, meaning 71 votes in the House and 36 in the Senate if there are no vacancies.

The clock is tight. Lawmakers would need to approve the referendum language by May 3 for it to reach the November ballot, but only a few scheduled session days remain in each chamber. Illinois already created the Illinois Property Tax Relief Fund in 2019, yet Quinn and his allies are now pushing for a much larger, more visible funding stream. For Morgan County taxpayers, the question is whether Springfield sees this as meaningful relief, political symbolism or another debate that arrives long before any help reaches the tax bill.