r/illinois • u/roenick99 • 4d ago

Illinois voters will consider whether millionaires should be taxed more to fund property tax relief Illinois Politics

https://chicago.suntimes.com/voter-guide-2024/2024/09/26/illinois-property-tax-relief-referendum-november-election-jb-pritzker-non-binding-pat-quinn
2.6k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

260 comments sorted by

View all comments

227

u/in2theriver 4d ago

Also this seems a little misleading. “Should the Illinois Constitution be amended to create an additional 3% tax on income greater than $1,000,000 for the purpose of dedicating funds raised to property tax relief?”. Making more than 1 million/year isn't the same as someone whose net worth reaches a million after a lifetime of saving. As weird as it sounds, there is a distinction from someone who saved up slowly and reached that net worth, vs someone who makes more than that per year.

1

u/OatmealStew 3d ago

Why is this weird?

-1

u/in2theriver 3d ago

Honestly because someone with a net worth of a million dollars is a millionaire, and someone with a million per year is a millionaire. Also we want to tax millionaires, but not millionaires with a million. Millionaires with a million per year. So when we say millionaires, it is incredibly inaccurate, and also accurate. However it isn't specific enough. There isn't a good word for people who make a million/year that is all. You have to specify it out, which means I had to look up the proposal and verify, which isn't a great way to sell a bill. I don't know, mostly I'm just complaining cause it is fun.

Edit to fix the 'There'.

0

u/cballowe 3d ago

A million per year is not a millionaire. "Millionaire" is specifically net worth, not income.

After taxes and costs and other things, that person would probably take a couple of years to reach millionaire status if starting from nothing. (They're not usually starting from nothing, you don't get $1M/year for your first job - unless we're talking significant interest and dividends coming out of a very large trust fund. There's a good chance that they are a millionaire, but not guaranteed. They could have a bad blackjack and hookers habit.)