By Dave Dahl/Illinois Radio Network
SPRINGFIELD – The Illinois House closed out another crackerjack week by passing a property tax freeze billed by its sponsor as a victory for local control and derided by minority Republicans as another stunt to make the governor look bad.
The acrid debate followed by one day the failure of a “right-to-work” bill copied and pasted from the governor’s “Turnaround Agenda.” Earlier demonstrations of what Gov. Bruce Rauner calls “political theater” featured the House voting down Rauner’s proposed budget cuts and holding lengthy hearings highlighting the plight of people injured on the job or who are aggrieved in the civil justice system.
After Friday’s session, the speaker’s office announced the coming week would feature votes on bills from the two topics of those all-day hearings, as well as a constitutional amendment for an extra 3 percent tax on all personal income after the first $1 million.
Franks says the property tax freeze bill decouples the property tax rate from the Consumer Price Index. “If any government whatsoever states that they don’t have enough revenue, all they have to do is ask the taxpayers for more money,” he said. “That’s it.”
H.B. 695 A1 is adopted in the House, 37-23-38.
