A voter casts her ballot in Chicago’s Pilsen neighborhood on Nov. 5, 2024. (Michael Izquierdo / WTTW News)

Illinois voters on Tuesday may have opened the door to a new tax on the state’s wealthier residents.

With an estimated 90% of votes statewide tabulated, 60.3% of voters said “yes” to theoretically adding a 3% tax to incomes over $1 million, with the funds going to reduce property taxes. It was one of three non-binding questions on the ballot statewide, meaning it’s akin to a poll with the results triggering no change in law.

General election voters also easily lent support to leveling civil penalties if a candidate interferes with election workers’ official duties and requiring health insurance plans to cover without limitation reproductive treatments like in vitro fertilization.

Even without the impact of law, taking voters’ pulse on the three questions could lead to change.

Voters’ signal of approval could be used by state legislators to buttress the case for creating a so-called millionaire’s tax.

The Chicago Teachers Union, which is pressuring Illinois to come up with $1 billion for Chicago Public Schools, has suggested the state try to remove the constitution’s requirement to tax all income at the same rate.

According to Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s administration, a 3% tax on millionaires would raise $4.5 billion.

Former Gov. Pat Quinn had worked to galvanize support for the question, focusing on the property tax relief it could create.

“This is a specific measure to reform Illinois’ upside down tax system,” former Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn told WTTW News last month. “Right now, our state gives tax breaks to millionaires and higher property tax bills to everyday people.”

Voters’ support hearkens back to a decade ago, when Democrats similarly took the pulse of voters on a 3% surcharge on millionaires.

In 2014, when Quinn was in the governor’s mansion, Illinois voters easily approved a similar non-binding question that asked whether the constitution should be amended to create a 3% tax on income over one million dollars, with the resulting revenue going to schools.

According to data from the state elections board, the vote was 64% in favor.

But in 2020, when voters had the opportunity to actually have higher-earners pay a higher tax rate, they rejected it.

Pritzker worked to pass what he called the “fair tax,” which would have eliminated the state constitution’s flat tax requirement, so that income could be taxed at graduated rates. That time, the results weren’t just advisory — they were binding.

In a stinging political defeat for Pritzker, 53% of voters rejected the question.

The CTU has recently begun urging the state to try again.

In 2020, Pritzker — one of the nation’s wealthiest men — poured millions into support for a graduated income tax, but so did hedge fund CEO Ken Griffin to oppose the effort.

Griffin has since moved to Florida, potentially leaving the opposition without deep funding.

But Pritzker has shown no appetite for a second attempt at a graduated income tax.

With roughly 90% of votes tallied, 89% of voters lent support to penalizing candidates who interfere with election work and 72% of voters agreed with IVF insurance mandates. 

Contact Amanda Vinicky: @AmandaVinicky | [email protected]