State Rep. Natalie Finnie (D-Elizabethtown) recently said that she supports raising the state income tax as high as 11 percent, taxing retirement income, and expanding the state sales tax to include services like haircuts and lawn care.
Finnie made the announcement at a pro-tax hike rally in Carbondale on April 3.
The rally’s organizer, the Springfield-based “Responsible Budget Coalition,” consists of mostly state vendors lobbying for tax hikes— and a larger state budget— which, in turn, would result in bigger state vendor contracts for themselves.
State Rep. Natalie Finnie (D-Elizabethtown)
These vendors— and Finnie, who pledged her vote for their tax hike plan— argue that state taxes are far too low and that Illinois state government doesn’t spend enough.
That’s even after last summer’s 33 percent income tax increase, which raised state government spending by $5 billion. State spending has already burned through that money and more; a report by the Illinois Auditor General released last month says the state's budget deficit is $14.6 billion.
To bridge that gap with tax increases, ensuring state vendors continue to receive guaranteed annual contract increases, would require a doubling of the state income tax, which raised about $16 billion in 2017.
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The public pronouncement in favor of tax increases was a first for Finnie, 40, a nurse who had little political or public policy experience when she was appointed last year to the legislature.
Finnie filled a seat vacated when her cousin, then-State Rep. Brandon Phelps (D-Harrisburg), resigned to become a lobbyist for Ameren and other energy companies.
Finnie's father is former U.S. Rep. David Phelps (D- Eldorado), who served in Congress from 1999-2003 after representing the 118th district in the Illinois legislature for 15 years.
The 118th District includes all or parts of Saline, Gallatin, Hardin, Hamilton, Johnson, Union, Jackson, Massac, Pulaski and Alexander counties.
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