A ballot question on whether Illinois should impose an additional tax on high earners goes before Cook County residents this November. Because the vote carries no legal weight, any millionaires tax would require separate legislative action before it could take effect.

The November ballot will carry a question asking voters whether to add a 3 percent income tax surcharge on earnings above $1 million, with half the proceeds directed toward property tax reductions for residential and commercial property owners and the other half channelled into state funding for public schools.

A statewide poll conducted two years prior found that 61 percent of respondents backed the proposal.

Robert Bruno, who directs the Labor Education Program at the University of Illinois, told reporters that the policy stood to deliver broad benefits across Illinois while a smaller segment of higher-income earners would see only a limited rise in their tax obligations. Bruno had joined forces with economist Frank Manzo of the Illinois Economic Policy Institute in April, the two producing a joint report that put the number of state residents affected by the tax at around 41,000.

Projections in the report put the levy's intake at $3.8 billion across its opening full year of operation, climbing to $4.2 billion annually by 2030. The analysis further projected that roughly 3 million homeowners across the state stood to receive rebates of $1,500 each, alongside a 20 percent reduction in property tax obligations. Bruno noted that housing costs had become a pressing concern for many people.

Any change at the state level would require a constitutional amendment. Any path forward would require the legislature to pass a measure and put it before all voters for approval. A joint resolution put forward in Springfield did not advance earlier this year.

Katherine Loughead, a vice president for state tax policy at the Tax Foundation, noted that the situation could prompt business owners to weigh relocating their operations elsewhere. Loughead contended that a tax targeting high earners carries potential consequences for a broader range of people, including business owners and those far below the millionaire threshold, pointing to the view that such levies tend to filter through the economy as elevated prices for consumers, reduced hiring, downward pressure on pay, and diminished returns for investors. Loughead noted that the impact extends to those saving for retirement as well.

Bruno noted that population movement in response to comparable legislation had come up repeatedly in other states, adding that departures from one place tend to be offset by arrivals from another. Bruno noted that the count of Massachusetts taxpayers reporting annual income above one million dollars had actually risen by a modest amount following introduction of the surcharge.