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SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (NEXSTAR) — The good financial news for the state keeps coming. Governor J.B. Pritzker said if these trends continue, tax cuts are on the table.
“I think we’re seeing a few years in a row now of the stability of that revenue, that we should be talking about whether there are tax cuts that we can implement,” Pritzker said Wednesday.
This week, the state received its eighth credit upgrade of the past two years. This time, Moody’s credit rating agency bumped Illinois to the stable rating of A3. It’s the first time the state has been at that threshold since the budget impasse.
New revenue estimates also show a much larger influx of tax dollars than the Governor initially expected. The Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability upped their projections by an additional $575 million.
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Revenue estimates were already high going into the next fiscal year, and state forecasters are warning of a potential drop off in revenue sources in coming years.
But Pritzker’s comments were a shift from previous messaging from budget officials. Permanent tax cuts were viewed as a pipe dream as the state crawled out of the hole dug during the budget impasse.
Pritzker did not say whether the tax cuts would be permanent, or if it would be in the same vein as the temporary tax relief offered during the 2022 election season. He did say it’s time for those bipartisan discussions to start.
“I’ve had conversations across the aisle, Democrats and Republicans about what we should do going forward in budgets, if we see stability in these higher revenues,” he said.
