Dear Commons Community,

New York Democratic Mayor Bill de Blasio has taken a lot of flack including from members of his own party such as Governor Andrew Cuomo  for his stand on taxing millionaires to pay for universal pre-kindergarten.  In Illinois, Speaker Michael Madigan earlier this week made a similar proposal.  As reported by Reuters:

“Illinois’ powerful speaker of the House of Representative on Thursday unveiled a plan that would slap a tax surcharge on millionaires in the state in an effort to raise $1 billion a year for public schools.

Chicago Democrat Michael Madigan’s plan surfaced just two days after voters in the Republican primary election chose multi-millionaire venture capitalist Bruce Rauner to face incumbent Democratic Governor Pat Quinn in the November general election…

Under the speaker’s plan, annual incomes topping $1 million would be taxed an additional 3 percent over the state’s flat income tax rate, with the additional revenue distributed to schools on a per-pupil basis.

“This plan brings long overdue fairness to the state tax structure and provides a needed boost to education funding to help give our children more of the resources they need to succeed,” Madigan said in a statement.

The proposed constitutional amendment would need approval from the Democrat-controlled House and Senate by May 5 in order to be placed on the ballot for the November general election, according to the statement.

Illinois’ personal income tax rate, which was boosted to 5 percent in 2011, is scheduled to fall to 3.75 percent on Jan. 1 unless lawmakers take action to keep the higher rate in place.“

Madigan and de Blasio are willing to make bold proposals to redistribute wealth in their respective states for the sake of children.  Given the alarming and growing gap in incomes between rich and poor, these proposals have merit and their time has come.

Tony