McNamara pushes for Illinois to increase share of income tax it sends to cities

By Kevin Haas
Rock River Current
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ROCKFORD — Mayor Tom McNamara wants more of the income tax Rockfordians pay returned to the city, saying he would use the funds to try to reduce property taxes here.

The mayor is pushing for the passage of House Bill 4169 and Senate Bill 3010, which aim to increase what’s known as the local government distributive fund — essentially, the share of state income taxes that cities and towns are sent by Illinois — by two percentage points.

“It’s your tax dollars, it should be coming back here to go to work for you,” McNamara said Friday at City Hall.

His comments came a day after Gov. JB Pritzker was in town to tout a fiscal year that will end with a $1.7 billion budget surplus, the first of its kind in 25 years.

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McNamara said Friday that the surplus should allow the state to increase the distributive fund. And, given the state’s focus on reducing property taxes, which includes a Property Tax Relief Task Force, lawmakers should be willing to return more income taxes to cities.

The state bills would increase the distribution cities receive on income taxes individuals pay from 6% to 8%. It would increase the corporate distribution from 6.85% to 9.11%.

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McNamara said the city would get an additional $5 million if the rate was increase to 8%. If it was increased to 10% — the rate it was until being cut in January 2011 under former Gov. Pat Quinn — the city could reap an extra $10 million.

“I promise you, if I got that money, we would be working to reduce property taxes here,” McNamara said. “That’s what I committed to since the day I got elected — I said we’re not going to increase property taxes and we haven’t.”

Pritzker said Thursday that rather than increase that fund, the state has added about $1 billion more for cities through varies other remedies including cannabis taxes and casino revenues.

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However, he didn’t discount the potential for more local government funding going forward.

“Let me be clear: We should always try to do more for local governments because there is so much more that needs to be invested in,” Pritzker said.

This article is by Kevin Haas. Email him at khaas@rockrivercurrent.com or follow him on Twitter at @KevinMHaas.