Illinois State Rep. Travis Weaver is looking to establish an incentive aimed at helping Illinois universities attract and retain college athletes while boosting general enrollment applications.
A bill introduced earlier this year by Weaver would provide an income tax exemption on up to $100,000 in Name, Image and Likeness [NIL] earnings.
The second-term Republican from Edwards says that could give Illinois college sports programs a leg up when it comes to recruiting.
“A lot of times, you’ll see a student say, ‘I’m down to Bradley or Drake or Indiana State, and I’m kind of deciding between the three,’” said Weaver. “If you can say, ‘hey, in Illinois, we’re not going to nail you on your income tax,’ that, to me, can definitely be a differentiator as long as Bradley or Illinois State, or Southern Illinois is in that final conversation.”
Weaver said one of his top priorities when he took office was to focus on higher education.
“For every eight students who leave Illinois for college, only one comes to Illinois for college,” said Weaver, whose 93rd District includes parts of Peoria, Tazewell, Knox and Stark counties.
“It’s a major problem that I don’t feel like people are adequately talking about, because it means that one of our top exports is our young minds. You don’t want that to be an export, you want that to be an import.”
Weaver said he was motivated to pursue this NIL tax incentive when reflecting on his time as an undergraduate student at the University of Alabama when the Crimson Tide football team had tremendous national success under then head coach Nick Saban.
“Because of that, students from all over the country would come to Alabama for college,” said Weaver. “I had friends from California, Texas, New York, and they would all come to Alabama because it had that national name brand.”
He said colleges whose football teams make bowl games and basketball teams reach the NCAA Tournament often see a 10-15% spike in enrollment applications.
“If we can help schools like Southern Illinois and ISU and Bradley, every couple years, get a 10% bump in their applications, that not only helps with their enrollment go up, but it helps Illinois attract the best and brightest,” he said. “Then those kids come to Illinois, they hopefully live in Illinois, they pay income taxes in Illinois.”
Weaver’s House Bill 3871 had a first reading and was referred to the rules committee on Feb. 25. Since then, no other action has been taken.
He said while there’s still a chance for the proposal to be considered this year, he’s hopeful it can be included in the budget no later than next year so it would go into effect Jan. 1, 2027.
“The cost of doing this program is about $500,000 a year; that’s 0.001% of our state’s budget. And if you think about a household income of $100,000, that 0.001% is $1 of their household budget,” said Weaver. “So we’re talking about couch change here, and the ROI [return on investment] that you get on a $500,000 investment of a 10% boost in enrollment at Bradley, Illinois State, Southern is massive.”
Weaver said the $100,000 maximum would work out to a $5,000 tax savings for a college athlete – and most wouldn’t even get that much.
“A lot of these athletes are making between $30,000-$50,000 in NIL, so in many cases, we’re talking about a $1,500 kind of tax credit,” he said. “That’s not going to be the sole driver that’s going to bring them to Illinois.”
Weaver said Illinois is already at a disadvantage when it comes to NIL taxation because seven states don’t have an income tax. Beyond that, proposals in Georgia and Alabama would eliminate income tax in NIL earnings entirely, and a similar push is underway in Louisiana.
“If Illinois doesn’t, then that means that there’s up to 10 states that are already going to have a leg up when they go to recruit,” he said. “They’re going to be the ones getting that 10% bump in applications – or the 15% bump in applications for college football – and I want to make Illinois get that opportunity.”
