Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan is proposing a new tax on millionaires. As IPR'S Brian Mackey reports, the money would be earmarked for schools.
Under the proposed change to the Illinois Constitution, any income over a million dollars a year would be subject to an extra three-percent tax. That's on top of the current five percent income tax rate.
Madigan himself is a wealthy lawyer who says there are some years in which he too would have to pay the tax.
"We've done this because we feel that the millionaires in Illinois are the ones that are better-equipped to support education than others."
Illinois has struggled to fund elementary and high schools in recent years. Madigan says it'd be distributed evenly, about $500 per student, given to rich and poor districts alike. The move comes as others in Illinois want to change the state's flat income tax to a graduated one, so wealthier individuals pay a higher rate.
If approved by the General Assembly this spring, the constitutional amendment would be subject to a statewide vote at the November election.