Mark Gruenberg at People’s World reports from Chicago that the Billionaires Tax idea, which has been gaining support in several States - including Washington State, where it’s now law - has come to Illinois, courtesy of several Chicago-area Unions. Busloads of Members from the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU), Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Healthcare Illinois, Cook County College Teachers Union Local 1600, SEIU Local 73, the Illinois Federation of Teachers, Warehouse Workers for Justice and assorted progressive Chicago-area Community Groups descended on the State Capital of Springfield. There, as the Illinois Revenue Alliance, they staged a mass rally in front of the Capitol Building before fanning out to lobby lawmakers to make the State’s tax code more progressive by raising taxes on corporations and the rich. A parade of sympathetic lawmakers lent their support. Whether they’ll succeed or not is the $4 billion question. That’s how much they want to garner. “When we say tax the uber-wealthy, that’s what we’re talking about,” CTU Vice President Jackson Potter said. “How do you close the (State) deficit? Tax the rich.” The heavily Democratic State Legislature faced an end-of-May deadline to approve a State budget, and that came first on its agenda. But lawmakers in the Land of Lincoln have been known in past years to “stop the clock” when budget talks go down to the wire. The tax the rich idea has been gathering momentum in various States, especially as lawmakers are wrestling with cuts in Federal Social Welfare Programs, notably Medicaid and Food Stamps, mandated by the Right-Wing GOP Donald Trump regime, its pliant Republican-majority Congress, and their so-called Big Beautiful Bill that was passed last year.

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