In response to Governor Bruce Rauner’s State of the State Address, State Representative Silvana Tabares, D-Chicago, is joining with the House Democratic Caucus in proposing aggressive economic reforms to raise the minimum wage, invest millions of dollars into education and improve job creation in Illinois. “Gov. Rauner’s proposal to slash Illinois’ workers’ wages and protections will only benefit the bottom line of wealthy corporations,” Tabares said. “Instead of tearing down rights of our hardworking families, we should be building them up by raising the minimum wage, investing in education and ensuring our most vulnerable are treated with dignity and respect.” Tabares is urging the governor to drop his anti-working-class agenda and pass a budget that fully funds Illinois’ education system, preserves programs for seniors and working families, and cracks down on corporations not paying their fair share. Instead, Tabares supports the House Democratic Caucus’ agenda of aggressive economic reforms which:
- Allows working families to keep more of their hard-earned money by increasing the Earned Income Tax Credit.
- Raises the minimum wage.
- Requires millionaires and billionaires to pay their fair share to fund elementary and secondary education by creating a small surcharge on annual income greater than $1 million.
- Reinstates the EDGE tax credit for businesses that create jobs.
- Reforms the corporate tax code to help small employers by reducing the corporate tax rate by 50 percent, and cracking down on large corporations that currently pay nothing in taxes.
