Regardless of the claims coming from the Governor, only retail food for consumption elsewhere and drug sales are exempted from the GRT. If the retail establishment bought the product within the State of Illinois from a distributor, manufacturer, and even a larger grower, the tax would be applied to that purchase. So not only are taxes increased upon those with the least ability to pay them, they disadvantage Illinois products being purchased within state.
It’s just a dumb tax. One can accomplish the tax fairness issue by reworking the corporate and personal income taxes to be truly progressive instead of heaping on another regressive tax and claiming it’s about fairness when it most certainly is not.
There is a bill that will make modest improvements in the progressivity of the Illinois tax system and its HB750.
For all my harping on this issue, I am glad to see the Governor finally taking a more responsible long term view of the state’s financial health, but doing it on the back of those with the least ability to pay is unfair.