Tuition goes up when taxes on high incomes stay down

When we don't tax high incomes at a higher tax rate, we don't collect as much tax money. And when we don't collect as much tax money, the State of Illinois doesn't have it to spend. One of the biggest things we spend money on as a State is education, both K-12 and higher education. And when the State of Illinois doesn't have money to spend on higher education, that means the money has to come from somewhere. So it comes from higher tuition and higher fees.

This article from the Springfield Journal-Register lays it out, and the headline spells it out well:


"Universities latest victimes of state budget crisis"

The answer to Illinois' budget crisis is to raise the income tax on higher incomes. And the best way to do that is with tax brackets like the federal government has, where people pay 6% or 10% of their income earned above $100,000 or $200,000 while everyone pays 3% of their income below $100,000 or $200,000 (and really, 0% of their income up to $20,000 or so, since those people are broke!)

One more reason why Illinois needs tax brackets.