By Andrew Adams
Capitol News Illinois
aadams@capitolnewsillinois.com
Lawmakers in Illinois are asking voters to weigh in on three hot-button issues on their ballots this year: Election interference, income taxes, and reproductive health care.
Voters in Illinois are being posed three “advisory” questions that ask voters whether they support a specific policy, but are not legally binding. Lawmakers may take the results into account when considering what policies to advocate for in future legislative sessions.
The three questions, as they appear on ballots, are:
•Should any candidate appearing on the Illinois ballot for federal, State, or local office be subject to civil penalties if the candidate interferes or attempts to interfere with an election worker’s official duties?
•Should the Illinois Constitution be amended to create an additional 3% tax on income greater than $1,000,000 for the purpose of dedicating funds raised to property tax relief?
•Should all medically appropriate assisted reproductive treatments, including, but not limited to, in vitro fertilization, be covered by any health insurance plan in Illinois that provides coverage for pregnancy benefits, without limitation on the number of treatments?
These questions are being asked because lawmakers passed Senate Bill 2412 in early May, instructing state election officials to add them to ballots.
“All three of the questions deal with issues that are top of mind for voters or are issues that have been reported on in the news media,” bill sponsor representative Jay Hoffman, D-Swansea, said in an interview this week.
The last time advisory questions were placed on Illinois ballots statewide was in 2014. That year, three questions were posed to voters: One concerning a potential increase to the state’s minimum wage, one concerning whether insurers should be required to cover prescription birth control and one concerning a tax on income over $1 million.
While Hoffman said he has “learned not to predict” how votes like this will go or how they will be used, he said that the 2014 vote “ultimately led to the passage of increasing the minimum wage.”
That measure passed in early 2019 after governor JB Pritzker made a personal appeal to lawmakers shortly after taking office.
This year’s advisory questions have generated little in the way of campaigning, but some Illinois politicians have voiced support.
Former governor Pat Quinn is touring the state to encourage a “Yes” vote on an increased tax for incomes over $1 million.
“It is important to let folks know that we do have a chance not only to vote for candidates, especially president, but we also have a chance in Illinois to vote on issues, issues that can make a difference in a family budget for years to come,” Quinn said at a Capitol news conference Wednesday.
The referendum, in addition to being similar to an advisory question in 2014, echoes parts of a constitutional amendment that was put to voters in 2020.
That amendment would have repealed the state’s constitutional requirement for a flat income tax rate – a step that would still be necessary to implement the policy described in this year’s advisory question.
When voters went to the polls in 2020, they rejected the amendment – a bruising result for Gov. JB Pritzker, who gave $58 million of his personal fortune to a campaign in favor of the graduated income tax.
Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.