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History

In 1977 we started the Cook County property tax strike which resulted in a $60 million property tax cut for Cook County homeowners.

In 1989-90 we helped collect 513,000 signatures for the Tax Accountability Amendment, which would require a supermajority vote in Springfield to increase state taxes.

In 1992, NTUI beat the Berman Tax Increase Amendment, a state-wide referendum which would have forced a 50-percent hike in the state income tax, by a very thin margin of only one percentage point.

In 1996, NTUI spearheaded the fight against another proposed 25 percent increase in the state personal income tax, pushed by Chicago machine boss and House Speaker Michael Madigan (D-22). On May 30, 1997 the income tax increase, which had passed in Madigan’s House, died in the State Senate Revenue Committee. NTUI President Jim Tobin was the only person to testify before the committee in opposition to the 25 percent income tax increase.

At his request, NTUI provided the crucial support needed to help Rep. Kevin McCarthy (D-37, Orland Park) sponsor and push through a $500 tuition tax credit in 1999. The tax credit enables more Illinois families to send their children to private primary and secondary schools by allowing them to keep more of their own money.

In 2001, NTUI spearheaded the taxpayer campaign against two bills in the General Assembly that would have increased property taxes statewide by $2 billion. We also stopped a 25-percent state income tax hike and a bill to create a new local income tax for government schools!

In April of 2004, NTUI defeated Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn’s (D) plan to raise some Illinoisians’ state income taxes 100 percent (and give a measly $200 “property tax rebate” bribe for each homeowner) through a Constitutional Amendment. NTUI President Jim Tobin took Quinn on in a televised debate on “Chicago Tonight” on WTTW Channel 11, and our NTUI’s efforts since then kept the Quinn Amendment in committee past the Constitutionally-mandated deadline of May 2, 2004. We also defeated the 100 percent income tax increase amendment in 2006 and 2008. HJRCA 42 was defeated in the state house by a whopping 19 votes on April 10, 2008.

Since 1977, we’ve been involved in fighting 225 local property tax increase referenda. We defeated 190 of these proposed tax hikes - a success rate of 84%!

So far in 2008 we defeated three income tax increases. We beat down HB750 and SB2288 which would increase the income tax 67 percent and we defeated the 100 percent income tax increase amendment, HJRCA42.