SPRINGFIELD, Ill. – As Americans are dropping their checks in the mail to pay Uncle Sam, advocates in Illinois are calling for a fair tax for the state.

Illinois is just one of a handful of states in the nation with a flat tax. On Tuesday, Republicans in Springfield united against the idea of converting the flat income tax rate into a graduated one, and nearly all of the GOP House members signed a resolution denouncing a tax-system revamp.

Ralph Matire, executive director with the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability, believes the issue should be put to voters. He says a flat income tax means a millionaire pays the same as a minimum-wage worker, and that puts an unfair burden on people who are struggling to make ends meet.

"Since 1980, when you adjust for inflation, 90 percent of working Americans have actually seen their incomes decline,” says Matire, “whereas the wealthiest 10 percent in America got 108 percent of all growth and income."

Supporters of a flat tax rate say it encourages wealth because top earners aren't punished with higher tax rates.

The resolution approved by the GOP this week would carry no weight of law even if it were approved by the House. Democrats call it a political stunt in an election year.

Matire thinks there's momentum across the country to take some of the tax burden off of the lower and middle classes.

"When the federal income tax was first imposed in the early 1900s, it only applied to the wealthiest 4 percent of all Americans,” says Matire. “It was truly designed to create a fair tax system right from the get-go."

The Illinois individual income tax rate is 4.95 percent. There was an effort in 2016 to do away with the flat tax, but lawmakers rejected the idea.


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SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Huge new aid programs are beating back poverty in the Golden State, especially among families with children.

Gov. Gavin Newsom just signed a raft of budget bills, that included another $640 by the end of the month for CalWORKS families, on top of the $600 payments already sent to those in the CalWORKS and Supplemental Security Income programs, and three rounds of federal stimulus payments.

Mike Herald, director of policy advocacy for the Western Center on Law and Poverty, said the supports are a boost to parents who lost jobs during the pandemic.

"We are really lifting up a lot of low-income families," Herald remarked. "They're getting real financial assistance in the $5,000-$7,000 range, and really, believe me, it's going to make a big difference in people's lives."

The California Comeback Plan, as Newsom calls it, also puts $5.2 billion toward rental assistance, so families can apply to get all their back rent paid, and even get a few months ahead.

Last week, parents started receiving payments of up to $300 a month per child, as part of the Biden administration's expanded federal Child Tax Credit.

Herald said because funds are going out monthly, instead of all coming at tax time, it is a game changer.

"This will help to really provide more financial stability," Herald asserted. "They're going to have more money every month in their accounts, to be able to pay bills and put food on the table. And this is something that advocates have wanted for a long time."

And the help for children doesn't stop there. California has also added 100,000 new slots to the state-funded childcare program and raised what it pays child-care operators, to encourage more of them to reopen as the pandemic subsides. The budget also includes a significant funding increase for K-through-12 schools.

WORCESTER, Mass. -- Community Action Agencies applauded the Massachusetts General Court for its commitments to anti-poverty efforts in the 2022 state budget, and urged Gov. Charlie Baker to follow their example when he signs his budget into law.

In addition to a $6.5 million line item for Community Action agencies across the state, both the State House and Senate included the creation of a commission to address inequality, promote opportunity and end poverty.

Sen. Mike Moore, D-Millbury, said now is the time to get the commission started, with federal money for economic recovery coming in.

"We have the ability to utilize this money in a more efficient and targeted way to try to address the concerns or the issues that the demographics, whatever this commission determines the demographics are that may need assistance, to lift them out of poverty," Moore asserted.

Moore added while anti-poverty efforts are always critical, many more people have lost access to food security, housing and even medical treatment since the pandemic began.

Lisa Clay, director of communications and member services for the Massachusetts Association for Community Action, said the commission will build on work agencies have been doing for decades.

She pointed out one of the roles they play is to analyze the needs of people living in poverty in their communities and try to address them. And she contended the funding will allow agencies more flexibility to respond as needs arise.

"This line item is really a recognition of the central role that Community Action Agencies play in bringing people together in communities, and working with and for the people that we serve and meeting the needs that are very local," Clay noted.

Marybeth Campbell, executive director of the Worcester Community Action Council, said the flexibility of state resources is key. She explained most federal funding they receive had rigid restrictions on what it can be used for.

She added she looks forward to putting funds toward what she calls a "Resiliency Center" to work with other community groups to fill gaps in her agency's services.

"At WCAC, we don't really have housing programs. We don't have mental behavioral health programs," Campbell outlined. "And where we have shared clients in the community with other organizations, we're trying to build this Resiliency Center as a way to mobilize our services together with our partner organizations."

AUGUSTA, Maine - A bipartisan group of nearly 60 U.S. senators led by Susan Collins, R-Maine, is urging more funding for the federal TRIO programs.

The programs serve more than 7,500 Maine students who are low-income, the first in their family to attend college or who live with a disability. TRIO programs encourage and provide resources for high school students to apply and prepare for college, and help current students with course selection, connecting to tutoring services, financial literacy and more.

Mary Sinclair, president of the Maine Educational Opportunity Association, said the programs are about access for historically underserved communities.

"Our programs - we're very relationship-based," she said. "We know our students really well, and we help them kind of meet the challenges of whatever it is that they are needing."

Collins and her colleagues are reminding the House Appropriations Committee chairs that, during the pandemic, college enrollment rates from high schools with high poverty rates fell steeply from the previous year, and lower-income students have been twice as likely to drop out of community college since the COVID-19 crisis.

Sara Flowers, director of the Student Support Services Program at the University of Maine in Augusta, echoed the importance of pushing against the trend of low-income, first-generation, and students with disabilities enrolling and graduating at lower rates than their peers. She said TRIO funding is crucial for equity, especially in light of what she calls "academic inflation."

"The jobs out there for our students are, in some ways, the same jobs that were there 30 years ago," she said, "but now we're asking for higher degrees from those applicants than we did 30 years ago."

The higher-education funding bill, as it stands now in committee, would boost funding for TRIO programs by 18%. It also would increase funding for career and adult education, and increase the maximum annual Pell Grant amount by $400.