South Cook News

Sen. John Curran (R-Lemont) recently appeared as a guest on Jak Tichenor's Illinois Lawmakers program to discuss balancing tax relief with state expenses.

"Education funding is the path to permanent property tax increases. We fund education in this state in a manner that is not followed by the majority of states in this country. We fund it wholly, solely on local property taxes," Curran said. "This is an opportunity - we are making the full payment on the new funding formula, but we do need to look at ways to shoulder a greater burden of that education funding to provide long term, sustainable property tax relief for residents throughout the state.

He said though a cap on the state gas tax is possible, gas prices are mostly out of the control of lawmakers.

"There are some proposals floating around on some temporary relief at the pump and pauses on our fuel tax. The balance there is, we have to couple that with, we have great infrastructure needs," Curran said. "Right now, people are hurting at the pump. Cost of living has become a real, big concern for middle class and lower income families. It is an opportunity we have right now to provide some temporary relief, or potentially permanent relief on gas prices. But there's only so much the state controls on that. A lot of it is outside of our control, but we certainly have an opportunity to do our part."

Over the last few months, Illinoisans have witnessed a steep increase in the price of gas. The AAA reports the average price of a gallon of gasoline in Illinois is $4.501, whereas a year ago it was $3.088.

With 40-year high inflation rates, families are already struggling. According to a release by Sen. Don DeWitte's (R-West Dundee) office, Republicans in the Senate have introduced SB 4195. This bill would offer temporary if not permanent relief to residents as it would cap the state's sales tax on motor fuel at 18 cents per gallon. Republicans say in the next fiscal year, this would lead to a net savings of $1 billion for the taxpayers. "Currently, Illinoisans are paying about 25 cents per gallon in sales tax but could easily soon be paying up to 34 cents if gas prices hit $5.50 per gallon," according to the release.

After Gov. Pritzker doubled the state gas tax from 19 cents to 38 cents in 2019, Illinoisans now pay the second-highest gas tax in the U.S., according to Illinois Policy reports,

Pritzker has signaled on March 18 that he is willing to make a change in the gas tax. "We are looking at ways we can reduce the gas tax across the State of Illinois, because we recognize, even since I introduced my budget, that war has broken out and the result of that war is that oil prices have gone through the roof," he said.