Burke Proposes Economic Reforms to Lift Up Small Businesses and the Middle Class

EVERGREEN PARK, Ill. – State Rep. Kelly Burke, D-Evergreen Park, responded to Gov. Bruce Rauner’s annual State of the State Address by calling for aggressive economic reforms that will improve Illinois’ business climate, invest in education and provide immediate relief to hardworking middle-class families.

“Our state has never faced the financial challenges we do today and the only way we are going to move our state forward is by passing a responsible budget and implementing aggressive economic reforms,” Burke said. “The House Democratic Caucus’ plan helps us create jobs and builds up the middle-class by investing in our education system, lowering costs for businesses and allowing hardworking families to keep more of what they earn.”

Burke supports an agenda of economic reforms intended to grow the economy and strengthen the middle class.

She is advocating for a budget that fully restores funding to Illinois’ public universities and community colleges and provides much needed dollars to the Monetary Award Program (MAP). Burke also opposes efforts to pad the profits of corporations by reducing middle-class wages and slashing the rights of Illinois’ workers, Burke’s agenda focuses on leveling the playing field for small businesses. Her proposals include:

• Closing loopholes and cracking down on large corporations that currently pay nothing in taxes.
• Reinstating the EDGE tax credit for businesses that create jobs.
• Passing reforms to the workers’ compensation system that require insurance companies to pass savings onto employers.
• Outlawing any future tax incentives for businesses that ship American jobs overseas.

Burke’s economic reforms also focus on providing support for middle-class and working families by:

• Allowing working families to keep more of their hard-earned money by increasing the Earned Income Tax Credit.
• Raising the minimum wage.
• Requiring millionaires and billionaires to pay their fair share to fund elementary and secondary education by creating a small surcharge on annual income greater than $1 million.

“Closing loopholes that unfairly advantage big corporations, reducing workers compensation costs and expanding tax credits for job creators will improve Illinois’ business climate and put more people to work,” Burke said. “These economic reforms, in conjunction with a fair and responsible budget, can help Illinois move on from the past two years of gridlock and partisanship and allow us to tackle the other serious challenges facing our state.”