Voters in Illinois will either reelect Gov Pat Quinn with his new lieutenant governor candidate, Paul Vallas, or elect Republican gubernatorial candidate Bruce Rauner on Nov 4. But before that, they’ll be asked five questions, three of which are advisory in nature.
Question 1 is on victims’ rights. It will amend the state constitution if approved, forcing courts to consider victims’ safety in setting bond, granting parole, and determining the conditions under which a criminal may be released. It will also specifically require that victims be notified of a criminal’s conviction, sentencing, imprisonment, and release.
Question 2 is the big one. It asks if Illinoisans want to change Section 8 of Article III in the state constitution and join other states in addressing voter registration laws. It is generally considered, by both proponents and opponents, to make a step toward preventing lawmakers from requiring identification at polls.
But that’s where the agreement ends. Proponents of the amendment say voter ID laws suppress legal votes, while opponents of the amendment say voter ID laws give legal voters more power by suppressing illegal voters, such as dead people in Chicago who have been reported to have voted. The specific language simply says no person may be denied the right to register to vote or to vote, based on race, color, religion, ethnicity, language, sex, sexual orientation or income. There have been no reports of widespread voter suppression in the state.
Question 3, considered nonbinding, will simply ask voters if the minimum wage in the state should be raised from $8.25 to $10 per hour for people 18 and older. The change would most likely come in a one-time increase on Jan 1. The current federal minimum wage is $7.25 per hour, and Illinois’s rate of $8.25 is the sixth-highest in the nation.
Question 4 is about contraception in health insurance plans. Since Illinois law already requires insurance providers to cover contraception, the vote is somewhat of an opinion poll as to whether that requirement is a smart idea.
Finally, Question 5 asks voters if they think it would be a good idea to send an additional 3 percent tax on household incomes over $1 million directly to the local public school district. The revenue laws would still have to be changed, first to enact the millionaire tax and second to send any funds collected under it straight to the schools. In order for that to happen, we would have to examine reports from the state as to how much money we’d be talking about.
The current law has Illinois residents paying a flat 5 percent tax on adjusted gross income, regardless of the income level. Question 5 is not only a referendum on school funding, which is unlikely to change any time soon, but also an additional data point in the debate over taxing people at different rates depending on their income level.
