Illinois House Democrats float taxes on streaming services, billionaires to fund Chicago-area transit reform

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SPRINGFIELD — Lawmakers on Tuesday were still laboring to get a bill on track in Springfield to overhaul and fund the Chicago area’s cash-strapped mass transit agencies as the fall veto session rumbles to a conclusion.

Illinois Democrats leading transit talks were floating several potential taxes to generate $1.5 billion to help the CTA, Metra and Pace avoid a $200 million-plus fiscal cliff approaching next year, including a 7% amusement tax on streaming services like Netflix.

Chicago state Reps. Kam Buckner and Eva-Dina Delgado said their fellow House Democrats were also weighing a boosted sales tax, an expansion of speed cameras and a so-called “billionaire tax,” which would ding unrealized gains on billionaires’ assets.

Lawmakers are largely on the same page as far as transit governance reform under a new, more powerful Northern Illinois Transit Authority, but a new bill hadn’t been filed by late Tuesday as tax talks played out. Lawmakers are scheduled to wrap up their fall veto session Thursday.

“This is the most comprehensive and consequential transit legislation in the history of this country, and we’re gonna be able to do this,” Buckner said.

A two-hour caucus meeting for House Dems all but ruled out the $1.50-per-package tax on online deliveries included in a bill that passed the state Senate in May but was deemed “dead on arrival” in the House by Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch. House Dems are also largely opposed to taxes on ride-share services and real estate transfers.

“We think it’s a good mix,” Delgado said of the House tax menu. “We think it is being responsive to our caucus and the things that they said that they wanted to see — in particular, the things that they really didn’t want to see.”

North Side state Sen. Mike Simmons encouraged Democrats in the lower chamber to take up the Senate bill.

“We’re calling on our colleagues in the House to help us to land this plane,” he said.

Illinois Senate Minority Leader John Curran, R-Downers Grove, slammed any potential tax imposition, saying “every time Democrats run into a cash problem, they make matters worse by reaching further into the pockets of Illinois families who can’t afford it.”

Elsewhere in the Capitol, lawmakers were inching toward a deal on a bill to generate more wind and solar power in Illinois to address skyrocketing energy costs due to increased demand from data centers.

After efforts stalled out in the spring to incentivize businesses to build large batteries to store renewable energy, a proposal backed by South Side state Sen. Bill Cunningham, D-Chicago, cleared a committee hurdle to stay on pace toward a floor vote Wednesday despite opposition from business groups.

House Democrats were also still crafting legislation intended to curb intensifying immigration enforcement raids in protected spaces. No legislation had been filed as of late Tuesday, but the effort this week is expected to center around barring deportations from being carried out in hospitals, courthouses “and other locations where all people should feel safe,” said state Rep. Dagmara Avelar, D-Romeroville.

“No person seeking care, justice or childcare should ever be hunted down,” she said.

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October 28, 2025 at 08:34PM

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