Kane County Reporter

 Even as he applauded the unanimous passage of Senate Bill 157, Rep. Dan Ugaste (R-Geneva) wants to see more being done in Springfield to take pressure off taxpayers.

“It's nice that we are finally talking about tax reduction on the floor,” Ugaste said during the April 9 House session. “But, I wish we were talking about more permanent reductions for the citizens of Illinois, seeing as how we're one of the highest taxed states in the nation.”

The bill creates several tax credits for taxpayers. The measure also creates the Manufacturing Illinois Chips for Real Opportunity (MICRO) Act, which served as a major selling point for Republican lawmakers who wanted tax incentives for manufacturers of semiconductors, microchips or semiconductor or microchip component parts.

“I just want to say I note that the language for the speed bumps for your unemployment insurance trust fund are in here,” Ugaste said. “It would’ve been even nicer if we could have provided real tax relief to business owners who went through this pandemic.”

Ugaste said he now worries laborers may face benefit cuts at some point in time because lawmakers did not completely pay off a $1.8 billion deficit in the unemployment insurance fund when they had the means to do so.

“There would be no further tax on jobs and there would’ve been benefit cuts to our employees at the time when they're facing massive inflation,” he said.