UIS survey finds high level of support for "millionaire’s tax" among likely Illinois voters

A survey by the University of Illinois Springfield Survey Research Office, part of the Center for State Policy & Leadership, finds almost two-thirds of Illinois voters plan to vote in favor of an advisory referendum on the November ballot, which asks if they support increasing taxes on individual income of more than $1 million.

The online survey asked participants about their level of support on a variety of different tax issues and found that 63.1% of Illinois likely voters report that they will support this referendum, commonly referred to as the “millionaire’s tax.”

The highest level of support is among female voters, younger voters, and voters identifying as Democrats. For example, 71.4% of voters age 18-24 report that they support this referendum compared to only 57.6% of voters 65 and older. More than three-fourths of Democratic voters support the referendum compared to less than half of Republican voters. Interestingly, there are not significant differences among income groups. While individuals earning more than $120,000 annually report the lowest amount of support, all other income groups support the measure at relatively equal levels.

The online panel participants were recruited by Qualtrics and include 723 likely Illinois voters. The survey results were weighted using 2010 exit poll data and included two quotas (age and region of the state). The overall margin of error is +/- 3.7 percentage points. Complete question wording and methodology is available at www.uis.edu/SurveyResearchOffice/.

For more information on the survey, contact Ashley Kirzinger, director of the UIS Survey Research Office, at 217/206-7956 or akirz2@uis.edu.