Rep. Weaver Calls for Repeal of Democrats’ Novel Tax Increases

Good morning. I'm State Representative Travis Weber and I represent Greater Peoria in the 93rd District. We're gathered this morning because this year's state budget included five novel taxes passed by the majority party. These are brand new taxes passed by Illinois Democrats who have no limits on their out-of-control spending habits to the point where they had to come up with five novel taxes to hit Illinois families even harder in their wallets. What's even more egregious about these new taxes is the fact that Democrats are expecting minimal of any revenue from them because they don't even know if the measures are legal. They are, however, projecting costs because the lawsuits have already started and the Attorney General will have to defend them in court. These taxes can cost more money than they take in. That's a wild concept. The entire point of taxes, literally the only reason they exist, is to raise money for the public good. These novel tax increases lose money for the public bad. The majority party is wasting citizens harder money to find out if they can invent new ways to take their money. I hear the governor talk a lot about cost of living. Well, here's an easy small fix. Stop wasting money to find out if it's legal to take money. These novel taxes include a social media tax, targeted ad tax, sports wagering exchange tax, and a sports wagering fantasy market tax. I have filed repeal bills on all four of these while Leader Cabello has filed the digital asset cryptocurrency tax repeal bill and Senator Anderson has companion bills for all five in the Senate. Two of these taxes are unique to Illinois, including the social media fee and digital asset crypto fee. Lawsuits are already pending for both. For the digital asset tax, seven states have recently tried it in some capacity. Just this summer, Maryland's version of the tax was struck down because it violated federal law. As you can imagine, there's a lawsuit pending on the Illinois version as well. For the prediction markets tax, Kentucky has imposed an excise tax on prediction market operators and also requires prediction market companies like Kalshi that offer sports events contracts to obtain a license. Kalshi is currently suing that state, claiming that it violates the Federal Commodity Exchange Act. And just recently, New Jersey asked the Supreme Court to resolve a major legal battle over whether states can regulate sports events contracts on prediction markets. This will be a ruling to watch for sure. And for the fantasy sports tax, Pennsylvania and New York also tax fantasy sports at the same 15% rate. As you would guess, a lawsuit is pending in that state as well on the prediction market tax. Why are we wading into these very muddy, messy waters? We know the lawsuits are coming, and that means untold amounts of taxpayer dollars being wasted on legal fees. This is beyond ridiculous, wasting more taxpayer money and further straining an already taxed out economy in our state. These lawsuits will be defended and resolved by other states. There is no first mover benefit here. If this was a business, a CEO would let his or her competitors fight the legal battles, then make a decision. That's the most prudent decision for shareholders. It's also the clearer decision for taxpayers. My hope is that these new taxes are never levied, but at the very least, we need to let the dust of legal fees settle before making a decision to levy these taxes or not. These repeals should be easy wins to tackle in the upcoming veto session. We hear a lot about addressing the cost of living, well, eliminating this low-hanging fruit of waste is an easy place to start. With that, I'll see you in the next video.