While the budget includes significant new tax burdens, Republican lawmakers also blocked several of the most damaging proposals—though they caution that these ideas are far from dead and are likely to return.

One proposal would have added a $1.50 delivery tax to nearly every package shipped to Illinois homes. Far from a luxury, delivery has become essential for many working families—providing access to groceries, diapers, medications, and meals after long days on the job. This tax would have penalized the very people who rely on those services the most.

Another measure would have imposed a new service tax on routine needs like car repairs, home maintenance, and personal care. It was effectively a tax on daily life, making it more expensive to fix a leaking pipe, get a haircut, or keep a vehicle safely on the road.

A third proposal—a mom-and-pop tax on digital advertising—would have raised costs for small, family-run businesses that depend on affordable online marketing to reach customers. By making it harder for these businesses to compete and grow, the tax also would have hurt the families and communities that rely on them for jobs, goods, and services.

Lawmakers who opposed these proposals say this isn’t the end of the fight. These taxes were stopped—for now—but they are part of Governor Pritzker’s long game: growing government and shifting the cost onto the very people who can least afford it. If they return, it’s working families, seniors, and those already stretched to the breaking point who will bear the brunt.