Efforts to rescind the $10,000 cap on the value of traded-in vehicles in Illinois failed as the state’s General Assembly ended its spring legislation with lawmakers struggling to reach agreement on a budget that’s been blown apart by the coronavirus-induced economic downturn.
 
Borrowing from the federal government was a key component to address a budget hole that Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s office estimated is at least $6.2 billion. With the state in such dire financial straits, lawmakers appeared loathe to forsake the revenue that the cap generates for the state by increasing the amounts of trade-in credits consumers buying or leasing another vehicle can apply to the final transaction amount, upon which sales tax is calculated.
 
The trade-in cap, which took effect Jan. 1, first emerged in the final days of May 2019, as Pritzker and lawmakers sought funding for the governor’s $45 billion capital infrastructure plan. Also impacted by the plan: a doubling of the state’s gasoline tax and nearly 50% jumps in title and registration fees.
 
The CATA and other groups backed an alternate path for raising state revenue — increasing the tax on private party vehicle sales — but an abbreviated fall veto session last year and the chaotic atmosphere this year did not enable that argument to gain traction.
 
Lawmakers stretched their session into overtime on May 23, as they sought to finalize details on a maintenance-level $40 billion state budget that would depend heavily on federal funds while also making another effort to get a Chicago casino off the ground.
 
A Chicago casino is seen as key to the capital bill the legislature passed last year.