Tax rebate checks coming ahead of November elections

CHICAGO — Roughly six million Illinois taxpayers will soon get a one-time income and property tax rebate.

The first wave of rebate checks were sent out Monday. Illinois individual filers who make under $200,000 who are not claimed as a dependent are set to get $50 income rebates, while couples who file jointly making less than $400,000 will get $100.

Filers will also get $100 income rebates per dependent claimed, going up to three dependents.

Eligible homeowners will also be receiving up to $300 in property tax rebates. Joint filers making more than $500,000 and individual filers who make more than $250,000 annually are not eligible.

“This is an election year ploy,” said Republican gubernatorial candidate Darren Bailey, slamming the payments. “I think people are going to see this and understand this.”

Democrats continue to hold up their tax relief program, while Republicans continue to hammer Governor JB Pritzker on crime, the latest strategy being a ‘scream’ commercial put out by Dan Proft’s PAC during Sunday’s Chicago Bears game.

“They’ve chosen a particular crime in which there was a white woman who is the victim and apparently Black perpetrators,” Pritzker said, condemning the commercial. “That’s the ad they want people to see, particularly in the suburbs. That’s part of the entire racial tinge of everything that’s being put out by that pack.”

Pritzker and Bailey have both agreed to take part in two Nexstar-hosted gubernatorial debates. The first debate will take place Oct. 6 at Illinois State University in Normal, with the second taking place on Oct. 18 at WGN Studios in Chicago.