This spring, The People’s Lobby is showing up for progressive revenue: both by lobbying our elected officials, and by taking our demands directly to the corporations that profit from our communities but don’t pay what they owe.
On April 13, more than 200 members of organizations within the PowerUp coalition (including TPL) gathered at Amazon’s headquarters in downtown Chicago to make the case that when we struggle to fund vital programs like housing, health care, and education, greedy corporations are to blame.
We chose this target because big tech corporations like Amazon make billions by gathering our personal data and selling it to digital advertisers. Trump’s flunkies at ICE and Customs and Border Patrol are also buying ad data and using it to track and harass us. By charging a 10% tax on digital ad revenue for giant corporations like Amazon, Facebook, and Google, Illinois could raise $1.1 billion next year — money we desperately need to protect our state from the Trump administration’s budget cuts.
Our member Donyale Springs MC’d the event, keeping the energy high as members chanted and performed street theater.
At the action, CPS middle school teacher Tenesha Higgins said, “As a public school parent and public school teacher, I will always stand up for what students need. We shouldn’t have to beg for aides for students with disabilities, warm meals to nourish them, or crossing guards to keep children safe when Amazon is stealing billions of our tax dollars through corporate tax breaks and government contracts.”
But we know it takes both public pressure and legislative power to force powerful corporations to behave responsibly. So, two days later, on Tax Day, TPL and many of the other orgs in PowerUp gathered again as part of the Illinois Revenue Alliance to travel to Springfield and make the same case to our elected officials.
After a rally and march that took up several blocks of the Springfield streets before gathering beside the Capitol building, our folks went inside to tell our legislators what we need and how to get it.
“This is the first Tax Day since the passage of the so‑called ‘Big Beautiful Bill,’ a federal policy that handed over $9 billion in tax giveaways to billionaires and corporations right here in Illinois,” said Krystal Peters, a leader at the Workers Center for Racial Justice. “At the same time, our communities are being told there’s not enough funding for childcare, schools, healthcare, or food assistance. We are living through the consequences of Trump‑era tax policies that are actively harming our communities. It is simple and plain. They need to pay because they can afford it.”
The Illinois Revenue Alliance has identified several progressive revenue solutions designed to generate over $7 billion annually, including:
- $1.2 billion from closing offshore tax loopholes used by multinational corporations (SB3486 – Martwick / HB5318 – West)
- $916 million from taxing extreme billionaire wealth growth (SB3376 – Villa / HB5215 Mah)
- $1.1 billion from requiring Big Tech companies to pay taxes on profits made from Illinois residents (SB3353 – Peters / HB4894 – Hernandez)
- $700 million by Protecting the state budget from harmful federal tax giveaways (SB3796 Collins / HB5125 LaPointe)
Together, we called on Governor Pritzker and the General Assembly to stand with working families, fix our broken tax system, and make the ultra-wealthy pay what they owe.
Missed this chance to tell your legislators to find progressive revenue to fund the programs we need? We’re going back to Springfield on May 20! Sign up here.
