Pritzker’s social media fee plan faces cost, legality questions

By Jim Talamonti | The Center Square
The Center Square

(The Center Square) – An internet freedom advocate says Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s proposed social media platform fee will raise costs for Illinoisans and may be unlawful.

During his budget address last week, the governor called for the fee and said social media giants should support Illinois families.

“Those companies are profiting from online engagement of Illinois’ consumers, and they currently contribute nothing to ameliorate the negative effects of their platforms,” Pritzker said.

The governor said the fee would generate $200 million per year to support K-12 public education.

NetChoice Vice President of Government Relations Amy Bos said the tax would raise costs for Illinois businesses and consumers.

“I know the governor has stated that his intention is to prevent companies from passing this along to consumers, but that’s not how the economics works,” Bos told The Center Square.

Illinois House Republican Leader Tony McCombie, R-Savanna, said the only way to grow is to lower the state’s tax burden.

“When you impose a tax, it always gets passed to the end user,” McCombie told The Center Square.

McCombie said the governor apparently got the idea from Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson.

“Every budget he finds another thing that isn’t taxed or is taxed in one way and he wants to tax it a different way,” McCombie told The Center Square.

Chicago’s social media amusement tax imposes a $0.50 per user monthly fee on digital services with over 100,000 users operating in the city.

Bos said social media taxes and platform fees may not survive constitutional scrutiny.

“Federal law, specifically the Internet Tax Freedom Act, prohibits discriminatory taxes on e-commerce,” Bos said.

The NetChoice VP said other states have walked away from similar proposals because they create more legal exposure than revenue.

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