Pritzker’s “Fair Tax”: Another Chicago Bailout

The Chicago Democrats are coming for more of your money. And they are doing it with the help of suburban legislators Karina Villa (D-West Chicago) and Anne Stava-Murray (D-Naperville) and downstate legislator Monica Bristow (D-Godfrey).

Every Democrat present voted in favor of the graduated income tax amendment or as Gov. Pritzker likes to call it, the “Fair Tax,” in order to have more control over your wallet and raise income taxes depending on how much they decide to spend that year.

But where will the money go? As with the record breaking 2017 income tax hike, the “Fair Tax” is supposed to solve the state’s financial crisis that Illinois perpetually finds itself in. Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot has another idea for the money: bailout Chicago’s pensions.

Mayor Lightfoot wants families throughout Illinois to pay for Chicago’s $28 billion pension debt. She wants one-third of the graduated income tax revenue to bailout the near bankrupt Chicago pension funds and also implement a retirement tax statewide to make up for the city’s years of empty promises and underfunded pension payments.

Research shows that the graduated income tax hike will hurt poor and middle class families. Worse, now we know that it’s true intention is to funnel more money out of the suburbs and into Chicago.

By voting for the graduated income tax, suburban and downstate legislators once again shove their constituents’ needs aside to bail out the mismanaged city of Chicago. They did it in 2017 when they voted for the new education formula that sends more state money to Chicago Public Schools and allocated $200 million a year to pay down some of the city’s school pension debt.

Now it is up to you. Will you go along with Gov. Pritzker and the Chicago Democrats to take more money out of your communities and schools, or will you vote to keep your hard earned money local?

While the Chicago political class and media scoff at State Rep. Brad Halbrook’s resolution to separate Chicago from the rest of the state he touches on an underlying issue: suburban and downstate residents are rightfully angered at the Chicago Democrats for running the state into the ground and asking the state taxpayers to pick up the pieces.

A graduated income tax is a bailout of Chicago’s irresponsible spending and will only work as a bandaid for all of the City’s problems.

Until legislators all over the state and from both parties feel the pressure from voters, they won’t reform the underlying structural problems of the pension crisis. If we don’t, all Illinois residents will continue to see their taxes rise and their local government services depleted while Chicago gets a bailout.