By Jake Leahy -
Will there be a Blue Wave? A Red Wave? Only time will tell. But one thing is for sure, Speaker Mike Madigan is putting on the full court press to take back a supermajority of the Illinois House.
Under the Quinn Administration, a “temporary” income tax hike was passed with Democrat supermajorities in the General Assembly. Under Governor Rauner, some Republicans joined forces with the Democrats to form a supermajority to pass yet another income income tax hike, while overriding the Governor’s veto. J.B. Pritzker has made clear his agenda if elected, to get a new so called “Progressive” income tax passed.
Unfortunately, his plan is deep on rhetoric but short on specifics. Currently, the only basis to decipher exactly what this means is from the 2017 bill presented to the General Assembly. This proposal would have increased the tax rate on people earning as little as $17,000 a year. A far cry from Pritzker’s claim that people like himself and Governor Rauner should pay more. Who else should also be paying more.
But there is good news, passing a graduated income tax requires a supermajority in both chambers. The bad news, it appears the supermajority to pass the income tax is exactly what Mike Madigan is going for.
Multiple Democratic candidates in traditional Republican districts have now raised over a million dollars, in large part thanks to Madigan’s organizations. In Lake County alone, this includes over a million to Mary Edly Allen, going against newly appointed Representative Helene Miller Walsh, as well as hundreds of thousands to Joyce Mason, going against incumbent Republican Sheri Jesiel.
The source of the money? The Democratic Party (Chaired by Madigan himself) of Illinois gave $750,000 directly to Edly Allen, Democratic Majority (also Chaired by Madigan himself) has chipped in hundreds of thousands to Mason for staff, polling, and virtually everything else needed to run a campaign.
This does not even include the thousands being spent by the so called “Conservative Party” in Illinois, which has been spent attack conservative members of the Illinois House delegation.
Coincidentally, in districts targeted by House Democrats, the Conservative Party also is tying the incumbent Republicans to Bruce Rauner and calling them “Rauner RINOs,” urging them to oppose the Republican and support Sam McCann. Of course McCann’s campaign and the Conservative Party are largely funded by the “Fight Back Fund.” A corporation, where the donors are not disclosed, and whoever runs it apparently has a vested interest to spend millions against conservative state legislators.
What is all this for? Clearly, it means that the Democrats in Illinois think they can capitalize off of the animosity which many traditional Republican suburban voters feel towards the current Administration. In doing this they are capitalizing off of a divided Republican Party in the hopes of once and for all getting yet another massive tax hike passed onto Illinois families.
If you want to make sure we don’t find a solution to the looming pension issue, are okay with skyrocketing property taxes, and are okay with another income tax hike, you know how to vote in November.
