By State Rep. Chris Miller –
Illinois voters went to the polls on Nov. 3rd and with few exceptions, they rubber stamped the status quo and so when the Illinois House and Senate reconvenes next year, the Democrats will still have super majorities in both chambers.
This begs the question – does the majority party in the House and the Senate deserve another two years of running Illinois and setting the agenda for our state? What stellar policies are being implemented that warrant the status quo?
Illinois has the worst credit rating of all 50 states – just below junk status. Illinois has more than $137 billion in unfunded pension liabilities and more than $7 billion in backlogged unpaid bills. The budget signed into law earlier this year was constructed with the belief that voters would approve the Governor’s progressive income tax scheme and the federal government would be there with a nice bailout for Illinois.
Voters did not approve the progressive income tax and so far, the federal government has not been forthcoming with piles of cash for states like Illinois. The end result is a massive budget hole, which could be as high as $10 billion.
As we speak, Governor J.B. Pritzker and the Democrat leaders in the House and the Senate are working on ways to increase taxes to fill the budget shortfall and there are media pundits who are standing up and cheering. It won’t be long before talking heads will be telling that it is our patriotic duty to accept even more tax increases in Illinois because we can’t solve the budget crisis on cuts alone.
Of course, we have heard this nonsense before. We heard it in 2011 when income taxes went up. We heard it 2017 when state income taxes again went up. And we have heard it the last two years as the Governor tried to sell his progressive income tax scheme.
The harsh reality in Illinois is taxes have consistently gone up and what we have our mediocre state leaders done with the money? You guessed it. They found more ways to spend it. Each budget Gov. Pritzker has signed increased spending by $2 billion.
We have done nothing to reform or reduce state spending. We have done nothing to get pension costs under control. All our leaders have done is spend more money and then turn around and try to tell us that is our fault Illinois is in shambles because we don’t want to pay more in taxes.
Illinois has the second highest property taxes in the nation. We have the third-highest gas tax in the country. WalletHub ranks Illinois the state with the 9th highest tax burden in the nation – even higher than California. The status quo leaders in the House and the Senate reflexively ask what items in the budget should be cut every time people like me bring up reform. Well, here is a question for the establishment politicians – with taxes already among the highest in the nation – what is there left to tax?
The economic problems in Illinois are not the fault of the hard-working men and women of this state. They are the fault of mediocre leaders who have driven this state into the ground. Our so-called leaders have failed miserably.
They have failed to be responsible with the people’s money. Our Governor signed a budget into law based on the hope that voters would approve his tax hike scheme. He authorized spending based on revenue that was not real. Budgeting based on fairy dust and unicorns is not the way to run a state of nearly 13 million people.
It is time for the people of Illinois to understand that we do not have to settle for mediocrity any longer in Illinois. I will be opposing any tax increases in the coming legislative session and I call on every patriotic Illinois resident to join me in standing up for fiscal sanity and standing against the career politicians who are wrecking our state.
