Wealth Can Fund a Narrative But It Cannot Create Results

By Amanda Szulc, Opinion Contributor

I have lived in Illinois my entire life. I have watched this state change, and not always for the better. As a precinct committee-person and someone who spends a great deal of time writing, researching, and listening to residents, I hear the same concerns over and over: rising taxes, the cost of simply living here, and the quiet frustration of people who feel the system no longer works for them. These are not abstract policy debates to the families I talk with. They are the difference between keeping their heads above water and falling further behind.

Governor JB Pritzker recently transferred another $65 million of his own money into his campaign account. Across three runs for governor, he has self-funded more than $326 million. That kind of personal wealth can saturate the airwaves, fund polished messaging, and pay for websites that brand an opponent as dangerous. What it cannot do is change the daily reality for the people who actually live here.

On November 3, voters will decide whether the current record deserves another term. Looking past the money and the carefully managed image is not optional. It is a responsibility.

Since 2019, this administration has imposed at least 57 tax and fee increases. Those changes have cost Illinoisans more than $77 billion. The median household now pays roughly $1,400 more each year in state taxes than it did under 2018 levels. I have sat with people who feel that increase in their monthly budgets. It shows up at the gas pump, in the grocery cart, and on the property tax bill that arrives with little visible improvement in return. When government takes more and delivers the same or less, people notice. They feel it long before they see it in a campaign ad.

Education tells a similar story. Illinois has poured significantly more money into its schools over the past two decades. Per-student funding has risen sharply. More staff have been hired. Yet large numbers of children still cannot read or perform math at grade level. When a state spends more year after year and proficiency remains stubbornly flat, the problem is not a lack of resources. It is a failure of priorities and accountability. Adding top-down cultural mandates and progressive curriculum frameworks on top of that academic stagnation only makes the injury worse. Parents who simply want their children to master the basics have every right to be concerned. Children are not political projects. They are the next generation, and they deserve better than systems that spend more while producing the same disappointing outcomes.

There are also legitimate questions about ethics and the appearance of self-interest. The contractor who removed toilets from a Pritzker property in order to reduce tax liability later received nearly $9 million in COVID-related contracts. Concerns continue to surface about blind trusts and financial ties to industries that do substantial business with the state. Public office carries a higher standard than merely staying on the right side of technical legal lines. Leaders should avoid even the appearance that decisions made with public authority serve private interests. Trust is hard to rebuild once people begin to suspect that the rules are written with one eye on personal advantage.

Meanwhile, the campaign itself has chosen to invest in a website, DangerousDarrenBailey.com, paid for by JB for Governor. The site focuses heavily on cultural and personal attacks rather than offering a serious defense of the administration’s results on taxes, schools, or fiscal management. Money can amplify fear and shape the narrative. It cannot create better schools, lower the cost of living, or restore confidence that government is working for ordinary people rather than for itself.

I have seen too many Illinois residents grow weary. Some have already decided that nothing will change. I understand the temptation. It is easier to shrug and accept the status quo than to keep paying attention. But resignation is not neutral. When people stop examining the record, the people with the most money and the loudest messaging win by default.

Scripture calls us to be good stewards of what has been entrusted to us — our communities, our resources, and the next generation. That stewardship includes the courage to look past polished narratives and insist on truth. It includes the willingness to hold leaders accountable for results rather than rhetoric. And it includes the decision not to grow weary in doing what is right, even when the odds feel long.

Illinois does not suffer from a shortage of wealth at the top or sophistication in its public messaging. It suffers from high costs paired with underwhelming results, and from a political culture that too often treats narrative as more important than reality. Families feel the weight of this every month. Children pay the longer price when education fails to equip them.

Voters still hold the power to demand better. That power only works when people are willing to look past the advertising, the attack sites, and the carefully managed image. On November 3, that responsibility rests with every voter who still believes results should matter more than rhetoric, and that truth is worth more than the best-funded story.