Will County Gazette

State Rep. Margo McDermed, R-Mokena, has always felt Gov. J.B. Pritzker's push for a progressive tax system left more questions than it provided answers.

“I’ve long wondered why would Illinois enact a progressive tax system when we’ve had one of the slowest recoveries from the 2008 recession of any state in the country,” McDermed told the Will County Gazette. “Now we're going to go and do something that stands to get in the way of the little progress we’ve been able to make?”

McDermed said she finds it no great surprise that a new Illinois Policy Institute analysis concludes that if the tax the governor has been promoting since his days on the campaign trial were ever to actually become law, it would cost the state the equivalent of all the 45,000 jobs it gained in 2019 and then some.

In all, IPI forecasts that some 56,399 jobs would be lost across the state and McDermed hints that she thinks it could be even worse.

“When I talk with voters, I ask them ‘why would you trust corrupt lawmakers in Springfield with the power to change taxes anytime they want to?’” she said, “I mean, the teaser rates they’ve thrown out there don't cover the budget for fiscal year 2021, much less 2022 when the new rates would take effect.”

In early November, voters will have their say when they go to the polls to cast ballots on the question of if the state Constitution should be amended to allow lawmakers the power to enact a progressive tax system as a replacement to the current flat tax.

McDermed said she expects Democrats to pull out all the stops in an effort to get the measure over the finish line.

“All the taxes are about making sure that they have money for their base, groups like the unions and all the other organizations that they rely on for political support,” she said. “That’s the exact opposite of how responsible government should work, but there’s no denying that’s how they do things.”