State Rep. Mark Batinick | Contributed photo
State Rep. Mark Batinick | Contributed photo
State Rep. Mark Batinick (R-Plainfield) argues Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s behind-the-scene actions tell you everything you need to know about how he truly views his progressive income tax proposal.
“It’s quite telling that the governor really seems to be trying to buy the result he wants,” Batinick told the Will County Gazette. “To me, it says he knows that if people were fully educated about this tax there’s no way they would vote for it.”
The Chicago Tribune reports the governor recently contributed $51.5 million to a ballot initiative committee launched to sell the progressive tax proposal he’s been pushing since his days as a candidate. Vote Yes to Fairness, a committee headed by the governor’s former deputy campaign manager, recently received the funds and is already at work selling legislation that would convert the current flat tax to a progressive tax system.
In addition to being the only individual to contribute more than $250, Pritzker’s latest gift comes on a top of an earlier donation of $5 million.
“The worse part of it all is this isn’t tied to any sort of policy like property tax relief, something the state is really in desperate need of,” Batinick added. “If we’re going to have a constitutional amendment. it really needs to be about something like term limits and gerrymandering so we can really start to clean up the corruption. Those are the kinds of things that are leading to the destruction of this state.”
Through it all, the governor has sought to sell the tax as a change that will only mean higher rates for the state’s most affluent residents. Voters will finally have their say in November’s general election, where approval from 60% of those who vote on the issue or a majority of those who vote in the election overall is needed for passage.
Batinick shudders to think what passage of the measure could come to mean for the state.
“We’ll just continue to see the exodus of residents out of this state,” he said. “Over the long haul, this will mean higher taxes for everyone. Until we address all the corruption and the political carter that’s destroying this state nothing will really change.”
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