Will County Gazette

Will County Board Member and former Republican Congressional candidate Mike Fricilone wonders when Springfield will finally hear the voice of voters.

“People showed how they feel about another tax increase with the way they rejected the progressive tax,” Fricilone told the Will County Gazette. But for some reason democrats don’t want to listen to people and their cry for them to cut spending.”

Roughly two months after voters said no to the so-called fair tax, growing talk is House Speaker Mike Madigan plans to broach the subject anew of a of a tax hike during the lame duck session slated for this month as a way to close a nearly $4 billion budget shortfall.

Fricilone is hardly alone in lamenting it’s just the Madigan way. To date, at least 19 Democratic lawmakers have come out to insist they have no intentions of supporting his re-election campaign, and he continues to find himself at the center of the ComEd pay-for-play scandal where all the perks are alleged to have been steered to him in exchange for favorable legislation.

“The bottom-line is we have to stop all the spending the way we do,” he said. “Another tax increase will do nothing but place more money in the coffers of government for them to spend more. Democratic states are already in line for more money from the federal government, which will only be another waste.”

Fricilone fumes it all just adds up to more bad policy for the state, especially given what the federal government now seems poised to do.  

“With new administration now set to take over in Washington, I’m sure we’re probably headed for some kind of federal bailout,” he said. “I think that’s unfortunate because states that handle their finances well will not benefit from that and all the loose states like Illinois are likely to do so.”