SE Illinois News

Darren Bailey wants to see lawmakers keep a promise before they're allowed to burden Illinoisans with more tax levies like the gas tax now being bandied about.

“I’d rather not see any tax increase, but for them to even ask they should be willing to show us exactly where all our other tax money is going,” Bailey told the SE Illinois News. “They just seem to want to increase taxes and appropriate later. Every time were told it’s going to go toward something, but it never makes it there.”

The 51-year-old recently announced plans to take on Rep. Dave Reis (R-Willow Hills) in the Republican primary in the 109th District in 2018 on a platform of restoring Illinois by getting its out-of-control tax system under control.

Darren Bailey

The gas tax now being floated in Springfield by Rep. Dan Brady (R-Bloomington) as a way of raising funds for capital projects has drawn Bailey's ire.

“There are no specifics being offered as part of this proposal,” he said. “I’m for freezing all increases and prioritizing where the money we already have is going.”

Brady hasn’t provided details about how much more Illinois residents might be forced to pay. At more than 34-cents a gallon, Illinois residents already pay some of the highest gas taxes in the nation.

A farmer by trade, Bailey said he understands the need for sound and well-kept infrastructure as much as anyone but feels getting taxes and the budget under control takes precedence. 

“So often, there’s so much pork and waste attached to these bills,” he said. “We need to deal with that and make sure all the fat has been trimmed.”

Bailey said one way of bringing about the kind of reforms he thinks are needed could be term limits.

“I think politicians have become entrenched like tents,” Bailey said, who also served 17 years on the North Clay Unit 25 Board of Education in Louisville, Illinois, including 12 as president.

“So many of them have made a career out of being a politician, and that's part of the problem,” he said. “They serve so long they find all sorts of loopholes that allow them to satisfy others as part of the buddy system.”