SE Illinois News

Republican House hopeful Darren Bailey shudders to think of what could be.

“My prediction is if J.B. Pritzker is elected governor in four years we will be at the bottom of the barrel,” Bailey told the SE Illinois News. “What that translates to mean is the state of Illinois will be unable to bring in any more money between all the people and businesses leaving the state and those that will refuse to come.”

Bailey views growing talk of a statewide property tax hike aimed at paying down pension debt as more misguided maneuvering. Endorsed by the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, the plan would work by raising property taxes by approximately 50 percent over each of the next 30 years.

Cynthia Given

“Taxpayers have already shown us what they think of this way of governing with the way they’ve been leaving the state in droves,” said Bailey, who is running against Democrat Cynthia Given in the 109th District. “We have to look for other solutions, and the first one should be about spending cuts. As a government, we have to learn to live within our means and be more efficient.”

With Illinois homeowners already paying the highest property taxes in the country at 2.67 percent of a home’s value, the DuPage Policy Journal previously reported the plan would increase annual taxes on a home valued at $500,000 by roughly $5,000, which is more than enough to pay off the state's pension liabilities, according to economists with the Federal Bank of Chicago.

And all the taxation might not end there, as Ford, Lake, Kane, Frankfort and Will counties all have referendums for a proposed 1-percent sales tax increase.

Illinois Policy Institute (IPI) reports much of Will County's newly generated windfall has been earmarked for local school districts, with more than a dozen schools supporting the measure.

Placed in the newly formed category of County School Facility Occupation Tax (CSFT), the sales tax increase would put the tax burden of some Will County residents in the same neighborhood as the 10.25 percent paid by residents in Chicago, home to the highest combined sales tax rate in the country, IPI states.

In Frankfort, the sales tax rate would jump from 7 percent to 8 percent.

“None of this comes as a fair deal to the taxpayer,” Bailey said. “It’s the price you pay for elected officials making deals with their own benefit in mind as opposed to the people they’re supposed to have been representing.

The 109th House District includes Clay, Edwards, Effingham, Jasper, Lawrence, Richland, Wabash, Wayne and White counties.