Newly elected state Rep. Darren Bailey (R-Xenia) has already deduced that some of his colleagues in Springfield may not be cut out for the jobs in front of them.
“I see a pattern where a lot of these Democrats that hold these radical positions have never had a real job, never owned a business where they had lives in their hands,” Bailey told SE Illinois News. “Everything they’ve done has been with these nonprofits, where they go in, ask for money and kind of go from there. I would love to pass a bill where you have to have worked a real job before running for public office.”
As a case in point, Bailey pointed to the current push by Gov. J.B. Pritzker and other top-ranking Democrats to advance a graduated tax as a way of purportedly dealing with the state’s ongoing budget-deficit crisis. Pritzker’s plan is billed as one that will generate $3.4 billion in new annual revenue while impacting roughly 20,000 state residents, all of them with household incomes of between $250,000 and $1 million.
State Rep. Darren Bailey (R-Xenia)
Supporters of the proposal claim that all Illinoisans making less than $250,000, or 97 percent of the state’s population, would be seeing an effective tax rate lower than the current 4.95 percent. Bailey, who won in the 109th District in November with more than 75 percent of the vote, does not think any of that will matter until the thinking changes in Springfield.
“Until we get more people down here who have more real business experience, we’re going to continue to have these kinds of issues,” he said. “Even Pritzker is the same in that he’s inherited all his wealth and hasn’t had to be responsible for building and growing a business.”
To become law, the graduated tax would require a constitutional amendment made possible by the approval of three-fifths of the General Assembly and at least 60 percent of voters in 2020. Bailey hopes things never get to that point.
“With businesses and people already leaving the state at the rate that they are because of all these taxes and regulations, I don’t know why we would continue on this path,” he said. “Illinois has to wake up and, Chicago especially, can’t keep electing these same kinds of people.”
The 109th House District includes all or parts of Clay, Edwards, Effingham, Jasper, Lawrence, Richland, Wabash, Wayne and White counties.
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