SE Illinois News

Republican state House candidate Paul Jacobs has always had an uneasy feeling when it comes to the progressive income tax system Gov. J.B. Pritzker has long sworn by.

“The so-called fair tax is designed to change our constitution from the flat tax to a progressive tax,” Jacobs told the SE Illinois News. “It was a well-thought out way to change our constitution and allow legislators to tax more groups of people with whatever tax they want. With the change to a progressive tax, you won’t see anything but the $250,000 bracket people at first, but it will then be expanded to all wage earners and, of course, to pensions.”

Running in the 115th District, Jacobs laments it wouldn’t be the first time lawmakers have sold a bill as doing one thing only to have it do another. While Pritzker has continued to sell the tax as a levy that will only mean higher rates for the state’s most affluent, Jacobs has long argued he can’t see how that can be.

“Gov. Pritzker continues to push for the so-called fair tax because they have already spent that money on the new budget that was passed by the super majority Democrat party,” he said. “They don’t have much choice but to try to hoodwink the Illinoisans that think it’s very fair to tax a particular group thinking they themselves won’t ever be taxed.”

Jacobs said he also finds it alarming that the recent indictment of state Sen. Terry Link (D-Indian Creek) marks the fourth lawmaker who has strongly endorsed the tax to now find themselves facing criminal charges. Facing tax evasion charges, Link joins former state Rep. Luis Arroyo, who faces up to 10 years in prison, and state Sen. Tom Cullerton, who has been hit with a 41-count indictment on embezzlement charges. One-time state Sen. Martin Sandoval has already pleaded guilty to taking $250,000 in bribes from SafeSpeed, a red-light camera vendor.

And then there is longtime House Speaker Mike Madigan, who now finds himself implicated in an ongoing federal corruption probe involving ComEd in which it’s alleged bribes were steered to several of his close associates as part of a pay-to-play scheme aimed at currying favor with him.

“Look at the people that have supported it, look at their backgrounds,” Jacobs added.” Knowing that criminal charges have been filed on some of the biggest fair tax supporters, I don’t want them anywhere near my constitution or changing any laws.”