McHenry Times

Rep. Barbara Wheeler (R-Crystal Lake) slammed the recently passed state budget for offering no reforms and a permanent income tax hike on individuals and businesses, according to a press release.

“If our economy had grown at the national average since the year 2000, we would have enough revenue to balance our budget right now,” Wheeler said in the statement. “Instead, Speaker Madigan’s leadership has led to a doubling down on failed policies and another tax increase in less than a decade, but this time it’s a permanent tax increase that families and businesses in Illinois simply cannot afford.”

After Gov. Bruce Rauner vetoed the measures making up the budget, the House and Senate voted to override, this putting into place a 32 percent increase in the state personal and corporate income taxes. The personal tax is now at 4.95 percent and the corporate tax is 7 percent.

Rep. Barbara Wheeler (R-Crystal Lake)

“I frankly cannot support a budget and tax hike that does nothing to address our backlog of unpaid bills, fails to provide relief to homeowners and leaves our most vulnerable susceptible to more harm down the road,” Wheeler said in her statement. "We must fundamentally change the way Illinois spends money in order to provide sustainable solutions for the future of the state and to ask taxpayers for more money without doing so is wrong.”