McHenry Times

Longtime Republican state Rep. Allen Skillicorn (East Dundee) insists that the priorities of certain lawmakers in Springfield are difficult to stomach.

“The Democrats want to have an amendment to hike taxes on people but they’re not interested in anything that would reform how government works and lower the enormous tax burdens on residents,” Skillicorn told the McHenry Times. “Gov. [J.B.] Pritzker and Speaker [Mike] Madigan are hell-bent on hiking taxes on the people of Illinois no matter what voters think. That’s just their agenda and to me that’s shameful.”

With just days remaining in the legislative session, Pritzker's dogged push for a progressive tax system recently took a step forward after the Illinois House Revenue & Finance Committee voted to approve the constitutional amendment needed to enact such a change. By a 9-6 vote, the committee passed Senate Joint Resolution Constitutional Amendment 1 (SJRCA 1), sending it to the House for a full vote, where 71 votes would assure that the measure appears before voters in the form of a referendum question on the 2020 ballot.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker

“Illinois already has highest tax burden in the country,” Skillicorn said. “A system that means higher taxes for virtually every one of us won’t solve any of our issues. All that will do is lead to more of the same financial hardship and people continuing to leave this state in droves.”

On the same day SJRCA was passed in committee, members also approved a bill that would establish graduated income-tax rates, a proposal that would repeal the state’s real estate tax and another proposal to enact a property-tax freeze that critics have blasted as “toothless,” all of which would occur should the voters ultimately approve the measure.