Letter: Beware of Illinois “fair tax" proposal

To the Editor:

Whenever Dems use the word fair, it is really code for taking from someone and giving it to someone else. I thought that only the judicial branch was in charge of “fair." With Illinois in hot competition for most corrupt state in the nation, who could believe the word fair coming from the mouths any of our politicians?

By the way, isn’t Pritzker the politician who took out the toilets from one of his mansions to trick the tax assessor into declaring the building uninhabitable to save 300 grand in taxes? So whatever he says we certainly should believe!

Some pertinent facts about the plan.

It is over dependant on the wealthy. The increases on corporations to 10.45% would make Illinois the third highest in the nation, making it very unattractive to the wealthy, which incidentally are the employers, and business in general leaving a shortfall, not a gain in revenue.

Illinois is already losing a large number of residents due to high taxes, poor management and corruption. The proposal promises a middle class tax cut. The actual cut is from 4.95% to 4.90%. Insulting or dishonest to call that a cut. The amendment does not differ between married and single taxpayers, so it actually creates an excessive penalty on married taxpayers.

None of the potential added revenue is earmarked to fund education, public safety, property tax relief or pension relief, so to cover expenses, particularly if revenue does not meet expectations, since the proposed amendment omits inflation indexing creating “bracket creep” tax brackets will have to be changed and higher taxes imposed on the middle class going down possibly to the $25,000 income level.

This because the Governor’s proposal separates rates and brackets from the amendment essentially giving the state a free hand to raise taxes in the future at will without any encumbrances. There is nothing even remotely “ fair” about this shell game proposal.

Not you know the rest of the story.

Jim Gigl

McHenry