Lake County Gazette

Dawn Abernathy, Republican candidate for House District 59, has called out legislators who voted to replace the state's flat tax with a progressive income tax rate after the measure was defeated late last week due to overwhelming opposition.

More specifically, she has taken state Rep. Carol Sente, her District 59 Democratic incumbent rival who voted for the "fair tax" measure, to task.

“Rep. Sente said she is for small business, but she is pushing a tax hike that would give Illinois the second-highest small-business tax in the nation,” Abernathy told the Lake County Gazette. “Small businesses employ over 50 percent of Illinois workers. That’s why I’m going to Springfield -- to protect those small businesses and ensure that families have access to jobs.”

Abernathy said the proposed tax-rate change would hurt the state's residents across the board. 

“This progressive tax rate is going to hurt everyone,” Abernathy said. “They (the politicians in Springfield) believe it will create economic equality, but it’s going to take more money from everyone, even the middle class, and it is going to just line the pockets of the politicians.”

Abernathy cited a recent notice by the Illinois Department of Revenue regarding the overall effect the bill would have.

“The Illinois Department of Revenue has put a notice out that the income plan put forward…that over the next four years, we would have a loss of 20,000 private-sector jobs…and an additional 43,000 to out-migration,” Abernathy said.

Illinois is currently facing what is called an out-migration, in which many residents are moving out of the state. Abernathy said the state is making it inhospitable for families and that policies currently in place have not helped those whom they are supposed to help. 

“It’s not just about losing jobs, it’s about losing people," Abernathy said. "People can’t afford it anymore. They can’t afford to live here. The problem is, with all this, with these tax hikes and their policies, the truly vulnerable people in Illinois are not receiving the services they need. We cannot continue the way things are. We have to be able to support the people in our state that need help. This (the proposed tax hike) does nothing to help that. It just helps the people and politicians in power.”

Abernathy is campaigning for reform in many areas, including spending. More specifically, she urges the state to make taxes less burdensome on everyone, from families to  businesses.

“We have to have spending reform,” Abernathy said. “We have to have pension reform. We have to allow our businesses to build projects at a competitive rate. We have to stop with the prevailing rate. It does not nothing but cost our taxpayers more money, which has hiked up our property taxes. And pensions, right now, are just out of control.”

So Abernathy is knocking on doors and building her campaign team.

“The campaign is going really well," Abernathy said. "I’ve seen a lot of really good results from people. We just had our first fundraiser… . We did our kickoff weekend, walking, knocking on doors where we got our campaign team together. We’re looking for interns. Pretty much every day, we’re going. (Every day), it’s campaign mode.”