Lake County Gazette

Ken Idstein disagrees with the way the 2017 state budget opened the floodgates for all the abuse Illinois taxpayers now find themselves drowning in.

“Just over a year ago, the Illinois General Assembly overrode Gov. Rauner's veto and instituted a 32 percent increase to the state's flat state income tax rate,” Idstein told the Lake County Gazette. “Speaker Michael Madigan (D-Chicago) led the general assembly in the effort to take an average of $732 more from Illinois households under the ruse that the increase would finally resolve the deep fiscal issues caused by decades of Madigan's political and budgetary malpractice. In retrospect, the rise in state income taxes has only emboldened the tax-and-spend policies that the lawmakers in Springfield are addicted to.”

Idstein points to how just a year after raising personal and corporate income taxes by approximately 33 percent, lawmakers in Springfield are now pushing to change the state constitution by instituting a progressive income tax.

“[Democrats] claim to be champions of equality, yet their tax policies offer to harm everyone who earns over $7,500 and doesn't treat all citizens equal under the law,” he said. “Their push for yet another increase proves that they failed to achieve any of the promises that were offered with the tax increase.”

All the chaos and dysfunction comes about at a time when Illinois already ranks near the bottom in average jobs growth and Chief Executive magazine ranked the state among the worse places to do business.  

“The $5 billion tax increase came with the promise that the general assembly would create and pass a balanced budget. That promise went unfulfilled,” said Idstein, who is running against Rep. Sam Yingling (D-Grayslake) in the 62nd District. “Even after taking an average of $732 from every taxpayer, the budget that was adopted was short by up to $1.5 billion and did not include any reforms to address our spending problem.”

Idstein said all the state’s rising outmigration can be directly traced to its financial woes and system of over taxation.

“The exodus of Illinois residents fleeing the ballooning burdens of this state has not subsided since the tax increase, and false promises of balanced budgets were made,” he said. “In fact, the emigration has been so consequential that the state fell from the fourth to the fifth position in state population. The general assembly failed to implement any significant reforms to begin to allow us to dig ourselves out of this hole that we find ourselves in. The recent budget that they passed reveals that they are intending to keep on digging.”

Idstein said last year’s record-setting tax increase was a mistake and it’s partly responsible for fueling his run. 

“When I get down to Springfield, I will not fold to the Madigan machine, like Sam Yingling,” he said. “I will fight to end these repetitive mistakes that have created the fiscal crisis that we are now confronted with.”