Lake County Gazette

Veteran House Rep. David McSweeney (R-Barrington Hills) is on a mission to get Illinois government back on track.

“Make no mistake about it, there's nothing ‘fair’ about another tax hike on the hardworking families of Illinois,” McSweeney recently posted on Facebook. "We need to cut taxes, not raise them.”

McSweeney insists that he will not rest until the state turns its attention to bringing relief to Illinois' most heavily burdened residents.

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker

“The last thing the hardworking residents of Illinois need is another tax hike,” he added in a separate post. “We should instead be focused on cutting unnecessary government spending and fixing our broken public employee pension systems.”

Those are the very principles McSweeney brought to Springfield when he arrived six years ago, in which time he has not cast a single vote in favor of a tax increase.

“Working families in Illinois are being hurt by out-of-control tax hikes,” McSweeney states on the new Cut Illinois Taxes Now website he recently launched. “It’s no wonder we’re ranked as the least tax-friendly state in the nation. It’s time to bring relief to Illinois.”

McSweeney, who recently announced that he will not be seeking re-election in his 52nd District in 2020 and hinted that he may be gearing up for a statewide run for office, has now set his sights on fending off Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s progressive tax proposal.

“I’m leading the fight against the progressive income tax because Illinois taxes are too high,” he told the Lake County Gazette. “The progressive tax is a code phrase for a massive hike.”

“The progressive income tax, the linchpin of the Pritzker plan, wouldn’t hurt the wealthy a lot – they easily can move out of Illinois," he added in an op-ed published for the Illinois News Network. "It would harm the middle class. There is a reason we do not see a tax-rate schedule from those supporting the progressive income tax. They do not want voters to see exactly who the progressive income tax will affect.”