Lake County Gazette

Illinois House candidate Dan Yost (R-Antioch) shudders at the thought of Illinois' future if the current Democratic leadership gets its way on Election Day.

“I look at this progressive income tax proposal and all it tells me is if it goes through it’s going to be really hard to find a good job in Illinois,” Yost told the Lake County Gazette. “It’s more bad policy, and all that does is increase the drain on those that are still in Illinois and add to our outmigration issues.”

With taxes already confirmed as the top reason why Illinoisans are leaving the state in record numbers, Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s proposed progressive tax would add $3.4 billion to the burden residents earning upward of $250,000. Recent data from the U.S. Census Bureau, however, shows that the demographic leaving the state the fastest is the very same one that Pritzker wants to tax the hardest – earners making above $200,000 are moving away nearly twice the rate of average-income residents.

Illinois House candidate Dan Yost (R-Antioch)

In addition, the state is losing more than twice as many wealthy residents as it is gaining, and over the last decade has lost at least $32 billion in income from those who have left Illinois for greener pastures.

“Voters have to ask themselves, 'Do you trust the people in Springfield to do what they say,' because they haven’t done it to this point,” said Yost, who is running against incumbent state Rep. Joyce Mason (D-Gurnee) in the 61st District. “The $250,000 threshold they’re talking about is going to have to come down to pay the bill. That means as more families and businesses move out, everyone left behind is going to have to pay more. This would be a tax on everyone and it’s not a matter of if but when.”

Yost says he hopes to have the opportunity to help right the ship if voters snd him to Springfield.

“When it comes to raising taxes, right now we’ve got politicians essentially telling voters ‘We’re doing this, now you go figure out what you’re going to cut from your budget to be able to pay what we’re demanding,’” he said. “That’s just not the way it’s supposed to work.”