Jim Walsh objects to any idea of bringing back the progressive income tax plan. | File photo
Jim Walsh objects to any idea of bringing back the progressive income tax plan. | File photo
A former Republican House candidate opposes Democratic legislators' possible effort to revitalize the failed progressive tax plan.
"Just the nerve that they would seek to raise taxes when it was their Democratic governor who shut down this state and made it harder for everyone to survive," Jim Walsh told the Lake County Gazette. "Gov. [J.B.] Pritzker and company need to understand when you shut down businesses, the money they have goes away. They can't pay their property taxes, they're workers [who] no longer have [the] income to pay taxes, property taxes go to waste."
House Speaker Emanuel "Chris" Welch (D-Hillside) recently shared that Democrats could soon move to seek a redo on the same progressive tax proposal that failed in November.
This time around, Welch said Democrats are hoping any apprehensions voters had about added taxes would be alleviated by a vow to earmark most of the tax revenue toward a plan to pay down the state's $141 billion debt in unfunded pension liability.
Walsh isn't buying it.
"The people of Illinois have already shown they don't want this," he said. "They need to decrease the amounts they spend instead of finding ways to come back and ask people for more. For them to essentially be telling people, we're going to allow the governor to kill your income but still ask you to give more strikes me as not just insulting but insane."
In November, voters overwhelmingly rejected a similar proposal when the initiative gained more than 47% of the 60% support it needed for passage. The measure came up short despite Pritzker pumping millions of dollars of his own money into a campaign aimed at turning the bill into law.
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