Lake County Gazette

Jim Walsh is hoping voters don’t take kindly to Democrats potentially revitalizing the previously 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,” the former Republican House candidate 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 no longer have income to pay taxes, property taxes go to waste.”

House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch (D-Hillside) told the Economic Club of Chicago that thought is being given to taking another shot at the tax plan that failed in November.

This time around, Welch said Democrats hope any apprehensions voters might have about added taxes will 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 just over 47% of the 60% support it needed for passage. The measure came up short despite Gov. J.B. Pritzker pumping millions of dollars of his own money into a campaign aimed at turning the bill into law.