Dupage Policy Journal

Former state Rep. Jeanne Ives, a Republican from Wheaton, now views Illinois as a cautionary tale.

“People need to look at Illinois as an example of how not to proceed in the future,” Ives, who after six years as a lawmaker recently served her last day in Springfield, told Fox News. “The incoming administration, quite frankly, is all Democratic, and the only thing they’re talking about is raising your taxes.”

J.B. Pritzker  takes over in the Governor’s Mansion from Bruce Rauner today, and Ives, who narrowly lost out to Rauner in the Republican primary, fears voters can expect much of the same.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker

In a farewell letter she penned to supporters and constituents on her last day in Springfield, which she posted to her website, she touched on everything from the state’s still-bubbling pension crisis to its sputtering economy and soaring property tax rates.

Ives also warned that more taxes, like the much-bandied-about potential 20- to 30-cent-per-gallon gas tax hike, are not the solution and will only lead to more of the record outmigration that has gripped the state in recent years.

“This is the biggest indictment that the economic policies in Illinois are not working to grow our state naturally,” Ives wrote. “This story does not end well for taxpayers that are on the hook for $50,800 in state debt and unfunded liabilities according to Truth in Accounting,” 

Such growing debt makes Illinois the third-worse state in the country in debt per taxpayer, behind only New Jersey ($61,400) and Connecticut ($53,400), and it represents a $400 individual increase over the year before.  

As Democrats are poised to increase their hold on both chambers of the legislature in Springfield, Ives has also argued for a Republican summit as a way of re-establishing what the party truly stands for.

“Republican Party leadership should meet and openly discuss Rauner's wholesale betrayal and ineptitude,” Ives told the DuPage Policy Journal, adding that with Illinois taxpayers as desperate as they are for change, party leaders should consider the party doing as poorly as it did in November’s general election a personal insult.  

“The ILGOP’s massive inability to win campaigns in the worst-run state in the nation is embarrassing,” she added. “Every aspect of our campaigns should be reassessed.”