Dupage Policy Journal

Former Republican House candidate and Burr Ridge Mayor Mickey Straub views Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s dogged pursuit of the progressive tax proposal he first introduced while still a candidate as just part of Democrats' misguided attempt at solidifying their power.

“I read recently what they’re trying to do is crush the middle class and make more voters dependent on government in order to increase their voter base,” Straub told the Will County Gazette. “You make the middle class smaller and the number of people in poverty greater with the rich being an easy target for them to attack.”

Recent analysis by the Illinois Policy Institute finds that if Pritzker’s progressive tax were to become law it would easily wipe out all the state’s employment gains of 2019, costing the state some 56,366 jobs in total. On a per-capita basis adjusted to take into account the number of employed residents, DuPage County would lose 7,700 jobs.

While Pritzker has continued to insist the tax will only mean higher rates for the state’s wealthiest residents, Straub counters it’s easy to see how off-base that prediction could truly be.

“This will all come back to the middle class,” he said. “You ask yourself why. I mean Illinois is already an evacuation state and a tax like this will only mean more people leaving at an even faster rate than before.”

With the state having already lost population in each of the last six years, voters are set to get their say on the progressive tax later this fall when they go to the polls to decide whether the state constitution should be amended to allow lawmakers the authority to enact a progressive tax system to replace the current flat tax.

Straub said he’s doing all he can to make the decision an easy one for as many people as he can.

“We need to reject this,” he said. “Beyond that, I’m telling people things won’t really change unless enough of us finally wake up and wrest control of this state way from the Democrats.”