Dupage Policy Journal

Republican state House candidate Laura Hois worries the toll Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s extended stay-at-home order is taking on small businesses across the state will have lasting consequences.

“Illinois' safety measures have been helpful but the extended shutdown of ‘non-essential’ businesses and services caused record job losses, massive unemployment and delayed health care,” Hois told the DuPage Policy Journal. “In addition, state lawmakers must help those small business owners that have been hit the hardest by the governor's restrictions and remove the progressive income tax from the Nov. 3 ballot which will only accelerate local job losses.”

Hois is convinced a provision in the state’s newly passed $42 billion budget bill only stands to increase the load on taxpayers by making Illinois the first state in the country to provide Medicaid benefits to undocumented immigrants. As of July 1, 2021, undocumented immigrants over the age of 65 with incomes of $12,670 or less would be eligible to receive Medicaid benefits.

“We must protect people and businesses from uncertainty and high tax hikes,” added Hois, who is now running against incumbent state Rep. Anne Stava-Murray (D-Naperville) in the 81st District. “The progressive tax would hit more than 100,000 small businesses, causing a downward spiral, even more outmigration and lower property values.”

Hois fears not even the state finally moving to Phase 3 of the governor’s five-phase Restore Illinois plan for restarting the economy will be enough to stem the tide.

“The move to Phase 3 is too little, too late as many businesses have been forced to close or operate at a loss,” she said. “For many Illinois business owners, the damage caused by the extended shutdown will cause them to close their doors and move to more business-friendly, less-restrictive states.”