On Nov. 6, Illinois voters made the decision to elect J.B. Pritzker as democratic governor of Illinois. Pritzker represents a hopeful future of free education, universal healthcare, and sanctuary state status for illegal immigrants, but reality begs to shred these plans into pieces.
According to Illinois Policy Institute, Pritzker’s agenda is estimated to add $18 billion more to Illinois spending. In order spend $18 billion more, income tax would have to be doubled from the current rate of 4.95 percent. The flat tax of Illinois is already forcing large amounts of families out of the state, so we can expect double, maybe even triple the amount of people migrating out of Illinois under Pritzker’s plan of taxation.
Socialist government programs ensuring free and easy life simply don’t work. It is why the United States is capitalist. The world saw countries like Nicaragua and Venezuela experiment with socialism, but the countries failed. Pritzker and so many other Democratic Socialist’s plans are simply the same concept but rebranded in a way to appeal to younger generations and economic hopefuls.
Pritzker’s communication to voters has been odd as well. He promises tax relief, yet also wishes to install a progressive tax system in the state. To give insight, the top one percent will be paying more. How far does the top one percent reach, though?
An income of $100,000 in Minnesota’s progressive tax system is taxed $1000 more than the flat tax here in Illinois. This is an idea of what Pritzker wants to do to the taxation of Illinois. It’s hard to understand how to he wants to construct the proposed system when, according to Chicago Tribune, he has a record of not paying taxes, and in the most corrupt of cases having the citizens pay for his taxes.
The inspector general of Illinois reported Pritzker took part in a scheme to defraud Cook County taxpayers by ripping toilets out of his mansions to label them as uninhabitable. The entire process corruptly paid off for Pritzker in the long run because he gained $331,000 in tax breaks. Toilets aren’t the only scandal surrounding him.
Pritzker’s family utilized offshore banking to ensure they didn’t pay taxes on their colossal fortune. He claims they were only for charity, but even for such a cause, taxpayers were paying for money Pritzker withdrew from those banks into the United States. He exploited the system much like the corporate Illinois he wants to tax more. On the campaign trail, where his principles gained traction, ten African-American workers for Pritzker came out against him.
A lawsuit of racial discrimination by Pritzker’s own campaigners was made against his campaign. They accused the campaign of rounding up African-American and Latino workers into minority neighborhoods and making them work in dangerous locations. For whom he has claimed to have represented on the campaign, this revelation is disturbing.
All these troubling facts contribute to a systematic downfall of Illinois. Pritzker is at the head and will bring record numbers of spending and taxation to Illinois. Come Jan. 20, 2019, people will begin to see the cons of a Pritzker governorship.