Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s ad campaign for his constitutional amendment is disingenuous at best. The ads say only the wealthiest 3% will pay a higher tax, but the tax rates passed in 2019 are just for show, a shell game. The amendment removes all limitations on personal income taxation and lets the legislature raise rates on any income level it chooses. While the legislature can raise the single tax rate at any time right now, raising taxes on everyone at once is much harder to pass. Elected officials fear voter backlash. The governor’s estimated revenue gain doesn’t begin to address the state’s financial shortfall. Even if state spending were frozen at today’s level it would take decades to catch up on just the estimated pension liability. And, they are already promising more spending on education, have reversed the limits on state employee pension spiking and abandoned all pretense of property tax reform.
The state of Illinois will still be hunting for a lot more revenue. You may like to believe they are only after the “big game,” but there aren’t enough millionaires and billionaires to make a dent in Illinois’ financial mess. It’s not the Fair Tax amendment. It’s the Fair Game Tax amendment. Don’t let them paint a target on your wallet. Vote NO.
— Mike Wahls, Spring Grove
A billionaire’s logic
Re: “Griffin drops extra $26.7M against tax rate proposal” (Oct. 5), a billionaire has spent $46.7 million fighting the Fair Tax amendment. Why would he do this? The amendment would not raise taxes on 97% of Illinoisans. But it would allow the state legislature to require rich people to pay tax at a higher rate. Ken Griffin is the richest man in Illinois. He is worth $15.6 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. If his investments generate 10% annually, he has $1.56 billion in annual income potentially subject to the Illinois state income tax. If the constitutional amendment passes, and the tax for billionaires increases by only 1%, this would increase Griffin’s tax burden by $15.6 million. If billionaires paid 3% more, his tax would increase by $46.8 million. So by spending just one year’s worth of future tax, he hopes to kill the Fair Tax amendment and force the rest of Illinoisans to pay the same rate as he does.
— Tom DeCoursey, Oak Park
The cartoon says it all
If a picture is indeed worth a thousand words, then illustrator Scott Stantis (Perspective page, Oct. 4) has again compactly illustrated one of our fears — a proposed constitutional amendment that would replace Illinois’ flat tax with a graduated income tax. Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton and the governor are pictured riding the back of a disgruntled donkey. Sadly — at the very bottom, propping up the donkey — is a little man. My fear is that I can identify only too well with that little man!
— Christine Craven, Evergreen Park
Watching the president
President Donald Trump left his hospital room Sunday to ride around in a motorcade to greet his supporters. Because he has been diagnosed with COVID-19, Trump said he now understands the disease: “I get it.” Does he really? A Walter Reed physician noted that everyone that rode in Trump’s car will now need a 14-day quarantine period, and that Trump needlessly put their health and their lives in danger merely to stage an act of political theater.
We have often heard the saying, “That’s just Trump being Trump.” Quite true. And by “being Trump,” the president has once again reminded us that he puts his own reelection above all else, even the health and well-being of those who serve him most closely.
— Bob Chimis, Elmwood Park
Nothing we haven’t seen
It amuses me a bit to read the articles worrying about what will happen if President Donald Trump is unable to govern. He hasn’t been able to govern for four years.
— Leonard Hall, LaGrange Highlands
Bring back Mitch?
I think all the sports talk show hosts, writers and Bears fans who have given Mitchell Trubisky such a hard time owe him a big apology. After watching the Bears vs. Colts game Sunday, what’s different? That has to be some of the most predictable and boring offensive play calling I have ever seen. You can’t blame the quarterback(s) for not making some of those plays look better than they really are.
— Pete Magadini, South Loop
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