Quincy Reporter

Quincy activist Mecki Kosin is warning Illinois voters the approval of Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s progressive income tax proposal will only be the start of more political destruction for the state.

“He’s going to raise taxes on everyone and passage of this legislation sets the precedent for him to be able to do so anytime he and Democrats want to,” Kosin told the Quincy Reporter. “I think he sees the handwriting on the wall in terms of the federal government not be willing to bail out the state and now he’s pushing this even harder.”

The Chicago Tribune reports the governor recently pumped more than $51 million into a ballot initiative committee working to push the progressive tax proposal he’s been pushing since his days as a candidate across the finish line come November. Vote Yes to Fairness, a committee headed by the governor’s former deputy campaign manager, recently received the funds and is already at work supporting a ballot measure that would convert the current flat tax to a progressive tax system.

In addition to being the only individual to contribute more than $250, Pritzker’s latest gift comes on a top of an earlier donation of $5 million.

Kosin said she isn’t buying the governor’s insistence that the tax will make for a more equitable system and only mean higher rates for the state’s most affluent residents.

“We already have a fair system in place with the flat tax, which is based on income,” she said. “I think that’s about as fair as it gets.”

Kosin argues it would only be a matter of time before just about every resident would be facing the prospect of higher taxes.

“The rich will be gone – long gone – and those that remain will be left to carry the burden,” she said. “Here in Illinois, the middle class is already what serves as the rich and when it comes to this tax they’re the ones that will be left with the heavy lifting.”