Quincy Reporter

Conservative activist Mecki Kosin painfully identifies with what she insists small business owners all across Illinois are being forced to endure.

“We can’t spend or tax our way out of this,” Kosin told the Quincy Reporter. “Corrupt politicians have imposed tax after tax on the people of this state and it's destroying people, especially during this time of the pandemic.”

Kosin, who owns a travel agency, fears the progressive tax measure now being pushed by Gov. J.B. Pritzker only assures more of the same heartache. 

A new Illinois Policy Institute analysis projects that small businesses across the state soon could be forced to pay as much as a 50.3% marginal income tax rate should the tax appearing on the Nov. 3 ballot in the form of a referendum question garner the support it needs for passage. Ignoring growing warnings from many that the tax stands to handcuff small business owners even more, the governor continues to push his signature proposal as one that will only mean higher tax rates for the state’s most affluent residents.

At around 60% of net job creation, small business owners currently rank as the state’s biggest job creators. But those numbers could soon be on the decline, with researchers finding an increase in the top marginal tax rate could mean a slide in the hiring practices of entrepreneurs and slumping earnings for workers.

“You wonder what they have to be thinking to do something like this when so many small business owners are already in such dire straits,” Kosin added. “I know from my own experience. You’ve got all this happening with the pandemic and it's come right after a minimum wage increase and taxes that never seem to end. You try to keep your head above water, but it’s always something else coming at you.”

Kosin said she hasn’t been able to do much business at her travel agency for months.

“You do what you need to in order to survive, but there’s no question the government shouldn’t be making things harder for you,” she said. 

Kosin said she thinks she’s finally come to realize where the disconnect with Springfield comes in.

“I really don’t think many of the Democrats know how running a business works,” she said. "On top of that, none of them have had to face not getting a paycheck or even taking a cut. They talk about all of us being in this together, but that’s really not the case when you look at things from that angle. None of them have had to undergo a change in life while for others the change has been catastrophic."