Quincy Reporter

With the holiday shopping season now commencing in earnest, state Sen. Jil Tracy (R-Quincy) is making Illinois residents aware of the latest tax hike enacted under Gov. J.B. Pritzker.

“Illinoisans who use the Internet for their holiday shopping will notice a new spike in sales tax rates from online retailers,” Tracy wrote in a recent Senate Week in Review post to her website. “A change in state law now requires online retailers to charge the sales tax rate collected in the municipality where the shopper lives. For Chicagoans, this tax rate for online purchases is 10.25%. Prior to this year, online retailers like Amazon only had to charge the 6.25% state sales tax. Not too long ago, they were not required to charge sales taxes at all if they didn’t have a physical brick-and-mortar presence in the state.”

With all the changes, Tracy said the state is reaping the benefits, with sales tax revenue up 17% from January to September this year compared to the same period in 2019, prior to the pandemic.

“The new online sales tax legislation is just one of 24 tax and fee hikes that have been put in place since Gov. Pritzker took office,” she said. “Through these increases, a combined $5.2 billion more has been spent by Illinois consumers.”

Tracy has also recently spent time pointing to other examples of how she argues the governor’s actions have only served to make things harder for many residents, charging that his approach to dealing with the pandemic has  proven to be all wrong for the state.

“Gov. Pritzker issued more executive orders last week, continuing his year-and-a-half long streak of unilaterally controlling the state’s response to COVID-19,” she said in an earlier Week in Review release posted to Facebook. “As of Sept. 23, the governor has issued more than 90 executive orders.”

Tracy pointed out the way one of Pritzker’s vaccination mandates for congregate workers was instituted before negotiating with the employees, forcing the governor to include a delay for the requirement in one of his executive orders.

“Gov. Pritzker has been forced to extend the deadline for state employees in congregate facilities to be vaccinated,” she said. “The delay is due to the fact that the Governor had issued the vaccination requirement before negotiating a solution with unions representing the workers, a necessary step before implementing that type of mandate.”

The Peoria Standard reports Tracy also points to the vaccine-or-test mandate for schools Pritzker put in place before Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) officials had released guidance on the policy as another example.

Tracy has also recently spoken out against Democrats' push to repeal Illinois' Parental Notification of Abortion Act, the Quincy Reporter reports.

Despite objections from Tracy and fellow Republicans, the House, with its Democratic majority on Oct. 27 gave final approval on a measure that would no longer require that parents or guardians of an under-18 child be notified when she seeks an abortion. The Illinois House vote of 62 to 51 is enough to send the law to Pritzker's desk, ABC7 Chicago reported, but because it didn't get a 3/5 majority or 71 votes, the repealed law wouldn't go into effect until June 1, 2022.

Tracy also took exception to Democratic lawmakers' methods in advancing the measure in Springfield.

“As we said earlier, why do bills have to be dropped in the middle of veto session when they're not being properly vetted and even allowed time to read them and let the public know what's going on?” she asked.

The lawmaker points to what she sees as a glaring inconsistency in how the measure would treat minors in matters of health.

“Most parents had to write a note for any type of medication to be given to their child at school, even if it’s just an aspirin or Tylenol,” she said. “If we take such care in situations like that, how can we justify doing away with parental notification of abortions? I’m not talking about authorization or consent. It is notification. It’s letting the parents know their child is going to be undergoing a major medical procedure so that the parents can be aware and help provide that child with a mental and physical health care that they desperately need in such a critical time.”

Tracy has also been pushing what she views as true ethics reform in Springfield, according to the Peoria Standard.

“This year the Senate Republicans introduced more than a dozen bills aimed at curbing corruption in Illinois and holding legislators accountable for their actions,” Tracy stated at a news conference. “It is unfortunate that we seem to be meeting opposition every step of the way in our effort to reform the process.”

Republicans' latest push comes in the wake of Legislative Inspector General (LIG) Carol Pope deciding to step down from her post, citing what she deemed to be a lack of commitment in Springfield to the kinds of changes she argues are clearly needed.

Pope announced her resignation would be effective Dec. 15.