Metro East Sun

State Sen. Jason Plummer (R-Edwardsville) is counting the days until the level of change that he’s convinced is desperately needed comes to Springfield.  

“Everybody knows that core public policy in Illinois is costing us jobs and forcing people to leave the state,” Plummer told the Metro East Sun. “And yet, Gov. (J.B.) Pritzker and his allies want to raise taxes, which will only cost us more jobs and send more people packing. The answer to our problem isn’t higher taxes, but sending people to Springfield committed to doing the right thing.”

Plummer is sounding the alarm about the progressive tax plan the governor has been pushing since his days as a candidate. A new report by the Tax Foundation details how the state’s competitive position would dramatically fall if the progressive tax proposal Gov. J.B. Pritzker has been pushing since his days as a candidate becomes law. If the measure passes, researchers report Illinois’ overall ranking would tumble all the way down to 47th in the U.S. for business competitiveness, ahead of only New Jersey, California and New York.

Despite the governor’s continued insistence that the tax will only mean higher rates for the state’s richest residents, Plummer argues the report is yet another indication that the numbers don’t add up.

“The bottom line is Democrats in Springfield love spending money and many of them simply don’t have the courage to make the changes that are needed to reform things,” he said.

Between now and Election Day, Plummer plans to make sure he warns as many voters as he can about what they would be opening themselves up to should the tax get the support it needs for passage.

“Right now, there’s a lot of misinformation coming from the governor and his allies, but the people of Illinois have been tricked and lied to too many times to fall for it once again,” he said. “I think everybody sees through it, sees it as just another attempt to give leaders in Springfield a level of control they’ve already shown us they don’t deserve.”