Metro East Sun

Mike Babcock fumes what House Speaker Mike Madigan is now pushing strikes him as the last thing Illinois needs.

“He’s already talking about another tax increase and we simply can’t afford it,” Babcock told the Metro East Sun. “People are already stretched to limit and jobs are being lost every day because of the governor’s control and handling of the pandemic. The democrats’ destructive nature is killing us and it’s all because they don’t know how to stop spending.”

With House members slated to meet early this month for the first time in roughly eight months, republican lawmakers worry talk of yet another tax hike will be among the first topics broached by Madigan given the state faces a $4 billion budget shortfall.

Babcock argues the state will continue teetering on the edge as long as Madigan is still calling the shots.

Babcock isn’t alone in rendering his harsh assessment of the veteran lawmaker. To date, at least 19 Democratic lawmakers have come out to insist they have no intentions of supporting his re-election campaign, and he continues to find himself at the center of the ComEd pay-for-play scandal where all the perks are alleged to have been steered to him in exchange for favorable legislation.

“He’s just bad for Illinois and the latest example is talk of this tax increase,” Babcock added. “More people are going to flee, and it’s just an embarrassment for the whole state that they would even being talking about this given how things are right now. Voters don’t want another tax; they showed that with the way they rejected the progressive tax. It just shows you the way too many people in Springfield only care about themselves and nothing else.”