East Central Reporter

State Rep. Brad Halbrook (R-Shelbyville) insists voters’ repudiation of Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s progressive tax plan couldn’t have been stronger.

“In a strong signal that crossed party lines, Illinoisans voted by a margin of 55 to 44 against a constitutional amendment that would have allowed for progressive tax increases,” Halbrook said.

Critics of the plan also point out that voters’ rejection came after the governor spent months selling the plan as a measure that would only mean higher taxes for the state’s wealthiest residents and after he pumped upwards of $50 million of his own money into a campaign aimed at further swaying them. Given the circumstance, Halbrook doesn’t seem surprised to see the governor now lashing out to no end, threatening everything from across-the-board tax hikes to “painful” budget cuts in an effort to counterbalance things as he sees fit.  

Halbrook, who knocked off Democrat Mitchell Esslinger with over 70% of the vote to win a third term in the 107th District, has long been a staunch opponent of the plan the governor has been pushing since being on the campaign trial.

“Democrats seem to have an insatiable attitude for spending money with no controls,” Halbrook told the Chambana Sun. “The only way they’re able to feed that appetite is to go after more of the income of hard-working Illinoisans. We need legislation that keeps people here, not drives more of them out of the state.”  

Halbrook points to an Illinois Policy Institute report that found the state would quickly lose the equivalent of all the 45,000 jobs it gained in 2019 if Pritzker’s progressive tax were to become state law.

“It all adds up to just more of the same and it’s just getting worse,” he added. “We’ve got to institute policies to change the direction of this and we’ve got to do it now.”