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Pritzker refuses yet again to talk details about his tax plan

Thursday, Apr 5, 2018 - Posted by Rich Miller

Democratic candidate for Illinois Governor, J.B. Pritzker, is promoting his plan for a progressive or graduated income tax, but is declining to provide specifics.

When questioned Wednesday by WJBC’s Sam Wood, Pritzker was vague about taxes during the two years he says it will take to amend the state constitution, which is required to enact a progressive tax that forces the wealthy to pay more.

Pritzker pledges to reduce the tax burden on the middle class.

“Lowering the tax burden is the goal by lowering the tax rate that they might pay on income taxes, and also, very importantly, lowering local property taxes, which are so regressive,” Pritzker said.

* Raw audio…

* Aside from his refusal to lay out his tax rates or say which income levels will pay higher rates, the other problem with Pritzker’s argument about making the wealthy pay more state taxes is this…

The returns also showed that in 2014, [JB Pritzker and his spouse] paid no state income taxes after taking nearly $150,000 in tax credits for research and development, as well as for property taxes and educational expenses.

Even 10 percent of nothing is still nothing for someone with a smart CPA.

…Adding… From the interview…

If we create jobs, we’re gonna add revenue to the coffers of the state of Illinois because we’re gonna bring new jobs online so people will pay taxes. Businesses will grow, they’ll pay taxes. That’s a great way to do, to bring revenue into the state without raising taxes at all. And that would be my goal, of course. You know, nobody wants to raise taxes.

Um, OK. He’s said time and time again that he’ll pay for his proposals by raising taxes.

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Ballyhooed Dem ekes out a win over “stealth” candidate

Thursday, Apr 5, 2018 - Posted by Rich Miller

* This is quite remarkable…

Two weeks after voters went to the polls, one of two Democrats vying to take on Republican Cook County Board Commissioner Timothy Schneider in November has declared victory in the primary, after counting of the last provisional ballots showed he was 12 votes ahead.

Barring any last-minute hitches before the county election results are certified Tuesday, Kevin Morrison, of Elk Grove Village, will advance to face Schneider, chairman of the state GOP and an ally of Gov. Bruce Rauner, in the fall.

Democrats figure Schneider, a third-term commissioner from Bartlett, could be vulnerable. Hillary Clinton won 57 percent of the vote in his northwest suburban district in 2016, compared with 37 percent for President Donald Trump.

“The status quo isn’t working for our families,” Morrison said in his statement declaring victory in the primary.

I don’t mean that Morrison’s win was remarkable. Just the opposite. The guy had support from several unions and some prominent locals…

Morrison won endorsements from Elk Grove Township Democratic Committeeman Ted Mason, Wheeling Township Democratic Committeeman Mark Walker and U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-9th).

State Central committeeman Mike Cudzik also backed him.

* Morrison was up against an opponent who produced kinda weird campaign videos like this one…

Don’t laugh, Ravi Raju almost won, even though the Trib says he “only raised $3,000 and ran something of a stealth candidacy.”

Raju skipped editorial board endorsement sessions. Just 232 people “liked” his campaign Facebook page. His campaign website’s “blog” had just one brief post (from April of last year, no less).

There was this…

Raju had the backing of Palatine Township Democratic Committeeman Matt Flamm, who state campaign disclosures show was his campaign fundraising committee chairman.

If the Democrats want to beat Schneider, they’re gonna have to first figure out what went so horribly wrong with Morrison.

…Adding… It turns out that Raju has taken GOP primary ballots the last two cycles…

And yet he still almost won. Morrison was obviously over-confident. A mailer or two highlighting this voting record would’ve sufficed. Oops.

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Pritzker hit for tax comments

Thursday, Apr 5, 2018 - Posted by Rich Miller

* Press release…

Shot-Chaser: Pritzker Says People Aren’t Leaving Illinois Because of Decades of Tax Hikes

The Chicago Tribune recently published an editorial featuring hardworking Illinois families that have left the state due to high taxes. But this is a reality that seems completely lost on JB Pritzker.

SHOT

“James Heard wrote a letter to Gov. Bruce Rauner when they moved, explaining why they had to go. Their property taxes had risen from about $1,600 when they bought their five-bedroom Homer Glen home in 1996 to nearly $10,000 by the time they left. They sold their house for $325,000 and made a little money. But the value of the home did not keep pace with the property taxes owed.

‘I was paying more than my fair share,’ he said. ‘I don’t see any way out (for Illinois). People making $100,000 or more are just going to leave. They’re all looking at northwest Indiana to get away from the taxes.’

Heard voted for Rauner in 2014 and thought the new governor might be able to change the tax-and-spend culture of Springfield. But the Democrats blocked Rauner’s agenda. Heard places the blame ’square on the shoulder of (House Speaker) Michael Madigan and the powerful interests of Chicago. The state just appears to be getting more and more liberal. They’re going to be running out of people to take things from.’”

CHASER

Pritzker shows just how out of touch he is with Illinois families, says “people aren’t leaving Illinois because they’re overtaxed.”

* The accompanying video…

* I subscribe to the Rauner campaign’s YouTube page, so I was notified when that video popped up on Monday. I sent the link to the Pritzker campaign for comment, and they said there was more context.

Here’s the full exchange…

* Transcript…

Maze: Go ahead, Charles.

Charles: How do you… I mean Governor Rauner says that he wants to incentivize businesses to stay in Illinois, keep their jobs here and keep Illinoisans from leaving the state. What are you going to do to specifically incentivize businesses statewide to get them to stay here?

JB: People are not leaving because they’re getting overtaxed. People are leaving this state because there’s complete uncertainty about the future of our state. So the biggest challenge is, Bruce Rauner can say everything he wants, but he’s created this complete uncertainty. Who wants to invest in a business or a factory…

Charles: But there was uncertainty before he came into office…

JB: No, I’m telling you right now he’s driven it off a cliff. What business wants to invest $40 million to build a factory in the state of Illinois when they don’t know if we’re gonna have a budget or be able to pay for education?

Maze: Speaking of that factory though. Illinois has the highest black unemployment in the country.

JB: It does.

Maze: In the country!

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Rauner accused of “blatant cover up”

Thursday, Apr 5, 2018 - Posted by Rich Miller

* Pritzker campaign…

While Bruce Rauner redacts and refuses to release emails that shed light on why it took “so long” to “take action” on the 2015 Legionnaires’ outbreak, a new report uncovers some of what Rauner was hiding.

One missing email chain was about correspondence from a son who “condemned the state for withholding information about Legionnaires’ at the home as his father lay dying.” But those emails were not among the 442 printed emails delivered to lawmakers jumbled and out of order. “It looks like they literally just threw them up in the air,” Senator Tom Cullerton told WBEZ.

“This is a blatant cover up and our Veterans and their families deserve the truth,” said Pritzker campaign spokeswoman Jordan Abudayyeh. “From redacting vital information to jumbling public records, Bruce Rauner is more concerned with his public image than the wellbeing of Illinois Veterans. While legislators investigate his fatal mismanagement, this failed governor is trying to throw them off instead of coming up with concrete solutions to end the Legionnaires’ crisis.”

* The governor’s office defended the redactions yesterday, saying the e-mails are mainly “drafts” and pointing to this specific exemption in state statute…

Preliminary drafts, notes, recommendations, memoranda and other records in which opinions are expressed, or policies or actions are formulated

* Even so, the WBEZ story is an interesting read…

A WBEZ analysis of nearly 450 pages of emails found that government lawyers blacked out portions of more than half the documents recently turned over to a legislative panel investigating the state’s inability to contain the waterborne illness. Repeated outbreaks at the home since 2015 have contributed to the deaths of 13 residents and sickened dozens more.

The way the government lawyers wielded their figurative black markers to redact hundreds of Legionnaires’-related emails has some lawmakers fuming and government transparency advocates crying foul.

WBEZ had previously obtained some Legionnaires’-related emails from the public health department in Adams County, where the Quincy home is located. The Rauner administration later handed over some of those same emails to the legislative committee investigating the outbreaks — with significantly more redactions.

By cross-checking the two groups of documents, it’s possible to see some of what Rauner’s office didn’t want lawmakers to see.

In some cases, lawmakers received documents so heavily redacted that they were virtually useless. Furthermore, lawmakers simply did not receive some emails written by administration officials that WBEZ knows to exist.

Taken individually (except for the Tom Cullerton thing), I’m not sure the article makes a good case that the administration’s black-outs were particularly egregious. The overall impression, however, is certainly not good.

* Back to the Pritzker campaign…

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