Democratic primary front-runner J.B. Pritzker on Wednesday fired back at accusations from Gov. Bruce Rauner that the candidate has avoided paying taxes on his $3 billion fortune by sheltering funds in offshore accounts.
“It’s laughable that Bruce Rauner is complaining about my taxes,” Pritzker said after a Democratic gubernatorial candidates’ forum at the historic Second Presbyterian Church on the South Side. “I released way more information than Bruce Rauner has, and it’s important to recognize that unlike Bruce Rauner, who, yeah, he paid taxes, but you know how he made his money? By cutting jobs. By buying companies and firing people.”
“So if he wants to have this battle, let’s have at it: Where I’m a job creator, he’s a job destroyer,” Pritzker said.
“I think there’s a massive tax avoidance scheme and you can just see by what we do know,” Rauner said Wednesday. “We know that Pritzker, in order to save some real estate taxes in Chicago, ripped toilets out of a building so he could claim that it’s worthless,” he said, referring to a Chicago Sun-Times investigation that found Pritzker saved $230,000 in property tax breaks last year by leaving his Gold Coast mansion in disrepair.
“So with that kind of behavior, you can only imagine what he would do to hide taxes or avoid taxes on hundreds of millions or maybe billions of dollars,” Rauner said. […]
“Any trusts for my benefit that are offshore, I have received no distributions from, and those trusts are only providing charitable contributions,” Pritzker said Wednesday. “That’s all that they do.”
* Meanwhile…
Today, the JB for Governor campaign released a new video, “Not In Charge,” highlighting Bruce Rauner’s shallow attempts to evade responsibility and excuse away his failures as governor.
After causing a 736-day budget crisis, failing to protect Illinois children by mismanaging DCFS, and sneaking a $13 million no-bid consulting contract into a secret Medicaid deal, Bruce Rauner has decided he’s actually “not in charge” of the state he was elected to lead.
“From manufacturing a 736-day budget crisis to gross neglect of DCFS and shirking procurement law with a secret Medicaid deal, this administration is facing fires left and right and Bruce Rauner is fanning the flames,” said Pritzker campaign spokeswoman Jordan Abudayyeh. “Illinoisans deserve answers from their failed governor and Rauner claiming he’s ‘not in charge’ while wiping his hands of responsibility is not going to cut it.”
