Yeah, I’m really wondering what happens if she uses that sort of framing during a legislative committee hearing.
Mark Maxwell:
“Last week we heard from John Bouman, the head of the — formerly with the Shriver Center on Poverty Law — who now heads up a ballot initiative committee trying to persuade voters to ‘Vote Yes for the Fair Tax.’ That’s what their ballot initiative is called. Of course, it refers to the graduated income tax rate structure that would require Illinois to abolish the flat tax we have in place embedded in our Constitution right now. This week, we hear the counter argument from Cindy Neal, who was the chair of the Leadership Council for the NFIB, the National Federation of Independent Business and a business owner in Peoria helping recruit employees and find them jobs in that area. Cindy, it’s good to have you with us.”
Cindy Neal 3:03
Thank you. Thank you, Mark.
Mark Maxwell 3:05
You were at that big press conference that coordinated statewide push a week ago trying to persuade voters of the downside of this. From your vantage point, is there something fundamentally unfair with a graduated income tax rate structure? For example, should the federal government change from where they are now to a flat income tax?
Cindy Neal 3:31
I would love to see the federal government change to a flat income tax. I think that that is what a fair tax is all about. If you pay, if everybody pays the same percentage on your income, I don’t know what could be more fair than that. So if you’re a multimillionaire versus someone who’s at entry level, I think that’s fair and it mathematically is beautiful and perfect.
Mark Maxwell 3:53
It’s a round number. It’s a clean number, but there’s also the reality that the supporters of this graduated income tax — one that has been, you know, in our federal system for decades now — they point out that the people who only make 20 or $30,000 a year, once they pay their taxes and their mortgage and their rent and all that, they live paycheck to paycheck, and they have very little left over. Someone who makes $250,000 a year or a million dollars a year pays their taxes and their mortgage and they have this much bigger chunk of the pie leftover. They have more disposable income. Is that not fair for people who are doing quite well for themselves in this system to kick in a little more to the systems that they take advantage of?
Cindy Neal 4:36
You know, I think that the people that are in those higher income brackets tend to be who I call the makers, and the folks that are in the lower income brackets tend to be what I call the takers. And I do believe that as somebody starting out in life and trying to raise your family, sometimes you need help from different programs and agencies and that’s why we all pay into our tax system to help those folks. But I don’t want to take away from the makers or make them pay more because those are the folks technically, that are reinvesting in businesses, providing employment opportunities for those people that are working their way up the career ladder and are trying to support their families locally.
Mark Maxwell 5:16
I don’t know if Abraham Lincoln would have used some of that same phrase, he often referred to a labor of being worthy of their of the spoils of their labor. You’re calling them takers. These are people who work their way through life.
Cindy Neal 5:29
No, I no… I wouldn’t necessarily I… Takers because they are still needing assistance. So, maybe that’s not the greatest terminology, but it rhymes with makers. So, there are people that make opportunities for others as far as in their business. And normally the folks that are in the higher income brackets, turn around and reinvest that money in new capital equipment, hiring more workers in
Mark Maxwell 5:51
Or their bigger house or their yacht, or a boat.
Cindy Neal 5:56
Sure. As you alluded to Lincoln, why not enjoy the spoils of your labors?
Discuss.
“The so-called low income ‘takers’ are the 97% of Illinoisans, many of whom are our nurses, teachers, grocery store clerks and other essential workers, who have been unfairly carrying the tax burden in our state for far too long. The Fair Tax is our chance to finally set things right,” said Quentin Fulks, Chairman of Vote Yes For Fairness. “Cindy Neal and opponents of the Fair Tax are only out to protect the millionaires and billionaires who benefit from our current broken system: one that enables the wealthy, so-called ‘makers’ to get away without paying their fair share. This attack on low-income Illinoisans coming from someone who two weeks ago claimed to be part of a ‘grassroots’ organization opposing the Fair Tax is not only despicable, it’s pure hypocrisy.”
