Darrel Hickox, a member of the Jasper County Board, disputed the numbers from state public health officials, contending that “nobody” in Jasper County has died from the coronavirus.
He said that members of the media who report on the pandemic are “socialists, liberals and communists.”
“There has been some coronavirus here, but they was dying anyway,” Hickox said.
…Adding… OneMan points out in comments that using just a 40 percent “herd immunity” (which is on the extreme low end of projections) would result in 57,591 additional deaths [updated number].
The possibility for high school students to play all fall sports is again at a standstill.
On Thursday, a DuPage County judge denied a request for a temporary restraining order against the Illinois High School Association that could have allowed more fall sports to be played.
The class action lawsuit, brought on by a group of student-athletes and their parents, was dismissed Monday morning.
Orland Park has dropped a federal lawsuit against Gov. J.B. Pritzker challenging restrictions put in place in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to court filings.
The village and other plaintiffs in the case had initially filed the complaint in mid-June, and last month told the judge overseeing the case it planned to file an amended lawsuit by this Thursday.
The short document filed Tuesday did not give an explanation why the village decided to voluntarily dismiss the lawsuit.
Three more DeKalb County restaurant owners are joining in on a lawsuit filed against Gov. JB Pritzker and the Illinois Department of Public Health alleging “unfair” regional mitigations due to COVID-19 resurgences.
Karlsbad Tavern & Grill, 413 W. Main St. in Genoa, Uncle Milty’s Pizza Place, 131 W. Market St. in Somonauk, and Rambo’s Bar & Grill, 140 W. Market St. in Somonauk joined seven other businesses owners across the county suing the the governor and IDPH Director Ngozi Ezike, according to their lawyer, Bradley Melzer, of Sycamore-based Cronauer Law Thursday.
The update comes a week after seven business owners announced they’re suing to appeal to public health officials to designate consequences of COVID-19 resurgences on a county by county basis, not regionally. They’re arguing that the metrics used to designate mitigations — including a positivty rate threshold of 8% — is unfairly skewed because of higher rates in Winnebago and surrounding counties.
The real victory for Wilson will be if he can get 5 percent of the vote, which would make his Willie Wilson Party a permanent fixture on Illinois ballots, just as the Green and Libertarian parties have.
Scoring 5+ percent does not give parties permanent ballot spots. The Green and Libertarian parties are on the ballot this year because of the coronavirus and a federal judge’s munificence.
*** UPDATE *** From the candidate…
I recently tested positive for COVID-19. Like so many of my fellow Americans, I am not immune from COVID-19. This is a disease that does not discriminate. Since the beginning of this pandemic I have distributed more than 40 million face masks to first responders, senior citizens, churches and individuals.
While we have taken precautions by wearing face masks and social distancing this disease is highly contagious. I join the ranks of the more than 7 million people in America that have tested positive for Coronavirus.
I am experiencing mild symptoms at this time. However, I am confident that we will beat COVID-19. I have begun the 10-day quarantine and will bounce back from this stronger than before. I am suspending all in person campaigning for the United States Senate the next 10 days while I quarantine. I thank God for great doctors and first responders that care for all of us.
I am praying for all of those impacted by COVID-19 in Illinois and our country at this time. I believe in America and our ability to overcome COVID-19.
Frerichs, who has since walked back his statement, had been scheduled to address his “misleading” comments in a press conference Tuesday, in which he aimed to “reassure senior citizens that the proposal will not tax retirement income.” That appearance was abruptly canceled just 10 minutes before it was set to begin. […]
Speculation swirled over why Frerichs suddenly canceled his Tuesday appearance, but it appears Pritzker may have played a role.
“Earlier today, Gov. Pritzker put the muzzle on Treasurer Frerichs who was minutes away from telling the people of Illinois the truth: Pritzker has a plan to tax retirement income in Illinois and needs the constitutional amendment to get it done” Illinois Republican Party Chairman Tim Schneider said in a statement.
A spokesperson for the governor’s office did not deny Pritzker’s involvement in the decision.
* So, I asked the governor’s office for a response. Here’s Jordan Abudayyeh…
The Governor speaks regularly to allies and stakeholders about policy. The decision on his media availability is ultimately up to the Treasurer.
Heh.
*** UPDATE *** Quentin Fulks told WCIA’s Mark Maxwell the reality about the prospects for a tax on retirement income. “It’s political suicide,” Fulks said (correctly, I would add). “It’s an extremely unpopular topic in Illinois”…
* Background is here if you need it. Republican members of the Special Investigating Committee respond to the postponement of hearings until after the election…
“Special treatment is being given to Speaker Madigan,” [Rep. Tom Demmer] said. “It deprives the people of Illinois and fellow members from learning what conduct the speaker may have engaged in.”
“Chairman Welch’s decision is an utter insult to the people of Illinois,” Mazzochi said. “Welch said he would run a professional investigation. This is how a professional politician covers up the truth. The only thing that seems to matter is protecting Mike Madigan.”
“I thought Chris Welch was a man of integrity,” Wehrli said. “Today Chris Welch decided integrity doesn’t matter. We are being stonewalled. We are being lied to protect one man.”
“Chairman Welch’s decision is an utter insult to the people of Illinois who want and deserve the truth. Chairman Welch has now become Chairman Squelch,” said Rep. Deanne Mazzochi (R-Elmhurst).
Mazzochi, one of three Republicans serving on the investigating committee, said it’s clear that Welch is only interested in protecting Madigan.
“Chris Welch said that he was going to run a professional investigation. This is not how a professional runs an investigation. This is how a political professional covers up the truth and crushes an investigation,” she said. “Chris Welch is a coward. He does not have the resolve to have Mike Madigan come before our committee, and actually answer those questions, blocking the right of voters to know.”
State Rep. Deanne Mazzochi, R-Elmhurst, is also on the committee and said delaying the next hearing to after the election is stonewalling and a disservice to voters.
“We have a Speaker of the House mentioned 72 times is a deferred prosecution agreement,” Mazzochi said. “We are right before an election and Chris Welch doesn’t want to give voters that transparency. That’s despicable.”
“The only thing apparently that matters is protecting Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan,” Mazzochi said. “That’s what matters to Chris Welch: protecting his patronage, protecting his political power, protecting his privilege. … This is stonewalling. This is ostrich-in-the-sand decision-making.”
As the late Rep. Zeke Giorgi used to say about the House: “Best show in Illinois.”
*** UPDATE *** Stay tuned…
MEDIA ADVISORY: Illinois House Republican Leader Jim Durkin Says Time’s Up for Democrats: Demand Answers from Madigan or Call for His Resignation
WHO: Illinois House Republican Leader Jim Durkin (R-Western Springs)
WHAT: Leader Durkin says time’s up for Democrats, either demand answers in ComEd’s nine-year bribery scheme or demand Madigan’s resignation.
The nonpartisan Tax Foundation has released an updated report on Governor J.B. Pritzker’s (D) proposal to permit a graduated-rate income tax in Illinois, which would take effect if voters approve a constitutional amendment on November 3.
If passed, Illinois would have some of the highest individual and corporate income taxes in the country and one of the least competitive overall tax codes, causing the state to decline from 36th to 47th on the State Business Tax Climate Index.
Other findings from the report include:
• Combined corporate income would be taxed at 10.49 percent, the second-highest rate in the nation
• Pass-through business income would be taxed at a top rate of 9.49 percent, the sixth-highest rate in the nation
• The neighboring states of Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, and Missouri have all cut income taxes in recent years, while Illinois may be headed in the opposite direction
• The proposal diverges sharply from ideal—or even typical—income tax structure by:
o Omitting inflation indexing (resulting in “bracket creep”)
o Creating a marriage penalty
o Imposing a recapture provision which subjects the entirety of a taxpayer’s income to the top marginal rate once they reach that bracket
• Should voters permit a graduated-rate income tax, there’s reason to believe that rates may climb even higher and that more taxpayers would be subjected to higher rates
“Were Pritzker’s proposal adopted,” writes Senior Policy Analyst Jared Walczak, “Illinois would trail its peers in just about every aspect of its tax code. If businesses and individuals are leaving the state now, these policies can only make the problem worse.”
It’s not surprising that a group that’s lauded Donald Trump’s corporate tax cuts is against a policy that will fix our broken and unfair tax system that forces hardworking families and struggling small businesses to pay the same tax rate as millionaires and billionaires. It means at least 97% of Illinoisans will receive a tax cut, including more than 95% of small businesses, while generating billions of dollars in additional revenue that can go toward funding our education system and lessening the property tax burden. Currently, thousands of lower-income minority families are fleeing Illinois each year in search of better opportunity, and by passing the Fair Tax we can create a state where they, and all of our families, can thrive.
Illinois does not currently tax retirement income, but there is nothing in the constitution preventing legislators from passing a law to start doing so.
“The myths and lies that are out there about that are obvious of where they’re coming from which are individuals who don’t want to pay their fair share,” [AARP Illinois State Director Bob Gallo] said. “The state could have raised or taxed retirement income all along and they have floated that trial balloon in the past and AARP stopped it in its tracks.”
Gallo said AARP will do the same should anyone instigate discussions about taxing retirement.
He said a graduated tax will help seniors, by helping to get the state on sounder fiscal footing after in recent years having social services that support vulnerable populations get gutted for lack of funding.
Don Todd, president of the Illinois Alliance for Retried Americans said opponents have “spread lies about the fair tax.” He cited an ad featuring a woman who says she is a grandmother who says she won’t be able to afford to live in Illinois if the amendment passes because it will tax her retirement.
Opposition groups have cited comments made by Treasurer Mike Frerichs last summer to justify their ads suggesting retirement income could be taxed if the amendment is approved. Frerichs told a chamber of commerce that a graduated tax would allow taxation of very high pension incomes. However, he has emphasized he does not support taxing retirement income and Pritzker also opposes it.
Carmen Batances of Chicago, a member of Jane Addams Seniors in Action, said the flat tax “disproportionately harms low income communities of color in Illinois.”
“Many of our children are overtaxed with the flat tax,” she said. “I demand the false advertisements made to scare seniors be taken down immediately.”
…Adding… The entire @liz_uihlein account has been deleted. This could be a fake. Taking down the screen shot, etc. for now.
…Adding… Institute of Government and Public Affairs press release…
A new report from IGPA, titled How Often Do Graduated and Flat Rate States Change Their Tax Rates?, looks at what other states have done in the recent past.
“The debate over Illinois’ graduated tax proposal made me wonder, do other states change their personal income tax rates frequently?” said report author and IGPA Senior Scholar David Merriman. “It turns out the answer is no, and that goes for states with graduated-rate structures and flat-rate structures. Changes to personal income tax rates just aren’t that common.”
The report considers the personal income tax systems of all U.S. states and the District of Columbia from 2002 through 2019. Merriman, who also chairs IGPA’s Working Group on the Fiscal Health of Illinois, looked at 153 cases of annual tax rate dynamics in states with flat rates taxes and 592 cases of tax rate dynamics in states with graduated rate taxes.
In each year, Merriman examined whether any state tax rate changed. Out of 153 total cases, there were tax rate changes in 27 cases, or 17.76%, in states with a flat-rate tax. In graduated-rate states, out of 592 total cases, there were tax rate changes in 94 cases, or 15.85%. When rate changes were made, rate cuts were much more common than rate increases in both flat- and graduated-rate systems.
*** UPDATE 1 *** The governor’s campaign folks are going with it…
In a since deleted tweet, Uline President Liz Uihlein announced her opposition to the Fair Tax, calling it a “handout” to her employees. These are the same employees she forced to come into work in a call center at the peak of the Coronavirus pandemic back in March. In the tweet, she expresses concern about having to “subsidize” her employees’ taxes, though her company received up to $18.6 million from the taxpayers of Wisconsin when it moved its facilities there in 2010. The Uihlein family is estimated to be worth $4 billion.
Uihlein’s husband, Richard Uihlein, has donated $100,000 to an organization fighting against the Fair Tax.
This tweet by Uihlein echoes a comment made by another opponent of the Fair Tax a few months ago, when Cindy Neal despicably called low income Illinoisans “takers” and high-income earners “makers” in an interview with WCIA’s Mark Maxwell.
“Opponents of the Fair Tax can try to hide behind millions of dollars in disingenuous ads and false rhetoric, but the truth will always come out,” said Quentin Fulks, Chairman of Vote Yes For Fairness. “Billionaires like Liz Uihlein and Ken Griffin don’t care about our middle and lower-income families. They only care about protecting their bottom line, which is why they’re fighting to stop the Fair Tax, which would make them finally pay their fair share and give a tax cut to 97% of Illinoisans. Time and again, opponents of the Fair Tax have made clear they’re only in it for themselves, and Vote Yes For Fairness is committed to making sure they don’t get away with their deceptive tactics.”
The alleged tweet…
*** UPDATE 2 *** As I suspected…
Rich,
I am writing to you to confirm that the alleged Liz Uihlein tweet that was the subject of your coverage yesterday was a fake account, and that Liz Uihlein has never had a twitter account. After being reported, the fake account has been removed by Twitter for impersonation. We respectfully request that you please remove this coverage of this issue or update it to indicate it was a fake account in no way related to Liz Uihlein.
