* Click here for background if you need it. From Julie Sampson at Citizen Action Illinois…

Illinois needs to replace its current income-tax system, which has long allowed rich people and big corporations to get away with not paying their share. We should amend the constitution to permit a fair tax that requires wealthy people with higher incomes to pay more, while allowing working people with lower incomes to pay less.

A recent “fact check” by the Better Government Association overly complicates Gov. JB Pritzker’s position on this important issue. The governor is taking the lead to pass a fair tax because he understands that for our state to thrive, we need to fund our schools and universities, rebuild our infrastructure and pay our bills—and that wealthy people like himself can and should pay a little more to make that possible.

The BGA suggests there are alternatives to a fair tax amendment that would also raise needed revenue while cutting taxes for low- and middle-income taxpayers. That in itself is only half true: The devil is in the details.

One BGA alternative is expanding the state sales tax to services. Yes, a tax on brokers, lawyers and chartered jets would fall mostly on the rich, but applying sales tax to haircuts and dry-cleaning, not so much. Plus this approach wouldn’t raise significant revenue if, as the BGA suggests, the rate was lowered at the same time.

The BGA also looks at taxing retirement income, something the governor opposes. If such a proposal were limited only to rich retirees, it would likely run afoul of the very constitutional provision the fair tax seeks to amend.

Finally, the BGA raises the prospect of a significant rate increase in the current flat tax, accompanied by increased exemptions and credits to reduce the impact on lower-income taxpayers. That’s just a complicated, backdoor way to achieve the basic goals of adequate revenue, fairly raised. Better to pursue those goals in the most clear and straightforward way possible: By asking voters to change the constitution and permit a fair tax.

That’s not only the best public policy, but good, transparent government, too: It allows voters to democratically decide for themselves whether the state will move to a fair tax system. That may be why more than 7 of 10 Illinoisans backed the fair tax amendment in a Paul Simon Institute poll last year.

* On the other end of the spectrum, here’s Kristen McQueary in the Tribune…

It was the Stamp Act of 1765 that seeded the colonists’ revolution against British government overreach when taxation transitioned from a tool to regulate commerce into a mechanism to raise revenue. Attitudes toward taxation are distinct in the U.S. and particularly in the Midwest. Taxpayers deserve respect.

Conservatives accept and participate in taxation. We understand that taxes are fundamental to paying for education, public safety, infrastructure and services for the most vulnerable.

What we rebel against is the inefficient expenditure of the bounty, the refusal to enforce spending discipline, the corruption woven throughout state and local government that feeds the beast.

There’s no way to argue with a straight face that the Illinois politicians in power now have thoughtfully approached the sacred nature of taxation. Instead, they’ll impose a graduated tax rate without allowing commensurate relief on the constitution’s pension clause. And they’ll present their graduated tax rate schedule as proof of their moral compass.

But the question is: Where was that moral compass all along?