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* UPDATED x2 * WCIA: Bailey voted to raise district’s property tax levy by 81 percent

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* Some background is here if you need it. Mark Maxwell…

Maxwell: You can learn an awful lot about a politician combing through their voting record, especially when what they say on the campaign trail and what they do in office doesn’t quite add up.

Darren Bailey: I got ticked off at the tax increases that came in 2018.

Maxwell: Long before Darren Bailey arrived in Springfield in 2019, he was voting on issues that impacted his neighbor’s budgets,

Bailey: Serving on the school board.

Maxwell: From 1996 to 2012, Clay County’s tax records show every time a property tax hike was on the table in the North Clay school district, Darren Bailey voted for it.

Bailey: I believe that’s a much different scenario. You know, taxing bodies have the ability to levy a certain amount.

Maxwell: When reporters pressed Bailey to explain his tax hikes, he downplayed the incremental cost increases.

Bailey: Many times it was $5 a household. I think the one time at the maximum was $19 a household.

Helen Joan-Cook: It could be a little better, especially for senior citizens.

Maxwell: 87-year-old Helen Joan-Cook lives in Bailey’s hometown on a fixed income.

Joan-Cook: Don’t go too far, when you make your house payment and everything else.

Maxwell: Over 17 years, Bailey voted to raise the property tax levy 13 times, adding up to an 81 percent increase, far higher than the rate of property tax growth in Chicago over that same span.

Joan-Cook: I just think that the taxes should be lowered, really.

Maxwell: What would it mean for you if you had a lower property tax bill?

Joan-Cook: It would mean I’d have a few dollars left over for food when I have to really cut corners.

Maxwell: Bailey blamed his votes on the state’s record low levels of state education funding.

Bailey: Many times in a small school district, state government would short school districts ,they still do it today. Sometimes we got the money a year, two years later, sometimes we didn’t.

Maxwell: On that point, Bailey is right. Illinois spent so little money on education for so long, local school districts often had to make up the difference with property tax increases. But here’s the key, when Bailey finally arrived in Springfield and had the power to do something about it, the House and Senate voted to increase state education funding three times. And three times, Bailey voted against it.

I mean… Ouch.

* Included graph…

* Ms. Joan-Cook…

Right out of central casting.

* From the Internet version…

When Grain Systems, Inc. (GSI) closed its Flora manufacturing site in Bailey’s district in 2019, the newly inaugurated state representative blamed the job losses on “tax hikers” who “keep raising taxes and increasing fees on families and businesses.”

However, long before he was taking votes in the General Assembly, Bailey was voting to extend and raise property tax levies at the North Clay School District.

Tax records at the Clay County Treasurer’s office and the Illinois Department of Revenue show that from 1996 to 2012, Bailey voted to raise the property tax levy by a combined 81%. Chicago Public Schools showed more fiscal restraint, raising its property tax levy by 57.1% over the same period.

That would be almost double the rate of inflation for the time period.

* Meanwhile, Bailey was on WGN Radio’s Lisa Dent show today. Here he is talking about Richard Irvin…

This situation with Irvin is an absolute farce and I think it’s going to fall flat on its face. Irvin is a Democrat in disguise. I think the Republicans across Illinois have already figured that out. And I think he’s probably spent what he’s got.

* On Ken Griffin backing Irvin…

We have absolutely no facts or proof that Ken Griffin is backing this. This is rumor. I’ll believe it when I see it. And and I will wait, I’ll wait expectantly for his call when he realizes that the candidates, I’m the candidate who will get Illinois back on track.

That’s the second time Bailey has made a pitch for Grif money. But just a few weeks ago, he was calling Irvin and the rest of the slate “bought and paid for candidates.” I dunno, maybe pick a lane?

* On the governor’s proposed one-year elimination of the grocery tax and freezing the Motor Fuel Tax for a year…

Well, again, I’ll believe it when I see it. It doesn’t surprise me. We’ve received over $21 billion of COVID relief that the governor has taken and unfortunately refused to get the state fiscally sound again. And yeah, I expect him to toss money to the four winds to people, and I expect him to hope that they forget the devastation and the destruction that Illinois has gone through in the last two years.

Please pardon any transcription errors.

*** UPDATE 1 *** The Irvin/Bourne campaign is pushing this video made by Darren Bailey on February 17, 2021…

If only someone had listened to 2021 Darren Bailey back then and gotten involved to stop 1996-2012 Darren Bailey from raising taxes 13 times.https://t.co/NXfTOhL2hR https://t.co/AFFBl76XsG

— Irvin Bourne HQ (@IrvinBourneHQ) February 1, 2022

* Transcript…

I think many people have become disgusted with politics. I was that way 10 years ago, I checked out. Friends we can’t check out right now because we’ve got to get ourselves educated, we’ve got to get ourselves informed. And then we’ve got to get to work and do something about it.

Get involved locally, the decisions that are made locally, they affect the property taxes that are affecting us so adversely.

As usual with Bailey, when somebody else does it - COVID loans, tax hikes, etc. - it’s bad. When he does it, well, friends, it’s good.

*** UPDATE 2 *** Irvin campaign email…

Friend,

“Over 17 years Bailey voted to raise the property tax levy 13 times, adding up to an 81 percent increase, far higher than the rate of property tax growth in Chicago”

We wanted to make sure you got to see this local news report about Darren Bailey. He may say he’s against tax increases, but as a member of his local school board he voted to increase taxes THIRTEEN TIMES by more than EIGHTY PERCENT!!

Darren Bailey Voted for 81% Property Tax Hikes

But that shouldn’t surprise you about a career politician who’s been in office for 20 years, and now running for his 4th different elected office.

87 year-old Helen Joan Cook, who lives in Bailey’s hometown, says property tax hikes like Bailey’s make it hard to afford food and thinks they should be lowered. If you agree with Helen that property taxes should be lowered, SHARE THIS VIDEO AND HOLD CAREER POLITICIANS ACCOUNTABLE.

posted by Rich Miller
Tuesday, Feb 1, 22 @ 1:05 pm

Comments

== refused to get the state fiscally sound again==

The state is more fiscally sound now than it has been in a long, long time.

==hope that they forget the devastation and the destruction that Illinois has gone through==

We went through devastation and destruction with the guy before Pritzker. If Pritzker is what “devastation and destruction” looks like then I’ll take it.

Comment by Demoralized Tuesday, Feb 1, 22 @ 1:11 pm
Wonder how Bailey will vote on a budget… a budget with a billion dollars of tax relief…

That’ll be fun.

Voting against a billion dollars of tax relief, programs that might help his own region, his district…

… maybe the DNC ads that will promote Bailey will say “it’s for ‘Merica and Freedom he voted no, and against She-Caw-Go”

Irvin? Griffin? What? I’m getting serious whiplash from Bailey trying to woo, then shoo, Griffin. Maybe Griffin isn’t that into you Darren, move on.

I’m tellin’ ya, not enough popcorn, I’m stocking up, I got one storage unit already full.

Comment by Oswego Willy Tuesday, Feb 1, 22 @ 1:13 pm
Good reporting by Mark

Comment by Buford Tuesday, Feb 1, 22 @ 1:18 pm
Someone tell Darren the cycle of “negging and begging” he’s read about on pickup artist boards doesn’t work on billionaire political investors.

Comment by Roadrager Tuesday, Feb 1, 22 @ 1:19 pm
Creating a progressive income tax in Illinois would be the best policy option for increasing K-12 education without shifting too much or more of the burden onto taxpayers like Helen.

Darren Bailey was soundly against a progressive income tax policy which would have positively impacted at least 97% of the taxpayers in his district and could have eventually allowed for a reduction in property tax levies to fund education by shifting the burden of paying for K-12 education on to the wealthiest households in the state.

What’s going on here is Darren Bailey will raise Helen’s taxes because his property tax assessment is different since most of his assets are in agricultural farm land, but he’s not willing to pay a higher income tax on his multimillion dollar agribusiness, even though he has excepted many hundreds of thousands of dollars in federal money to line his pockets.

Darren Bailey is a made a business out of being a professional grifter. His behavior and his hypocrisy deserves more attention so that the people of his district can get a true picture of everything this hamloaf has done to undermine their interests.

Comment by Candy Dogood Tuesday, Feb 1, 22 @ 1:21 pm
i remember a time when things like this actually mattered. when people would read this and be outraged. when a candidate would immediately go into damage control to try to minimize the damage. it just seems different now after the former guy. many politicians are not ashamed of being hypocrites, and many voters don’t hold them accountable. there was a time when this would be embarrassing. darren bailey is part of the shameless new breed.

Comment by moving forward Tuesday, Feb 1, 22 @ 1:22 pm
==I’ll wait expectantly for his call when he realizes==

I keep picturing Bailey, boombox overhead, doing his best Lloyd Dobler impression in the lobby of Citadel LLC.

Comment by Jocko Tuesday, Feb 1, 22 @ 1:25 pm
Man, right now the Republican nomination is an absolute bum fight.

Comment by Arsenal Tuesday, Feb 1, 22 @ 1:25 pm
=== billionaire political investors===

I like the implication of the term investor, but I think it’d be more accurate to think of them as the Owners of the GOP. Investors tend to trust the company to operate itself. The Illinois GOP was bought and sold outright, like the way the Ricketts own the Cubs.

Comment by Candy Dogood Tuesday, Feb 1, 22 @ 1:26 pm
Bailey is a straight up joke, shame on the Lake Villa Township republicans for hosting a meet and greet with him.

Comment by Lake Villa Township Tuesday, Feb 1, 22 @ 1:31 pm
This is such a good hit. If Irvin can condense that into 30 seconds, it’s gold.

Comment by Ducky LaMoore Tuesday, Feb 1, 22 @ 1:31 pm
Sold American.

Comment by Dotnonymous Tuesday, Feb 1, 22 @ 1:32 pm
===billionaire political investors===

In Illinois, Bruce and Diana Rauner bought the brand, then got an additional $50 million they bought both statehouse caucuses.

But… after destruction, no budgets for a whole General Assembly, signing HB40 so Diana Rauner wouldn’t look ridiculous at cocktail parties, and Bruce, while in full costume was denied by Trump… the brand they bought, they let it fully collapse, letting to go to the wolves of racist thinkers, insurrection apologists and supporters… and conspiracy theorists…

See… they were careless people, Bruce and Diana – they smashed up things and programs, a whole state and state party… and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them happy, using folks for their amusement, and let other people clean up the mess they had made.

Now Irvin, who I have made no bones about, I think has done a good job as mayor of Aurora, is a Republican as those like Bailey whine… and then whine to a billionaire to support *him* (Bailey)… who is categorically a divider in the party and an unapologetic Trumpkin… which helps no one… Illinois… Griffin… no one…

So in the end… Rauner did like he always did, gutted the party, took, left nothing, and he and Diana Rauner left it for Griffin, who always had the real money anyway, to salvage the wreckage.

Think on that… a billionaire saving the party… but the beliefs could ruin the state… but also save a chance for a two party democracy in Illinois too?

Great. Now I need more popcorn.

Comment by Oswego Willy Tuesday, Feb 1, 22 @ 1:37 pm
The best part about Bailey running is that we wont have to hear from him afterwards.

Comment by ;) Tuesday, Feb 1, 22 @ 1:37 pm
=== This is such a good hit. If Irvin can condense that into 30 seconds, it’s gold.===

That Crew has the cash, ability, and the time…

I’ll be surprised if it’s not in play at some point.

Comment by Oswego Willy Tuesday, Feb 1, 22 @ 1:39 pm
“…I expect him to hope that they forget the devastation and the destruction that Illinois has gone through in the last two years.”

Hmmm… selective memory Bailey strikes again. The Rauner Years were hardly wine and roses. If he were to get Griffin bucks, what makes him think that those are without strings??? The puppeteer gets the tips, not the puppet.

Comment by Anon221 Tuesday, Feb 1, 22 @ 1:47 pm
It’s a great hit, but I don’t know why Irvin would be behind it. Keeping the primary field crowded with hard right types like Bailey is Irvin’s best bet in the primary, unless he thinks he can clear the field entirely (of candidates who have running mates).

Comment by SAP Tuesday, Feb 1, 22 @ 2:02 pm
Awesome piece by Maxwell. Bailey & DeVore really do deserve each other.

Comment by Lt Guv Tuesday, Feb 1, 22 @ 2:02 pm
Props to Oswego Willy for channeling Nick Carraway and The Great Gatsby, “I couldn’t forgive him or like him, but I saw that what he had done was, to him, entirely justified. It was all very careless and confused. They were careless people, Tom and Daisy—they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made…”

Comment by someonehastosayit Tuesday, Feb 1, 22 @ 2:04 pm
Bailey = RINO

Comment by B Team Tuesday, Feb 1, 22 @ 2:06 pm
It’s certainly a good hit and aimed at exactly the right kind of ideologue. I hope it is part of a productive conversation about why school districts have had to increase property taxes and won’t just lead to further reaction against school districts

Comment by SWIL_Voter Tuesday, Feb 1, 22 @ 2:13 pm
===wolves of racist thinkers, insurrection apologists and supporters… and conspiracy theorists===

When it started to become clear that the GOP has spent decades being little better than a facade the people who benefit the most from the GOP mantel are people seeking to add legitimacy to their cause. I like to believe that the GOP that my grandparents belonged to was different than the GOP that exists today, but they’ve been relying on the vaulted Southern Strategy since the 1960s.

The wolves were invited and people like my grandparents were either racist or didn’t find the racism objectionable and that’s something I have to reconcile with the people I knew because it’s even harder to believe that they would have been that naive.

It seems harsh to put all of that on Bruce and Diana.

Comment by Candy Dogood Tuesday, Feb 1, 22 @ 2:19 pm
Another bad day for Bailey.

Stick to the message Chicago bad, stealing our money, I was forced to because of Chicago politicians not funding our schools, my people were forced to pay for them so we had to pay more to cover them. When I’m elected the rest of Illinois isn’t going to continue to keep paying for Chicago and all of its reckless spending and out of control violence.

That’s the message he needs to hit everyday, twice on Sundays. Is it true? That’s not the point. To win Southern, Western and Northern Illinois, anywhere outside Chicago and the collars, that needs to be his play. Which GOP candidate is going to say he’s lying and that Chicago pays for them?

The data showed those 3 areas account for over 50% of GOP primary voters. It’s a 5 person, race only need about 35+% for the win. Bailey needs to do a bit in the collars but focus mostly traveling to every breakfast, lunch and dinner he can get to throughout the state. Maybe start having his wife hit the trail separately as well.

Comment by Tomorrow is yesterday Tuesday, Feb 1, 22 @ 2:21 pm
===It seems harsh to put all of that on Bruce and Diana.===

Tell that to the shuddered social services, the nearly closed state universities… tell that… to those who’s businesses were never paid during the hostage taking.

You want a look at the macro, the micro is quite clear what Bruce and Diana Rauner did, why they did it, the fallout to it here in Illinois, and what the battle is here in Illinois now *because* Bruce and Diana Rauner bought a brand, let it collapse, used what they could after, and moved on.

Once Bruce showed up in a costume to appease a cult leader and was rebuffed, that’s when the brand he bought collapsed.

It is on him. Oh them. Both of them. The $50 million used to buy the caucuses… then abandoned the whole thing…

Bailey complaining about a billionaire while trying to woo a millionaire kind of exactly pointing why it is as it is.

Comment by Oswego Willy Tuesday, Feb 1, 22 @ 2:37 pm
There are “socialists” everywhere. Some are just brazenly hypocritical about it.

This looks like a flip the script situation, where Irvin or Sullivan could counter being attacked as Democratic plants by going after Bailey for being a multiple tax-hiking “socialist.”

Comment by Grandson of Man Tuesday, Feb 1, 22 @ 2:43 pm
= The best part about Bailey running is that we wont have to hear from him afterwards. =

I wouldn’t be so sure about that. Losing doesn’t mean he’ll stop running his mouth - or his Twitter account.

Comment by JoanP Tuesday, Feb 1, 22 @ 2:44 pm
Did not see the Irvin/Bourne tweet before commenting previously, but that’s a fast response. That’s a working campaign operation. This might get real fun.

Comment by Grandson of Man Tuesday, Feb 1, 22 @ 2:54 pm
If only Jason Plummer was the Guv candidate, we could have have Jason/Bourne HQ tweeting at us. Sigh.

Comment by Biker Tuesday, Feb 1, 22 @ 3:07 pm
Since I took the trouble of looking it up on that super slow website, maybe I can save somebody some time. Bourne voted for the school funding bills. Good issue for them

Comment by SWIL_Voter Tuesday, Feb 1, 22 @ 3:08 pm
I’m not so sure that this will harm Bailey as much as some think. He’s gotten a lot of mileage out of being a victim and he is the mouthpiece for a lot of people’s grievances. Bailey knows how to tap into a level of anger and resentment that’s not easily rebutted by facts. We saw how much could be ignored through several years of that in Washington.

Comment by Pundent Tuesday, Feb 1, 22 @ 3:24 pm
I guess Mark’s off the Holiday card list, sorry I meant Xmas card list, fixing again Christmas card list

Comment by Snarkie From Schaumburg Tuesday, Feb 1, 22 @ 3:25 pm
–“Over 17 years Bailey voted to raise the property tax levy 13 times, adding up to an 81 percent increase, far higher than the rate of property tax growth in Chicago”–

This is why nearly 25 years ago that MJM’s candidate recruitment program sought to avoid recruiting local elected officials (school board, park district, village boards, etc) that had long take hike voting records.

Karina Villa, who was a school board vp, broke that mold after HDems started latching onto more visceral national issues.

Comment by King Louis XVI Tuesday, Feb 1, 22 @ 4:10 pm
When the bank owns your house, you can’t freeze taxes?

Comment by Rabid Tuesday, Feb 1, 22 @ 4:11 pm
The Bailey run should be essentially over, but don’t underestimate the ability for those who see a conspiracy around every corner to create an alternate reality.

Comment by Lincoln Lad Tuesday, Feb 1, 22 @ 4:26 pm
==If only Jason Plummer was the Guv candidate, we could have have Jason/Bourne HQ tweeting at us.==

You win the Internetz today.

Comment by Osborne Smith III Tuesday, Feb 1, 22 @ 4:50 pm
Irvin has been either mayor or alderman for going on 15 years, and Aurora raised its property tax levy most of those years. The city website only goes back to 2013, but Irvin voted for levy increases in 2013, 2014, 2016, while voting against it in 2015. Since becoming mayor, they’ve raised the levy some years but not others, with no evidence Irvin opposed the increase in those years. Not sure why Irvin is so giddy to attack Bailey for something he did too.

Comment by vern Tuesday, Feb 1, 22 @ 5:09 pm
Well well well, if it isn’t the consequences of my actions

Comment by Suburban Mom Tuesday, Feb 1, 22 @ 5:22 pm
=Many times in a small school district, state government would short school districts ,they still do it today. Sometimes we got the money a year, two years later, sometimes we didn’t.=

That was happening to everyone, not just rural districts. The big hit was transportation. So he wants you to believe only small rural districts were getting stiffed, but it was everyone.

=because his property tax assessment is different since most of his assets are in agricultural farm land=

Your main point is correct, and farmland was undervalued for ever, but that is gradually changing.In that he is more similar to Cook county, which is funny.

Comment by JS Mill Tuesday, Feb 1, 22 @ 7:45 pm
- someonehastosayit -

(Hashtag) Easter Egg

:)

Comment by Oswego Willy Tuesday, Feb 1, 22 @ 8:01 pm
I don’t understand Darren Bailey picking a fight with Mark Maxwell. I mean: I understand it because I have watched it happen, I just don’t understand what he was thinking at the time.

Comment by Yellow Dog Democrat Tuesday, Feb 1, 22 @ 9:06 pm
- YDD -

Maybe… this?

———————

Willard: They told me that you had gone totally insane, and that your methods were unsound.

Kurtz: Are my methods unsound?

Willard: I don’t see any method at all, sir.

———————

Maybe that?

Comment by Oswego Willy Tuesday, Feb 1, 22 @ 9:20 pm
=Maybe that?=

I have to say, with respect, you have outdone yourself here. That is top shelf and the perfect characterization. I didn’t get the first couple, but then the epiphany struck with this last one. Well done.

Comment by JS Mill Wednesday, Feb 2, 22 @ 8:32 am
- JS Mill -

Thanks. Appreciate that. Too kind. Be well.

Comment by Oswego Willy Wednesday, Feb 2, 22 @ 8:59 am