Chicago City Wire

Northwest Side GOP Club Vice President Ammie Kessem’s reasons for wanting to see Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s progressive tax proposal fall flat just became a bit more personal.

“My own mother made a gut-wrenching decision; that decision was whether to move out of Illinois and away from her children and grandchildren and move to a place where her freedoms and liberties are not continually being ripped out from under her with higher taxes at all levels and categories coupled with government overreach being forced upon her personal day-to-day lifestyle,” Kessem said. “She will be closing on her new property out of state in just a few days.”

Even before now, Kessem had no use for the tax the governor continues to insist will only mean higher rates for the state’s most affluent residents.

“The progressive income tax might look good on paper, but if this type of tax reform goes into law Illinoisans are going to face even more burdens than they already have,” she told Chicago City Wire.

Kessem is warning voters not to be fooled by Pritzker’s enthusiasm for the tax, including recently pumping more than $51 million of his own money into a ballot initiative committee working to help get the tax over the finish line on Election Day when it appears on the ballot in the form of a constitutional amendment.  

“You can do your part to thwart even further damage in Illinois by voting no on the corruption income tax referendum,” she said. “Voters would be absolutely foolish to think that the Democrat-controlled legislature won’t continue to dig deeper and deeper into their pockets. As we have seen in the past few decades, the Democrat-controlled legislature never has scaled back on budgets.”