Chicago City Wire

GOP congressional candidate for the 1st District Geno Young is criticizing Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s gas tax now that the Ukrainian conflict has sent oil prices soaring. 

“I think that the gas tax is just another footnote in what has been an administration defined by tyranny and countless attempts at taxing the hard-working men and women of Illinois into the ground," Young told Chicago City Wire. "In 2020, Pritzker encouraged Illinoisans to actually vote on raising their already astronomical taxes. Who does that? After that attempt failed, it became obvious that the governor would try to impose his tax fantasies by hook or by crook (no pun intended).”

Young is running for the 1st Congressional seat that includes parts of Chicago’s southside, South Cook County and Will County. U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Ill.) has represented the district since 1993. He is not running for re-election.

“Pritzker’s gas tax is nothing more than retribution for his failed tax amendment, and yet another cog in the decades-old, taxpayer fleecing machine that is Illinois politics" Young said. "The only option is to vote him out and replace him with a conservative governor who will give the great men and women of this state the representation they so justly deserve after years of single-party rule by crooked Democrats, and the failures of weak Republicans alike.”

Pritzker is admittedly aware of how the state has earned its second spot in the highest gas tax in the country. He previously pushed for a measure that resulted in the gas tax increasing twice. Recently he sang a different tune on the heels of the Ukrainian conflict.

“We are looking at ways we can reduce the gas tax across the state of Illinois, because we recognize, even since I introduced my budget, that war has broken out and the result of that war is that oil prices have gone through the roof,” Pritzker said.

In February, the governor suggested a gas tax freeze but has not acted on the proposal. 

Illinoisans pay 77.96 cents per gallon for taxes alone, which is federal and state taxes combined. Across the border to the west, Missouri pays the second-lowest gas tax. In Illinois, a gallon of gas costs 42 cents more than Missouri due to differing tax policies.