There are lots of stories in this election, some of which have not yet been fully told. But there is one thing we know in Illinois: Illinois voters don’t trust Springfield. Governor Pritzker spent millions supporting an amendment to the Illinois constitution allowing a progressive income tax. The supporters said, over and over, it would only affect the rich, just the top 3%. But they failed.
What is interesting is why they failed. The opponents of the amendment did not argue the merits of a flat tax versus a graduated tax. Rather, they just asked Illinoisans whether they could trust the politicians in Springfield to limit the “Fair Tax” to just the top 3%, as they promised.
“With state finances hanging in the balance, the ballot proposition was viewed as a measure of Illinoisans' trust and faith in their current government after decades of corruption and an inability to adequately budget.”
The voters’ answer was clear. They don’t trust Illinois politicians to keep their word and, perhaps more importantly, to properly use the money they are given.
In a review of On Corruption in America by Sarah Chayes, The Economist said that, according to prosecutors, the Supreme Court’s unanimous ruling in the 2016 Bob McDonnell case,1 “has made it almost impossible to convict American politicians of corruption.” Except in Illinois. State legislators. City council members. Getting convicted. Going to jail. With more under indictment.
As I said before, and what is even clearer today with the defeat of the Fair Tax: What we need in Springfield is not a new tax. It’s new politicians.
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1 See here for more on this case.
UPDATE (11/4/20 1:35 pm): Corrected a mistake in the first paragraph. It should have been "Governor Pritzker spent millions", not "billions".
FURTHER UPDATE (11/4/20 9:35 pm): A shorter version of this post was printed in the "Voice of the People" in the Chicago Tribune here.
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