They were about 12 minutes into the most recent gubernatorial debate last Wednesday when ABC Seven political reporter Craig Wall asked J.B. Pritzker the tax-rate question.
Don’t feel bad, Craig—you’re not alone. Dozens of reporters have unsuccessfully asked Pritzker a variation on your question for the better part of the last year.
In 2011, then-governor Pat Quinn and the Illinois General Assembly temporarily raised the state income tax rate to 4.95 percent. In 2015, Rauner let it fall back to 3.75, then resisted any attempt to raise it even as the state debt rose by the billions.
In contrast, Pritzker’s more or less wedded to the reality that someone has to pay for government. And so he’s pushing for a progressive tax with a graduated rate. He’s proposing to hike the rates on the state’s wealthiest residents—like himself and Rauner—so he can cut them for people who make less.
Reagan won in a landslide.
So I don’t blame Pritzker for ducking the tax-rate question. If Pritzker were to come out and state how much he intends to raise tax rates, Rauner would turn it into an attack ad, ominous music playing in the background behind a narrator offering distorted information in a deep, scary voice.
