Déjà Vu in Springfield

Added: 2026-06-01

[00:00:00]Here we are again, the final week of session in Springfield, a deadline that has been on the calendar for months, and yet somehow we always end up in the exact same place. Budget deals negotiated behind closed doors, massive spending bills dropped at the last minute, and rumors of new tax increases surfacing in the final hours when the public is least likely to notice. It's truly déjà vu all over again. Just this past week reports surfaced that House Democrats are once again discussing tax increases privately in caucus meetings.

[00:00:34]Once again, members are reportedly asked about what tax hikes they can hold their nose and vote for before this week is over. So, what's the play this year? An income tax increase? A new sales tax? A new tax on Airbnb?

[00:00:49]A digital advertising or social media tax? Or maybe even an ammunition tax?

[00:00:54]What will it be is the question. Because year after year, this General Assembly goes back to the same failed playbook.

[00:01:02]Spend it beyond our means, refuse to tell Governor Pritzker no, and create yet another budget problem. Then turn around and demand taxpayers bail Springfield out once again. That has become the governing philosophy of this state. Since Governor Pritzker took office, Illinois families and businesses have been hit with over 50 tax and fee increases, and the supermajority has approved them every step of the way. And frankly, it's embarrassing. The majority party has become so fiscally irresponsible and so intellectually lazy that the only solution they offer for budget problems is to take more money from the people who are already overtaxed and overburdened. Meanwhile, the people back home are struggling.

[00:01:44]Working families, small business, farmers, manufacturers, and job creators have had enough. Illinoisans do not need another tax increase. They need relief, opportunity, and economic growth. And they need leaders willing to stop making terrible policy public policy decisions that continue driving people, jobs, investment, and opportunity out of this great state. And let's let's not forget that somehow this body can always seem to find room in the budget for legislator pay raises while asking taxpayers to sacrifice even more. The hypocrisy is hard to ignore. The people of Illinois are tired of being treated like an ATM for failed government policies. You cannot tax a state into prosperity. You cannot spend your way out of fiscal irresponsibility. You cannot continue driving families, businesses, and opportunity out of Illinois without consequences. At some point this body must decide are we here to protect government or are we here to protect the people who pay for it?

[00:02:44]Because if we continue down the same road of more taxes, more spending, more mandates, and more bad public policy, the only industries guaranteed to keep thriving in Illinois are the real estate agents helping families sell their homes and moving companies like U-Haul hauling another generation of Illinois citizens to states that are actually growing and prospering. The taxpayers are watching and they're running out of patience.

[00:03:09]Thank you.