Prairie State Wire

Republican U.S. Senate candidate Mark Curran is warning voters nothing about the progressive tax being pushed by Gov. J.B. Pritzker seems to add up.

“This is not a fair tax… this billboard Gov. Pritzker bought is part of his effort to spend millions of his own money pushing the fair tax scam,” Curran told the Prairie State Wire.

Despite the governor’s insistence that the tax he has been pushing since his days on the campaign trial will only mean higher rates for the state’s richest residents, Curran isn’t buying it, pointing to a recent Illinois Policy Institute analysis that concludes not only will the tax fall short of revenue projections it stands to harm the economy on the whole.

“Springfield needs to get its act together,” Curran added. “When it comes to spending and taxes, there never seems to be enough. Between now and Election Day, I plan to bring it up as many times as I can while stressing this so-called fair tax is not what we need.”

Running against veteran lawmaker Sen. Dick Durbin, Curran is quick to point out the progressive tax system has yet to turn out as advertised in any state where it’s been enacted, especially in Connecticut, where state has run budget deficits in 12 of the past 15 years and has more debt per capita than virtually every other state. Those struggles have largely contributed to the state’s ongoing outmigration issues.

Given the state’s many struggles, Curran argues state lawmakers have to be careful not to act just for the sake of acting in trying to get things back on track.

“I understand the strain that the state’s under,” he said. “For that reason, I would not be as opposed to a federal tax increase, but nothing on the state level that would only make us less competitive because people have choices that allow them to easily leave the state.”