Prairie State Wire

State Sen. Darren Bailey (R-Xenia) hits his gubernatorial race opponent, incumbent Gov. J..B.Pritzker for a bus with a Tennessee plate.

Bailey posted an image of a bus on his Facebook and called out the governor.

"The trust fund billionaire who removed his toilets to avoid paying taxes is now picking up a campaign bus in Tennessee to avoid paying higher taxes and fees," Bailey said. "Don’t worry, JB Pritzker, when we win, we’ll fight to lower costs so you can support Illinois businesses again."

Pritzker asked to have five toilets removed from his home in the Gold Coast mansion incident in order to reduce the property's worth from $6.25 million to $1.1 million and avoid paying taxes. Pritzker has a net worth of $3.6 billion, Chambana Sun reported.

The Bailey campaign compared the Tennessee move to the toilet fiasco. If not for a report from Inspector General Patrick Blanchard, Pritzker would have made over $300,000. 

“Here’s how it would have played out, if not for Blanchard’s report: Pritzker would have saved $330,000. Which is chump change to him, we imagine, but not to most other property taxpayers in the county. And guess who’d have to make up that $330,000? That’s right: every other taxpayer in Cook County. That’s how the system works. If your neighbor pays less, you and everyone else pay more,” The Chicago Tribune said at the time of the report.

According to a City of Chicago inquiry on the incident, Pritzker concocted the idea for toilet removal. Pritzker only paid back the debt following Blanchard's damning investigation finding that the “evidence indicates that the use of these affidavits was part of a scheme for obtaining money by means of false representations,” NBC 5 Chicago reported.

Bailey looks forward to unseating Pritzker come November 8 election.