Totaling the unsustainable tax increases and windfall revenue during Pritzker Administration – Wirepoints
May 26, 2026
23 Comments
With $162 billion more from taxpayers, couldn’t you deliver a few bond upgrades, too
-- Connecting the dots between our economy, government and business --
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A largely unasked question is becoming glaring: Is Illinois doing all it should to use artificial intelligence to make government cost less and work better? So far, the evidence says no.
To beat Pritzker now look to the past,
someone who is very wealthy will have
a bunch of skeletons buried. Let’s start
digging and uncover some .
So many are staying with the “there’s no place like home” feelings that invade our household as well. However with the past election, Pritzker being obviously re-elected and a few other things including taxes I don’t think we will be here next year as we, like so many others, are just giving up. Its not a Democrat or Republican thing either because by, selecting Bailey as a candidate, the Republicans do not offer a viable alternative to the Pritzker type of scenarios thus feeling there is no hope for Illinois.
Did you notice nobody commented to the Article. That’s because nobody cares. Everyone with a 60 IQ or better knows it’s over. And the rest are cockroaches who like the sewer.
And these scum that call themselves the Tribune are just now realizing this? How many democrat filth did they endorse this last time around. Their sole headline should be The Democrats destroyed your state and city. Don’t vote democrat.” But being the propaganda arm of the democrats, they can’t do that.
Right. And it’s not just their endorsement of those who are guilty. The news pages are brazenly rigged to promote Dems.
I saw one article in the Sun-Times about Bailey and it was purely perfunctory. I.e. he won the primary. Other than that, it is as if the Republican party does not exist to them. The republican opposition is fighting a criminal organization using media as its propaganda arm, unions as their foot soldiers, and a brain dead populace as their useful idiots. You are all trying to cure the cancer in Illinois politics. It’s just that there is no healthy tissue left. The whole body is cancer. The host must die and be burned to eradicate the cancer. And hope… Read more »
And just another reason why people like me are seeing the handwriting on the wall at least for the foreseeable future at this time
You know how we always see these articles about Illinois population loss, about people leaving. Who do you think those people are? The vast majority are producers, wealthy, business leaders. Those are not democrats. The population loss experienced by Illinois has been Republican or republican leaning voters. As it continues, and this latest election ensures it will continue, more and more producers will leave. What does that leave? Leeches and losers. At some point, other states need to close their borders to Illinoisans because the only thing coming out will be the cockroaches fleeing the fire. The opposition can’t win… Read more »
Whomever is writing this drivel for a once world class newspaper should consider that against a man proven to be slowly slipping into dementia replaced in a coup by a cackling, uninformed, unintelligent, novice, Trump was destined to win, even in IL. Every election is different if one actually considers the person that is running for office, who they are and what their platform is. Of course the dyed in the wool sheep can be counted on to blindly march to the polls and vote as usual like Eloi marching in to be devoured by the Morlocks.
Illinois Republicans need to work harder to enlist help from Federal GOP whether in money or just plain campaigning support. Find the truly dedicated candidates that WANT to serve the people of Illinois and END CHICAGO rule of the WHOLE state. Don’t understand the Chicagoans continuted Democrat support when the city is crime ridden and over taxed (more than rest of state) and leaders obviously support ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS more than the citizens!
You stand exactly for everything that made Republicans disappear. Leaders do not seek “help from Federal GOP,” they show them how to do it. The “crime ridden” political reality in Illinois could not exist without the GOP apparatus getting its cut. Illegal immigrants did not corrupt the Illinois politics. Even if all of them are gone, things will not get better.
Republicans in Illinois disappear because GOP leaders, both locally and nationally, have nothing appealing to stand for.
Illinois Republicans should draft and campaign on — almost exclusively — a state debt restructuring plan over the next several election cycles. Quantify the past losses of residents, employers and congressional seats due to increasing taxes and debt payments and diminishing public services while offering a defined contribution individual retirement plan to public employees in which they invest their own savings into highly rated mutual funds. The party probably won’t win many more offices than it does now — and certainly no statewide offices — but it will position itself well to take power when the state becomes financially insolvent… Read more »
Giles, a “state debt restructuring plan” like you wisely would like to see effectively means real pension reform. That’s because pensions are the overwhelming portion of of state debt ($140 billion of unfunded pensions vs only something around $40 billion in bonded debt). That’s why real pension reform has been central to what we write about here since we started. It would require a state constitutional amendment. But our ruling class refuses to talk about it and voters don’t care much about it. The pension debt is like a ball and chain around the state’s neck, dragging us down further… Read more »
That’s exactly it.
Mark, I largely agree with you. However, the IL GOP has been distracted by campaigning for statewide offices and pushing positions on a wider range of issues than the state’s unsustainable debt. The party isn’t going to win a statewide race anytime soon, and the state’s debt problem negates all other issues — nobody will care about anything else when the state becomes insolvent. I’m advocating the long game — focus precious party resources on advocating debt restructuring alone (and all it would entail) and prepare lower-level politicians to take the reins when the state becomes insolvent.
Two people voted down your opinion. On this platform. Please send your comment to the Chicago Tribune, and if it makes it to the press. Maybe WBEZ will ask you for an interview.
I don’t think a considerable amount of Illinois voters care one bit about the debts and I quite honestly think most have no idea about it. To them they look at jaded eyes at more goodies for themselves while ignoring piling debt and pesky little tax and fee hikes here and there. In my downstate local its all about more “important” things like some farm ground being planted over in grass for some new planet saving green, a new restaurant opening up and this weeks sportsball. Bring up State fiscal responsibility and you are looked at like the grinch who… Read more »
I offered Chicago a great slogan to invite tourists:” Come and see the last days of our glory before we end up as Detroit did.”
100 percent RB. The average voter is unable to make the connection between debt and spending with corresponding taxes. People scream “cut my taxes” but disengage when you talk about spending. They just think you magically cut taxes and all will be fine. Voters are getting exactly what they deserve.
It’s ironic that we have an institution paid to teach students how to make these logical connections, yet people cannot seem to do it. It’s almost like their financial interest lies in making sure people never connect those dots, or something.
That must have been why all the cow tippers south of 80 thought Bailey would have a chance at winning. Those darn schools.
Cows are surely to blame for problems with logical thinking, right? What else could it be?
Again, you have no theory of mind for a downstate voter. None. You sound an old man screaming “back in my days!” It does not occur to you that downstate Republican would vote for Bailey because they understand that no Republican is going to win. Therefore, they believe is better to participate in democracy by voting for the candidate they want rather than voting for the candidate they do not want, who will also lose. Your theory of mind is so out of whack. This is how I know you are a Democrat, or at least a former Democrat. You… Read more »
You repeatedly talk about ‘what cuts can we make’ and I think Nick Shirley would find hundreds of millions of dollars to cut if he spent a couple of days in Illinois. The spending of which you speak, as far as I can tell, is mostly a scam, designed to funnel money to Democrats through fake autism centers, fake daycares and fake hospices. And if they aren’t fake, they’re just straight up grifts, like the peacekeepers, NGOs, and other GOTV operations. It’s very irritating, because you keep repeating that Republicans can’t win in IL because of candidate quality, when that’s… Read more »
So where are these cuts? How much should we cut? Did any of the candidates provide any specifics? Did the voters get excited about this message? No? It’s almost like talking about cutting spending doesn’t motivate the voters. As I stated, the majority of voters don’t care about spending or are interested in cuts. If they were, they would vote differently. Sure Illinois is difficult for Republicans to win statewide. It is possible though as Rauner was in office 7 years ago. I guess because he was such a failure, southern illinois voters are now just willing to get a… Read more »