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
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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.
Almost every union government job that takes place in an office can and should be replaced by AI. Let’s start there. Most of these positions are just patronage jobs that do nothing or worse, hinder progress while saddling us with more debt.
JB, who claims to be “fighting for working people”, could step in and rescue Chicago with giant state revenue increase by going for constitutional amendment for graduated income “fair tax”/ millionaires tax again using BBB giant $40gs SALT cap lift as political cover in a “special session”. That’s what CTU/Brando and all the machine public sector goons want him to do anyway. That could be a year or two in the making, so I don’t know what a Chicago would do in mean time? Raise prop taxes and borrow one assumes? If JB went for “fair tax” again it would… Read more »
Don’t really care what Chitcago does…Just don’t ask the rest of the tax payers in the state of Illinois to pay for Chicago graft and corruption.
Very challenging indeed. It’s very challenging to not want to cut any spending and also not want to raise any taxes. “Ald. Nicole Lee, 11th, said she is already preparing constituents for “what I believe is going to be a very, very difficult budget process” that “will likely include a property tax levy.”“I don’t think any politician in their right mind would ever want to have to have to be in this position” this close to the 2027 election, said Lee, who voted against Johnson’s last budget and said she and colleagues might not be willing to raise the tax… Read more »
How about cutting spending and closing underutilized schools? Firing underperforming teachers?
When you elect stupid the result won’t end well.
Per the very excellent recent Austin Berg article from a week ago and others, Chicago is only major city without a charter and hence doesn’t adhere to GAAP accounting standards (gov accepted accounting standards)…..So, the entire budget can be nothing but a giant scam.
Ditto for state with no ACFR since 2022.
And your an idiot if you don’t realize everyone from Springfield to city hall knows it.
(https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/06/27/opinion-zohran-mamdami-lesson-chicago-new-york-richard-ravitch/)
BJ the CTU moron and failed CTU ‘teacher’ truly believes that money grows off of trees. The idiocy of these socialists will soon be smacked in the face when they run out of other peoples money.
On the contrary, the public employee union bosses and their Democrat shills believe their is plenty of taxing authority remaining so just need to continue to raise taxes. Truely a ‘let them eat cake’ mentality.
Extend-and-pretend will eventually end.
Ooh, you put some music to the truth.
Nothing new, all you got to know, from Springfield to city hall is the machines game plan is to blame all the astronomical deficits sent thru the roof, especially with now spent ARPA-COVID $ with ZERO lay-offs & ZERO cuts, on DJT.
I believe the $11 bill estimated Chicago Cop & fire Tier 2 “fix” is only for services to date (2011 to 2025)? and not future pension liabilities after? In reality the City has no clue on long term costs.
Plus, as stated a million times, it will only be a few years before all other public sector unions in city, state & CRAZY 9,000 units of gov demand same deal.
If JB doesn’t veto. I think that about it for this second generation life long Chicagoan.
New taxes are going to be the answer. More and more people are going to leave leading to more and more taxes to support the Ponzi scheme. Chicago will be the next large city to go bankrupt.
But PPF says just keep raising taxes to pay for this pension racket and there won’t be any consequences!!
Duuuuuh, there are consequences. More and more Illinoisans will vote with their feet and leave Taxistan.
Ever heard of reversion to the mean? Trends come and go. It pays to have patience, Prudence. Today’s problems might be tomorrow’s attractions and versa-vice.
Ever heard of Detroit? I bet nobody there is talking about reversion to the mean. Nobody believes that today’s problems might be future attractions. Things don’t fix themselves.
Almost literally nothing having to do with human decisions can be 100% certain. You’ve mentioned one, and I readily agree with your thoughts there.. I was mentioning the trendencies of life while realizing no prediction other than those determined by biology or nature in a larger sense can be perfectly predictable.
Spit on PP. Being an ex-Detroiter I can verify that you can’t go home again. Spiritually or Financially.
Huh? So high taxes and a corrupt one party state could be an attraction to some simpletons?!!
Eventually maybe so. Sometimes an opportunity comes along when one thinks and acts contrary to the popular opinion of the moment. Sometimes the moment’s simpleton becomes tomorrow’s genius because an earlier contrary opinion and action. Don’t necessarily think the popular opinion of today is your best strategy for your future life.
Sure, there are such cases. Some people have made fortunes when buying properties or stocks others were dumping. Following popular opinion will guarantee you average results presumably. We all should “think outside the box” periodically.
Sure, to some that might be a great bet. The “mob mentality” likely excludes the brainer ones much of the time. Where nearly everyone agrees all you’re going to find with a great probability is a lot of people who think you are a genius. Whether you are or not is another matter entirely.
“When you find yourself in a hole, stop digging” is pretty good advice.
The Dems and public unions believe that hole and taxpayers’ pockets are infinitely deep, so they can continue digging that hole without ever reaching the bottom.