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Ray Hanania on Politics Podcast: Pritzker’s “unFair Tax”
In his latest podcast, Ray Hanania on Politics, former Chicago City Hall reporter Ray Hanania digs deep into the problems that Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s “Fair tax’ poses for Illinois taxpayers.
Hanania explores the problems caused when the state replaces the Flat Tax on incomes with a “graduated income tax.” The change will permit Pritzker’s administration to increase the tax at any time by targeting certain income levels. Under the Flat Tax, targeting income brackets would be impossible. It is also more difficult to raise the Flat Tax because it impacts every income earner int he state including the poor, building resistance to any increases.
In the podcast, Hanania also wonders out loud why Pritzker is using former Comptroller Dan Hynes, his “Deputy Mayor,” to take the lead in the restructuring of the state’s tax issues. The change from the Flat Tax to the Graduated Tax is a proposal Hynes proposed when he ran for governor unsuccessfully losing to Pat Quinn in 2010.
Why isn’t Pritzker tapping Juliana Stratton, his Lieutenant Governor, to handle this important issue?
It’s back to the “Old Boys Club”: in running the state?
There’s more to come on all of this.

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